Thread: Ash mallet

Originally Posted by tea lady

Oh! An acorn! I knew i'd seen it somewhere before.

hee hee. Very knobby knob. I thought I was the only one seeing things...

Nice Job! looks like a good user with years of delicate whacking ahead.

How's the stability of ash? Would it be suitable for a panel eg door, box lid etc?

Cheers!

p.s. Welcome to the forum Andrey! Good to have people on board from so far away. Nice shed!

Originally Posted by ficfac

How's the stability of ash? Would it be suitable for a panel eg door, box lid etc?

Ash is funny stuff; it's commonly used for chair parts and tables etc. for which it is excellent, but is seldom seen in case furniture as it can behave rather odly. It's regarded as a fairly stable timber, but after years of service (sometimes hundreds of years), it can sometimes take a notion and twist like you wouldn't believe. I wouldn't risk even a floating door panel in Ash.

cheers . oh and by the way wood would what?...

You know,
I sit here in the UK and look at all the wonderful woods you guys and gals have got down there and the pictures of what you've made from them, wishing I had access to some of it and there you are wanting wood I think of a common and unattractive.
Oh well... something about grass being greener springs to mind.

I keep coming back and looking at it - it gets more pretty every time. Is that the wrong thing to say about a mallet?

Originally Posted by ElizaLeahy

I keep coming back and looking at it - it gets more pretty every time. Is that the wrong thing to say about a mallet?

Mallet? No. Handle? Seemingly, yes!

Originally Posted by Woodwould

The purpose of this post is to showcase Common Ash rather than my endeavours at turning. Ash turns as nicely as any timber I have had experience of. It has tremendous shock absorbing properties and is an extremely elastic wood (traditionally used for tool handles and chair components).

If you've ever built twelve foot high hay ricks with a long, Ash-handled pitch fork, you'd appreciate its extraordinary properties when stacking the last few feet of the ricks (it bends and stores kinetic energy like a pole vaulter's pole).

Hi everyone!
During week-end has made photos of my self-made (homemade) tools of an ash-tree (wood) branches. I have a mallet ( hammer) in the form of a trapeze for good
directions (distribution) of blow in parallel the earth. Head of hammer is made of an ash-tree branch. Handle is made from oak. At first a branch to planing dry (seasoning). Subsequently I plane an electric plane and other tools for reception baulk. From baulks I do the tool. The ash-tree wood can be combined with others a wood for appearance and aesthetics. I stick together it about a walnut, an oak, a birch. Ash well resists blow. The hammer weight can be increased if to place inside lead fractions (bullet). I stick together the tool very reliable glue KLEIBERIT PU501. Water resistance D4.
An ash-tree very elastic. My axe for to chop firewood has the handle from an ash-tree. At blow fingers feel blow a ricochet less.
In a surface gauge measuring sticks from an ash-tree. The body tool from a walnut. I too do handles of chisels of an ash-tree.
In a self-made(homemade) plane the overlay is made of an ash-tree on a platform and the handle. Birch is used for body
In Moscow the prices for an ash wood the such.
1 cubic metre of timber - 1000 - 1500 $USA
Ash veneers(0,6mm) square metre - 1 - 2 $ USA (in accordance with sort and quality)
Ash branches - 0 $
Beside us sprout ash two types - european and asiatic. European is light. Asiatic is dark.
I have made the instruments 10 years back. They presently good-conditioned. The Fabrication of the homemade instruments - a big pleasure.

Nice work Andrey. I read that you glued the handle to your mallet. I made a hammer-shaped mallet out of Ash too, but in stead of gluing the handle into the head, I simply dry-fitted it with a fox wedge. If the timber ever shrinks (which is highly likely being shut inside a tin shed in 40+ degree Australian summer days), then a quick tap on the bench will instantly re-tighten the head.

Originally Posted by Woodwould

Carpenters' mallets are flat-faced and their handles are traditionally rectangular so the user can more accurately orientate the striking face (you should try using a flat-faced mallet with a round handle sometime!).

Carvers' and bench mallets are normally round as they're use is more refined than the heavy bashing a carpenters' mallet is put to.

Your round мallet looks aesthetics much. In work I such did not use.
Incomprehensibly comfortable this or uncomfortably for blow.
The Acorn on handle - an artistic discovery. I this shall be able to use for handle.

Originally Posted by Woodwould

Nice work Andrey. I read that you glued the handle to your mallet. I made a hammer-shaped mallet out of Ash too, but in stead of gluing the handle into the head, I simply dry fitted it with a fox wedge. If the timber ever shrinks (which is highly likely being shut inside a tin shed in 40+ degree Australian summer days), then a quick tap on the bench will instantly re-tighten the head.

First I have done the head of the mallet on wedge, as in Your work. But in north climate of the change to moisture greater. Handle has weakened in year. Hereon I have intensified the wedge and has added in addition glue for insurance. PU501 enlarges when splicing and is adapted to moisture miscellaneous. Thenceforward all well.

Sorry please for my insufficient english

You "speak" better English than some Australians do.

I meant to attach a picture of the actual mallet as well.



Andrey, as said, your English is more comprehendable than some members'.

Originally Posted by Woodwould

Ash is funny stuff; it's commonly used for chair parts and tables etc. for which it is excellent, but is seldom seen in case furniture as it can behave rather odly. It's regarded as a fairly stable timber, but after years of service (sometimes hundreds of years), it can sometimes take a notion and twist like you wouldn't believe. I wouldn't risk even a floating door panel in Ash.

That's intruiging Woodwould, I wonder what sets off it's "notion". Does it finally give up the ghost and unravel it's stored tension by some chain reaction process? Is it the earths magnetic field shifting. Planet alignment? Hundreds of years is a long time to for it to think about transforming its shape, I think to much.