Here is a photo of the Froe Mallet I made.

Even though I had not used one on a froe, the motive for the design is obvious. A rough surface will absorb some of the womp, so you want a smooth hard wood surface. But you are going to be pounding on a 1/4″ blade back. This is going to ruin your mallet face quickly. So the mallet is nice and big with a lot of surface area. This way I can pound it a bunch of times before putting it back on the lathe to clean the face.

The carpenters pencils are freshly sharpened to show how freaking big it is. The pencil shavings are there because it is of course not real without shavings.

After having use it on a froe, it is fairly well mangled, but not to mangled to use on a chisel.

Bob