I have become a mallet collector.
Not all of them are pure wood, but they are hand made.
This rough mallet is a gem. It is cracked, mangled and ugly. It has however seen heavy use for over 12 years and is one of the first mallets to be grabbed when something needs persuading. The wife and kids have borrowed it quite a bit.
This all mesquite, turned mallet is too pretty to use.
This pecan and aluminum bronze mallet gets used and abused all the time. It fits in a pocket and has good force and good control.
This ash and osage mallet will break at it’s too thin neck if I ever swing it hard. The head is way to heavy for the handle. It does a great job of adjusting planes however.
This mallet gave it’s life to it’s job. Beating on the back end of a froe. No worse job for a mallet than that!
Here is my most recently made ash and persimmon mallet.
Here is a very simple mesquite mallet that sees quite a bit of use tapping chisels.
This one is all osage! It is perfect for tapping a blade into place on a plane. Because of it’s rounded edges on the face, it does not do so well adjusting chipbreakers.
This is the improved all osage version for adjusting planes, The flat should have gone to the top so it still needs improvement. The ideal is a large face for striking the plane body, to reduce marking the plane with a fine head that can tap the chipbreaker into place.
This Mesquite and Osage mallet is what I end up using to adjust planes with.
This Mesquite and Osage mallet has done quite well for over eight years.
It was made a bit differently from most.
This Aluminum Bronze and Osage Mallet is not one I use much, but for the right application no other mallet can do as well.
I often have a moment of decision while I decide what to use to tap my most used chisel.
So while I have made and use quite a few mallets, and have a few purchased ones that are not shown here, I still have three more planned. I suspect that when I finish those, more things that need specialized pounding will come up.
Bob
A page Dedicated to My Writing
Love all the mallets. I make a few specialized mallets myself. My most favorite has an ugly handle I made too small as I cut it on one piece on the band saw from a piece of pear that was the hardest dern wood I’ve ever met. This mallet has me thinking about mallets that need to be refurbished like your froe mallet. I intend to make one flat (I prefer flat faced mallets) with a 1/2 inch osage face (maybe thicker for froe work) glued onto an osage body with hide glue, that way you can heat it up and replace the face when it’s time.
I give mallets to young people that I make from dough rollers, two mallets from one roller.
I’m designing a mallet now, several actually, with different weights. One 1 1/4 lb from an idea from Schwartz, and another of 3/4 lb. weight from Rob Cosman’s sales of an advanced mallet. I’m hitting the chisel too hard on the first lick sometimes when hogging out dovetails and moving the line. Not the be confused with the infamous BFM of legend.
Keep whacking it, it’ll go in.
p.s. careful with that persimmon dust, it can give you conjunctivitis from breathing the dust. Looks like pink eye.
Thanks for the confirmation. I noticed a touch of a reaction when sanding it, and decided to be careful with it in the future. Love the wood, but the dust does not seem friendly.
Bob
Nice mallets, I like the verity of wood and metal. I make mallets, hammers, meat tenderizers, all sizes and shapes .I have made them out of Iron Wood, Manzanita, Orange, Oak, Apple, Pine, Red Wood, Alder Berry, just got some Mesquite to work with very pretty wood and hard. You can check out my mallets on facebook mnm creations. Mike Marsh Big Bear City , Ca.