Thread: Making a mallet or hammer handle

I might have to give this a go just to see how many handles I can butcher create.

No point stopping there, I may as well finish the job!

So I grabbed a bit of Ironbark from a large tree that blew down in a storm a few years back. Just about any hardwood will do, as long as it's not one that splits easily. Most of our hard Eucalypts have Specific Gravities around 1. That's convenient, 'cos whatever the volume is in cubic centimetres is the approximate weight in grams. I wanted heads of around 450g (i.e. about a pound in old money), and dimensions of 60 x 65 x 110 (=429 cc) gave me heads that weighed 447 and 453g respectively (one's got a bit more sapwood on it ). 8.jpg

I marked out top & bottom for the handle. I add about 1.5mm each side of the top of the mortise, so that I can chisel a slight taper into the hole for the wedges to lock the handle in: 9.jpg

Drill out as much of the waste as possible, then chisel to fit. If you save the scraps from the top of the handle, they can make good wedge material. Here we are, handle fitted, ready to drive the wedges home: 10.jpg

With handle locked in place, neaten it off, then chamfer all edges to reduce splitting: 11.jpg

Then soak with oil (I've used Tung, because that's what I had on hand), wipe off & leave to dry: 12.jpg

An easy morning's work done.....

Cheers,

IanW, thanks very much for taking the time to do this WIP. I'm very keen to try it ASAP.
Lovely mallets too!


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I still like the way the timber spins when using the off centre method Ian. How ever I also want to say thanks for the WiP on hand shaping

Hi Ian,

Thanks for the tutorial! I have a question about handling a cobblers hammer that I have and wonder if you have any suggestions.

The handle opening in the head is shaped far more radically than I have observed on other hammer heads. The shape is basically circular but with significant flaring both above and below the centre line of the head. Visualize if you can a butterfly shape rotated through 180degrees, or two truncated cones mated together.

The lower portion can be easily shaped to fit up to the shoulder, but I don't seem to be able to flare out the portion of the handlle protruding above the shoulder to fill the upper flaring. It can't be simply wedged in one or two directions to fill the void, it needs to be flared equally around the handle axis.

Any ideas on how these shapes were handled?

Thanks,
Franklin

Originally Posted by Fuzzie

.......I don't seem to be able to flare out the portion of the handlle protruding above the shoulder to fill the upper flaring. It can't be simply wedged in one or two directions to fill the void, it needs to be flared equally around the handle axis.

Any ideas on how these shapes were handled? ...

Hi Fuzzie, it seems like your cobblers' hammer is an extreme example of what is pretty typical in most hammer heads I've seen, other than claw hammers. I've re-handled quite a few ball-peen & other heads that have fallen into my hands, and they all had a double-flared eye similar to what you describe. However, in all cases I've struck so far, it has been possible to fill the flare by wedging the protruding end. Certainly enough to firmly fix the handle. Maybe there is a bit of a gap at the sides on one or two, but the handles have remained tight & given me no trouble, & some of these have been through many moisture cycles.

So, maybe you don't need to worry unduly about a bit of a gap at the sides, as long as the handle is tight & doesn't rock? If you can't tolerate the aesthetics of a gappy eye, the only solution I can think of would be to use the old "arrow through heart" trick. Turn the end of the handle to match the double flare, then soak that end overnight. When it has softened sufficiently, squeeze the oversize bit down in a vice until you can force the handle through the eye, then wait a couple of weeks for it to dry out & swell back to somewhere near the original size before wedging. Perhaps you'll be able to fill the flare completely, by that approach.

Frankly, I think that would be a lot of bother, & I very much doubt handles were ever fitted this way in a factory situation, so perhaps these hammers left the factory with a bit of a gap around the eyes, or did they have a secret method for wedging them in a way that flared the wood out evenly all round.... ?

Cheers,

Edit: Now I think about it, I do remember some old bushies soaking new axe handles before fitting, so they could force them in oversize, so maybe it was a fairly common practice. Does anyone out there have any info on this?

Originally Posted by wheelinround

I still like the way the timber spins when using the off centre method Ian. .....

Must admit, I was eager to try off-centre turning when I first read about it, Wheelin', and made a few handles that way. It's certainly fun to try, but it can be a bit exciting using a skew on an off-centre piece when you are fairly new to turning, as I soon discovered.....

But I decided it wasn't a very efficient way to do it. If you include the head-scratching & calculating trying to figure out centre spacings to get a particular oval, the off-centre method is waay slower. And you still have to blend the two circles into an oval with coarse paper or whatever, so I decided to just cut out the middleman. I reckon I can imitate any handle shape done on an automatic lathe closely enough you would be hard-put to spot the difference, and it takes me something like 10 minutes from blank to finished handle, provided all goes smoothly.

No bets taken on axe handles though!

Cheers,

Great WIP Ian. I have done the off centre method. Did not turn out as eloquent as yours. Maybe I'll do a wip on it some time soon


Dave the turning cowboy

turning wood into art

Hi,
I seem to remember newly handled hammers with their heads immersed in oil for a couple of days to swell the end.
Could be wrong of course.
Regards

Originally Posted by IanW

So, maybe you don't need to worry unduly about a bit of a gap at the sides, as long as the handle is tight & doesn't rock? If you can't tolerate the aesthetics of a gappy eye, the only solution I can think of would be to use the old "arrow through heart" trick.

