Thread: Wood for Mallets

I don't want to use a mallet with a face so hard that I see damage to either my wood carving project
or any other tool that I might need to strike with the mallet. In the field, I bash on steel camp axe heads as wedges.
Back home, I bash on my froe to clean off and also to split wood for carving projects. On the bench, there are the chisels and a variety of not-so-cheap carving gouges.
I made 2 mallets from very dry, very tough alder log. The horizontal one with the axial handle is for field work. You can see that the bark is tearing off. The standing one with the offset handle is for froe work. The bashing face is crushing.
I can't imagine ever swinging those hard enough to break them. And, no tool damage whatsoever. That 6" x 26" alder log at the back is one of many for more mallets.
The two wood carving mallets have polyurethane faces which don't slip. After years, they show no damage. After years, my wood carving tools are undamaged, no matter how hard I swing either one of those.
Having said that, Australia seems home to any number of miserably hard woods. Will they dent or ding your project wood?

I have one of those Veritas mallets and it is a great bit of gear. My inserts are a bit ordinary as it gets a lot of use. I was thinking of a soft face (pine?)one side and ironwood or spotted gum or something quite hard on the other side. I don't, however, have a lathe so it's just a thought. I'll probably end up buying replacement inserts from LV.

Originally Posted by DSEL74

What local hardwood would you use in a mallet?
So if you were making inserts for a similar style design cabinet makers mallet what local would is recommended?

It would really depend what the mallet was going to be used for.
I have about 10 mallets ranging from brass, to ally, various hardwoods, to cork and a roll of leather used as.
For mallet hardwoods I have used red gum, sheoak and ironwood but pretty well any Aussie hardwood wood (deliberate) do.
Tassie oak would probably be fine.

I would go for spotted gum as the best bet to last in that application. There are harder aus woods but spooty has interlocking grain so is less likely to split. There are plenty other woods that would do.
Regards
John

I guess that I missed the point. Sorry to all.
Since when do I need a lathe to chip a mallet head face?
I saw off a log slab. I chip it to some roundness.
I use it.
When it is beat to hello, what a pleasure to have to make another one.

Ash.

hey it's local, it was growing in the backyard 10 years ago.. :P

Chip out a decent piece. Beat on it for several hours.
Sit down, have slurp, take a long, hard look and bash on.

I've made mallets out of old hardwood fence posts that have been in the ground for 30 years. I could not tell you what timber they were. Although the in ground bits had rotted off, the rest of the posts were very sound.

To give one side of the mallet a soft face, I have glued on some thick leather.

They work damn well.

totally agree . Grab some wood and bash it on your sharp bits. if it feels foods and gets the result your want - make a mallet. If it dioesn't wprk out after a couple of weeks/months/years of solid work - repeat.

Lots of good suggestions.

I was actually just thinking of using it to knock cabinets together so I would not want it to bruise the wood, nor would I want it splitting off edges. Having said that I am thinking I will be building out of Aussie Hardwoods when I would require the mallet so both will be equally tough.

I have a few left over bits of brass which I picked up cheap at the scrap metal dealer so I thought I would turn up a mallet similar to the veritas one in original post.

The old fence post sounds good for recycling and me being cheap!



NCArcher - Veritas say the ends can be cut with a standard (imperial) hole saw

Keith Bootle "Wood in Australia" suggests Brush Box, Satinay, Kanuka Box, Turpentine or Wandoo for mallets. I am sure you could purchase Brush Box in Melbourne.

It really does depend on what you want to do with it. The very fact that it is designed to accept replaceable inserts means that you can experiment with whatever you can lay your hands on.

I think I might go along with NC Archer's suggestion of a soft face and a hard face. Out of commonly available australian hardwoods I tend to like spotted gum as it is impact resistant, dense,durable and commonly available, but there are many other timbers that would work well. Tony's other choice of ironwood is also good, possibly better, but will be more difficult to source and more expensive. If you already have some of these timbers it would be an ideal use for those tiny offcuts. I think orraloon also suggested spotted gum. As far as softwoods go I suppose it doesn't matter as long as it is soft . Pine seems as good as any.

When we talk of mallets made from almost any hardwood I agree that most will work satisfactorily. However I think you should bear in mind that these inserts are relatively small and you are going to literally bash the s**t out of them. For longevity it helps if they start out durable .

Regards
Paul

But why stop at one mallet? You cabinet makers have all kinds of different tasks. Just as I have different tasks to prepare and work carving wood. As you can see, I can't possibly do it all with a single mallet. If the log doesn't split, I now know that I just have to hit it harder than ever.

Plus, do consider Polyurethane and/or Delrin (nylon). Both my carving mallets are meant to be hitting carving gouges all day long. The little ShopFox (red one) is going on 10 yrs without a mark.