Thread: Plane setting hammer/mallet

Lovely little mallet, John. I find I use mine for all sorts of 'gentle persuading'.

Matt

Good one, John. I've been getting around to making one of these for some time, but I keep seeing other folks' efforts, & changing my design!

I really like the pairing of the brass end for tapping blades with the domed wooden end for whacking the end of the plane, but I need to off-set the brass, or make it longer (which will probably unbalance it too much). This is because the blades on a couple of my planes have worn down to the point they are now under the wedge, or nearly so, but still have plenty of life in them, yet. So I use the tapered end of this little all-brass number for blade-tapping,
Brass hammer red.jpg
but it's a nuisance having to reach for a wooden mallet as well. I'm sure it's an easy-enough problem to solve once I get that round tuit.....

Cheers,

Thanks guys. It has proved handy and is an improvement in the super cheap rubber/hard plastic mallet I was using on planes. The narrow brass end is better at geting behind the wedge of a plane. A pity I could not use the heavier ironbark as It would have been more balanced but it does an ok job.I have a few old planes that show the scars of being attacked with steel hammers by past owners so plane abuse is not allowed in my shed.
Regards
John

John

A very nice job and it has a different look to it.

A trick with the weight aspect is to drill a hole in the timber and fill it with metal (steel bolt or pour in lead for extra heft). Then cover the hole with a piece of dowel.

This works well with carving mallets, but there is a slight complication with your mallet as the handle will tend to be in the way, but I'm sure that could be worked around.

I still love the shape and the combination of wood and brass always seems to work well.

Regards
Paul

Paul,
It has enough weight for plane setting but with a heavy timber would have got it more balanced. The brass end is heavier than the wood end. Still does the intended job. The brass is epoxied in so too late to make changes. If I do another one I will pay more attention to the balance by using just enough brass and of course heavier wood.
Regards
John