This is in fact where I'm at. It's a sweet hammer to use in lots of tap tap situations, typically where others seem to pick up a genoo. It hardly gets use for bash bash work.

When I acquired it, it had been rehandled with a stick of cedar and the eye tightened a bit with the addition of a couple of screws!

Originally Posted by IanW

Must admit, I was eager to try off-centre turning when I first read about it, Wheelin', and made a few handles that way. It's certainly fun to try, but it can be a bit exciting using a skew on an off-centre piece when you are fairly new to turning, as I soon discovered.....


Cheers,

Ha Ha , Skew decorated turning Ian !! YOW ! Ive been there plenty of times . More so in the first months or year of turning and then it rarely ever happened again .
I like buying old unusual hammer heads and fitting new hand made handles. I stopped looking after I got a little collection of about ten . With no handle, a head can be a cheap buy $2 or $5 ea , and in amongst the every day rusty ones in a box some Old rare looking ones turn up , Blacksmith made one off's even.

Rob

Originally Posted by auscab

Ha Ha , Skew decorated turning Ian !! YOW ! Ive been there plenty of times . More so in the first months or year of turning and then it rarely ever happened again .....

Rob, it wasn't so much me suffering the trauma, fortunately. It has so far been the object being turned that got 'decorated' by skew-power in ways I didn't intend! Being essentially a spindle turner means I don't often tackle large diameter objects with lots of angular momentum & predilection for splattering themselves all over the place if treated roughly. I have a hazy recollection from my school days that momentum increases in proportion to the square of the mass.. Right or wrong, large spinning objects engender a good deal of respect from me!

Wish I could say I never have catches anymore, but they still happen to me. I consider myself a reasonably competent turner of furniture parts (& maybe handles ), but I do it intermittently, so there's always a bit of re-training involved whenever I pick up a skew after months of not turning. Why is it that the serious catch always occurs on the last bead of the 4th leg of a set? I've lost count of the number of sets of legs that have had to have a minor redesign thanks to a bad catch. You could probably get away with just reducing the damaged bead, and no-one is likely to notice when the legs are in place in their respective corners (Ive seen a few odd sets on old pieces where that seems to be the case), but my stubborn nature just won't accept the easy solution.....

Anyways, back to handles.

Originally Posted by Fuzzie

...... When I acquired it, it had been rehandled with a stick of cedar and the eye tightened a bit with the addition of a couple of screws! ...

Fuzzie, I've seen some odd 'handles' and many inappropriate materials, but a stick of cedar would have to be up there with the least good choices! A much-favoured solution where I grew up was a length of 3/4" water pipe, jammed into the head in various ways, & often welded in place, to thwart the ambitions of any would-be wooden rehandler down the track. Water pipe would have to rank as the worst possible choice for a hammer handle, imo. Not particularly comfortable to hold, & unpleasantly jarring should you be so foolish as to hit anything substantial with it!

Cheers,

Ian taught at school to turn hammer handles and it stuck pity math didn't.

No paper over 120grit came close in either of these, no rasps just roughing gouge and yes skew.

I always over size the timber set the 3 points for holding off centre using Mr Woods method 1/3rd turn each of these first watching for the point of curvature of the oval shape. Then on centre to round and form to shape.
I do stuff up the worst being over turning the off centre or setting the 1/3rd points making handle to thin. I know these are not perfect but made to suit my and LOML's hands.




Ah yes the welded head look have seen it often in many tool boxes or on benches makes me cringe if I have to pick it up and use them (or I should say it used to)

Originally Posted by wheelinround

......Ah yes the welded head look have seen it often in many tool boxes or on benches makes me cringe if I have to pick it up and use them (or I should say it used to)..

Yairs, Wheelin - there are some jobs where wood is a better choice than metal!

You make the off-centre method sound easy, but I found it does take a bit of fine judgement to get the sides equal, then, as you say, more to get the on-centre part nicely blended. My slacker's method requires some careful eyeballing too. I should have said in the WIP that it's a good idea to pencil a centre line along all 4 sides of the blank before you start, which gives you a reference to keep things even when you rasp. If I needed to make a couple of dozen handles at one time, it would be well worth retraining myself to use the off-centre method.. Maybe, for completeness, I should add a brief WIP on the 'proper' way to turn ovals so those who don't know what we are talking about can see the difference?

Whichever way you choose to do it, the object of the exercise is to get handles that suit your hand & style, for sure. It's peculiar how you can get so used to the feel of a particular tool. I've had to replace handles on a couple of much-loved tools over the years, and even when I copy the original as closely as I can, for a while, every time I pick them up I notice the slight difference. Just a fraction of a mm here & there, & the little dings from long use - your hand notices immediately!

Edit: No need for me to do a WIP, the subject has already been covered here, and here, if you like your pictures to move. (Thanks, Google!)
Actually both are taalking aabout handles with a symmetrical oval shape, for a 'traditional' hammer handle, turn with the drive end off-centre only -leave the head end on-centre....

Cheers,