Thread: Laminated Mallet

Originally Posted by BEM

Hi Derek,

I love your "persuader" mallet. What "ingredients" did you use to construct it?

Lyndon

Thanks Lyndon. The head is Jarrah, and the handle is Fiddleback Marri. For extra mass - and to keep the head smaller at the same time (for the mass) - it was inlayed with brass ...



The handle offers two grips: the extended grip for extra force, and the choked hold for less force ...



Originally the face of the head was covered with leather. This just became mashed up. Today it has an UHMW head, as well all the other mallets ...



Regards from Perth

Derek

I'd swing those. What is UHMW? Is it at all slippery on carving gouge handles?
Your 18 oz mass would be really nice to swing all day. Plus, they look really good.

It took some getting used to but my 30 oz (940 g) lead core carver's mallet has withstood some 15 years of bashing.
I have a 12 oz (375 g) mallet, also a polyurethane cover, but just has not got the mass to do much.

Canada has abandoned the 1 cent coin, or penny. If I should build a mallet, I'll fill it with copper pennies in epoxy
to get mass without the size.

Originally Posted by Robson Valley

I'd swing those. What is UHMW? Is it at all slippery on carving gouge handles?
Your 18 oz mass would be really nice to swing all day. Plus, they look really good.

It took some getting used to but my 30 oz (940 g) lead core carver's mallet has withstood some 15 years of bashing.
I have a 12 oz (375 g) mallet, also a polyurethane cover, but just has not got the mass to do much.

Canada has abandoned the 1 cent coin, or penny. If I should build a mallet, I'll fill it with copper pennies in epoxy
to get mass without the size.

UHMW stands for Ultra High Molecular Weight. It is a high density plastic. Most commonly it is found in kitchen type chopping boards where it often has a textured surface.

It is also used in industry.

This is some material I sold off a while back to Forum members here in Oz:

UHMWP (POLY) 12mm

UHMWP (POLY) 33mm

UHMWP (POLY) Board 42mm Thick

I'm afraid they are all long gone now and in any event shipping to BC was always going to be an issue

Regards
Paul

Interestingly, Derek, my daily user for tapping dovetail chisels has a head weight of about 450g, which is a couple of ounces less than your regular user. But I agree that there is definitely a sweet point for head mass that gives you the desired pursuasion properties without being too tiring to use for long sessions. I've got a set of dimensions that give me close enough to the head weights I want for wood with a density around .9-1, which is typical of the suitable woods around here. I have half a dozen mallets ranging in size from the 450g up to a two-handed job with a 800g head I used for splitting turning billets. Big bashers.jpg

I say "used" because I conscripted it to straighten out the deck of the mower a few months ago, and after a few minutes of heavy bashing it declined to take any further part in the operation. The head split right down the middle of the eye! So it's waiting for a new head, when I get the round tuit, which probably won't happen until I need it again...

I wonder how your UHMW plastic 'protectors' will go in the long haul? Attaching them so they stay on would seem to me to be the key. I used some 3mm thick stuff to make zero-clearance tablesaw throat inserts, laminating it to marine ply. I searched around & found some glue that was supposed to stick to UHMW polypropylene, but it keeps coming unstuck, so it hasn't been a raging success. I snaffled an old cutting board that was about to be tossed in the bin & tried that. It's a bit more successful, a wee bit less rigid than I would have preferred, but once screwed into the saw it seems solid enough. Planing it to thickness was interesting - flakes of statically-charged plastic all over the shop (literally)...

Mallet head material is so abundant round my place (or it was, until MIL got too frail to tend her wood heater), that I've never worried too much about being nice to them. These have taken a fair beating, as you can see:
wear & tear 1.jpg

The marks are mostly from driving ferrules onto handles, they don't get quite so mushed up if used only for tapping chisel heads, in fact that doesn't marr them at all, as a rule...

Cheers,

I wonder how your UHMW plastic 'protectors' will go in the long haul? Attaching them so they stay on would seem to me to be the key. I used some 3mm thick stuff to make zero-clearance tablesaw throat inserts, laminating it to marine ply. I searched around & found some glue that was supposed to stick to UHMW polypropylene, but it keeps coming unstuck, so it hasn't been a raging success.

Ian, I use a combination of epoxy and nails. The nails are, understandably, driven below the surface out of harm's way.

