Hi Richard,

Did you forget the digi pic ?

Regards

Ken Hume

Hi Ken

Sorry about the pics, I did look back at the reecords that I have and unfortunately I was using my camcorder at the time and the record is in that format not easy to pass around, or work with.

So for the time being I guess that my documentary is the best that I can provide, unless at some point in time I can lecture and use video format like I used at Montebello or the Morrisburg TTRAG gathering.

Always nice to hear from you

NH

Hello everyone tonight

I just finished my project and now to tune up my tools

I am going to have to replace my small mallet which received some bad scars--I was just wondering what is your preferences of wood for this particular job.

I was planning to use a hard maple blank that I have had stored away for some time but I thought that I would ask you guys what your preferences are

NH

My personal mallets are oak heads. They have lasted for years and years....

Hello,
I guess regardless you will use that hard maple because you have set it aside, it is nice and seasoned, maple is resistant to denting, at least tangentially to the growth axis, it is easily obtainable and probably where you are maple is commonly used for this purpose.

Here in this area maple is not a common choice for a mallet, beech is, for many of the same reasons.

The mallet I have been using for some years now is a piece of ash stem with a branch coming off of it at a more or less 90° I have cut to form the grip. This leaves an extended amount of continuous grain and is very strong. It took some getting used to the asymmetrical weight of the thing because its form is organic and not contrived. Also, I have a nice solid mallet from hornbeam, (Carpinus betulus), I picked up from a guy in Krakow, Pl.

Some other woods good for mallets are, black elder and birch root. The wood from the root of many trees would make excellent hammers as long as they were solid and not laminated. I always try and salvage root wood if I can manage it.

Greetings,

Don Wagstaff

A little something like this:

Hello everyone tonight

Great responses, You are never too old to learn for sure, those are great suggestions and cover a large part of the interests of those who might be looking in.

My father really liked basswood for certain jobs because it doesn't seem to have growth rings so to speak, and will not splinnter--for mallets I don't know never tried it.

Oak is not my favorite but I do believe that for mallets it should not be straight grained but really of rough growth, growth habitat is the key here I would say.

Any one else care to add a comment



NH

Good suggestions from Don in Holland and a good pic too. I used an ironwood mallet (via references in Eric Sloane's books) of branch and stem.It was strong & tough but it wasn't heavy enough. All ironwood I've kept for use seems to get punky and rot in 7 - 10 yrs.
I love basswood aka linden, for the nectar-loaded blossoms for the honeybees, as well as for the carveable,light, soft wood. Good for making lightweight boxes, not good for mallets
I'll look up elder for Don's elder root. We've got elderberries here. Alder maybe?
I'll go along w sugar maple, with a good curly grain. American elm is a top choice - really fibrous twisty grain, so difficult to split. I made 2 that have been in use for 30 yrs. One has a chunk split off one face. Think what are toughest woods to split, what don't you like to see as fat ones to have to split for the stove?
A curly pc of Amer cherry could be good too.
I think cherry will "ring" when dry & hard, more than elm, which is more "dead" and will absorb shock better.

Those leather-faced iron mallets w wood handles by Garland of Saco, Maine are hard to beat - good weight and balance and shock absorbing. Leathers are replaceable if you ever wear them out or if you leave one where your puppy can get it and chew it to mush.
Steve

hello everyone tonight

Well once again great responses--I actually never thought about ironwood it grew abundantly here a few years ago but like other types are beginning to get scarce- a good suggestion though!!

wild apple wood was another type of wood that has a very tight grain and might be a good suggestion also.

I believe that any type that you finally go to use needs to be well dried and cured to be of good service

Thanks to you all for coming on board, I hope we have been of service to those that might be following this thread--I AM LEARNING AS WELL

NH

I like sugar maple for wedges, because it can take a beating without splitting or collapsing. It has great compression strength. I was splitting a hickory log, made some wedges from its branches and used them for a while, then cut down a maple sapling nearby and made some wedges. The hickory ones would last for about one drive, then they were toast. I never destroyed the maple ones. They were beaten with a steel hammer...

I tried walnut once just because I was in need of a mallet for a little bit and had some dry walnut firewood handy. not a good idea. walnut shatters. It worked for what I needed it for, but not much else (It got demoted to a can crusher)

Wild apple? ever tried hawthorn? I bet it would do the trick!

As a side note, we have been working on an old TF house, with about 3 inches under the floor between the wood and the dirt. We had to replace the joists and the sill on some spots. The sill is white oak (I think, it is very hard to tell)

The house is of generally poor quality. The joints are loose and poorly crafted. I suspect it was a hastily built setters cabin (the early settlers around me were Amish, so they build frames not log cabins. The non-Amish settlers in our area built log cabins)

To fight against rot and mold, we covered the ground with a generous helping of agricultural lime.

We also use ag lime in barns and such places with dirt floors to harden the ground. "poor man's concrete". In our horse barn the stalls all have lime underneath them to make the ground very hard (so a skid loader can clean them out easily) yet provide drainage unlike concrete. Lime is one thing people don't know about these days that is worth considering. The ground in our barns is certainly very hard and tough because of it. My Grandpa when he built the barns did not want to use concrete as he thought that it would be messier and, more importantly, be hard on the horses' legs.

What would limewashing timbers do for rot resistance? I know that in some cases in the old days wood would be whitewashed to keep it dry, I wonder how well this works? would giving exposed timbers a good lime wash help them last longer?

I have seen many times in my research the Swiss all-wood exterior timber framed houses with a whitewashed finish inside and out. Might this be part of the reason? I wonder...

Could whitewashing joints and places that might be vulnerable to moisture travel or condensation be beneficial?