Yes, hit against the dark spot, which is showing a full ring, or on the opposite side. Basically so you are compressing the rings together when striking. If you hit 90 degrees to that, you are more likely to split rings apart. I didn't even realize this until i broke my foxmaple club type mallet. It glued back together fine though with urethane glue and stainless steel band clamps. Yours looks almost too nice to use.
One thing, not sure what you finished yours with, but it looks like the foxmaple ones are coated in turners wax. Additionally in the handle area, they turned score marks every 1/2 or 3/4 inch to improve the grip. Something to think about. Check out their site to see the score marks in the handle.