The mallets have been in constant use for some years now this way. All good!

Photos again ....



Regards from Perth

Derek

Thanks, that's useful info Derek. I didn't think epoxy would stick to the stuff, but there you go.

Actually, I was a bit out to lunch in my earlier post. If what I used is really UHMW plastic, it's polyethylene, not polyropylene. Only one carbon atom different in each repeating group, but it might change a few physical characteristics. Anyway, nowt to lose, I'll try sticking my errant throat-plate plastic with some araldyte & see what happens....

Cheers,

Ian, epoxy on its own is not enough. The nails are the main holding power. There is special glue that can be used, but I do not have any.

Regards from Perth

Derek

If the PE is thick enough, it can have either an angular or stepped lip milled into the edge with the reverse cut into the mallet face. The PE can then be incorporated into a laminated head without any glue or fixings. If replacement ability is required then the stepped/angular lip can be done on just 3 sides so a new PE face can be slid into place. Incorporating a tab of some kind to enable a "snap to fit" into a recess in the mallet head should be more than enough to keep it in place.

I've also seen 50mm length of 50 mm diameter PE rod with a thread turned on one end and the opposite in the head of the mallet (in this case it was steel).

Hi Derek,

Thanks for the info and explanation. I figured the head was probably Jarrah, but I had no idea about the Marri handle. Now I'll have to go source some Fiddleback Marri. It's beautiful.

Lyndon

BEM, figured woods are not generally the best choice for handles that have to take impact. It probably doesn't matter for a mallet unless you intend using it for really heavy bashing. Marri is another Corymbia, in the same genus as Spotted gum & rated good for handles, so Derek's handle will likely last forever (if only to prove me wrong), but received wisdom is to stick to boring, straight-grained woods for heavy-duty handles. Just sayin'.

In full awareness that I was contravening the rules, I put a fiddlebacked Spotted Gum handle on a splitting maul a while back. It wasn't too wild a grain so I thought it would be fine. It lasted about 5 minutes. The straight-grained replacement doesn't look half as interesting, but has stood up to the job so far, which given my increasing tendency to mis-hit, is a pretty good track-record!.....

Cheers,

There's Marri and there's Marri.
D27Grain2.jpg
marriboomarang.jpg

Sometimes the Gum veins are so numerous these would not make a good handle.
closeup1.jpg

The slabs cut from the log above in 2009 all cracked along the gum veins are now laying in pieces on the ground at the tree loppers yRD.

These gum veins are why there's any Marri left in WA. It's not suitable for construction or heavy use timber so they were initially left alone. It's only been in the last few years which the reduction in the milling/availablity of other WA timbers that people have gone back to Marri and a clever marketing campaign has made it trendy for furniture.

Thanks for the heads up Ian. I wasn't aware of that. I was thinking it might make a nice chisel handle. I guess it would have to be a paring chisel if it doesn't stand up well to bashing.

Lyndon

Lyndon, as I said, curly Marri might be fine (though I'd definitely avoid anything like Bob just showed ). Derek has had his in service for some time now, I remember seeing it when he first posted it, and that was some time back. It was more a general warning to select carefully if you want to use figured wood, you don't want to end up with a busted handle on your first outing....

Cheers,

Originally Posted by IanW

Lyndon, as I said, curly Marri might be fine (though I'd definitely avoid anything like Bob just showed ). Derek has had his in service for some time now, I remember seeing it when he first posted it, and that was some time back. It was more a general warning to select carefully if you want to use figured wood, you don't want to end up with a busted handle on your first outing....

Cheers,

I agree with Ian. Actually, "figured wood" is not how I would describe it; I would point to interlocked, short-grain timbers. Jarrah and She-oak are examples of this. The problem here is the short grain. It may be very strong but it is also very brittle.

This Jarrah-handled plane hammer (also used for chisels) ...



... has been replaced twice. Why do I use the same wood again!? Because I have it and there is often no other option available at the time.

Here are two gennous and the two mallets from above ...



The Fiddleback/Curly Marri handle has lasted and lasted. The Veritas has been replaced twice. The two gennous were recently re-handled, but mainly because I wanted something thicker. I have great doubts that the She-oak handle will last the pace, although it is so-far-so-good. The best candidate of the lot is the USA Hard Maple handle, which has long fibres, and in this is different to the others.

Regards from Perth

Derek