Which mallet and why

[Tom M King]

I first tried a Wood is Good mallet so I would have one when the wooden one was worn out if I was off somewhere away from the big tools to make another one. I forget how many I wore out, but the flat faced ones wore out in one spot. I first changed to a round one because they were so quick to make, but learned to like them best anyway and could be worn all around the head. After using that first WiG one, I never used a wooden mallet again. I somehow managed to produce a lot of work without ever thinking about all that you guys are talking about in this thread.

I never noticed that grain direction made much difference. I did find one behind a closed up knee wall in an 1828 house. The worker had evidently tossed it back there when the handle broke at a knot. The owner of that house has it on their mantle at home. The worker had made it from a tree limb.

[Rafael Herrera]

It bothers me when people dismiss curiosity regarding what's going on with the tools and methods we use in woodworking.

Getting work done and understanding are not mutually exclusive activities.

Rafael

[Tom Bender]

Let's head back to the shop for another experiment. For a given amount of fibers cut, the heavy mallet is causing more collateral damage, split workpiece, slipping clamping, crushed fibers ahead of the cut etc. Why is that?

The heavy mallet delivers more momentum. The lighter and faster blow delivers more energy.

So what I'm trying to get at is cutting fibers without collateral damage. It seems that momentum is the enemy here, so a light fast mallet has advantages.

Back to the math;

Momentum = (Mass * Velocity)

Energy = (Mass * Velocity) * Velocity / 2

Yup, lower mass at higher velocity = more energy without increasing momentum. But of course there are limits. Using BBs fired from a Daisy Red Ryder isn't going to work even though the math says it will.

[Eric Brown]

So what I'm trying to get at is cutting fibers without collateral damage. It seems that momentum is the enemy here, so a light fast mallet has advantages.

Back to the math;

Momentum = (Mass * Velocity)

Energy = (Mass * Velocity) * Velocity / 2

Yup, lower mass at higher velocity = more energy without increasing momentum. But of course there are limits. Using BBs fired from a Daisy Red Ryder isn't going to work even though the math says it will.

Another thing to consider is recovery of the fibers. A heavy cut has to compress fibers more than a light cut. So possibly light cuts allow recovery better.

[Johannes Becker]

The theory is deceivingly simple with momentum conversation in the impact of hammer and chisel but gets a bit more complicated when thinking what is actually happening with the chisel cutting wood. The energy transfer is determined by how elastic the impact is and the ratio of the masses of hammer and chisel. If you do the math it turns out that the maximum energy transfer efficiency is with equal weights of hammer and chisel. However, we are not concerned with maximum efficiency here but with maximum chisel energy (which is determining the chisel cut -- at least when we are not slicing). Hence a heavier hammer is capable of transferring more energy to the chisel (while having less effective energy transfer). Instead of this somewhat woolly-headed summary have a look at page 28 if you interested: https://books.google.com/books?id=sl...page&q&f=false.

Screenshot 2023-10-21 at 16-37-29 The Science and Engineering of Cutting.png

The other relevant consideration is hammer energy. Please keep in mind that we are not taking sledge hammers here so the resulting velocity of the mallet is dominated by the weight of your arm rather than that of the mallet when applying constant force to swing the mallet and a handle of equal length. Hence the heavier hammer contains more energy (duh -- not sure I needed an engineering degree to figure that one... ;-).

[Edward Weber]

And every piece of wood if different, so none of this matters
Pick up a mallet that's comfortable to use and get to work

[Derek Cohen]

Math to determine which mallet?! While it sounds good as a theory, in practice it is about the same as determining the ideal speed to push a hand plane.

Mallets have many variable. Among them:

weight of the head
weight if the handle
size of the head
square or round head face
length of the handle
thickness of the grip
Shape of the grip
length of ones arm
height above the bench/workpiece
Sharpness of the chisel
hardness of the wood
depth of mortice
keep this up and you will go mad
you are mad already if you have read this far!

I have 5 mallets/hammers. What they have in common is the attempt to concentrate mass in a small area. I also prefer flat faces to round faces, such as a gennou to a carver's mallet, and the flat face seems - to me - to direct forces better and the is less cance if a glancing blow. But I accept that others will disagree ... which shows how much personal preference is part of our decision, and not math.

I prefer a hard face for the mallet/hammer. Absorbing the blow/force seems counter-productive. No soft leather or urethane faces. At the same time I want to protect vulnerable chisel ends, such as unhooped wooden handles. For such cases my mallets used are faced with UHMV. This is good compromise. Otherwise I use steel ... steel gives the best feedback. Further, the handle material (wood in my case), if shop made, needs some experimentation to find what is the best for shock absorption.



Above - 36oz, 19oz, 7oz ..... note that the shape of the handles/grips allow or two positions.

Gennou for Japanese bench and mortice chisels - 375gm and 225gm ....



Regards from Perth

Derek

[steven c newman]

Also..at the end of a day of swinging that butt-heavy Mallet....how does your arm feel? Does one have to ice things down?

Grandpa Amu....uses a #2 Carpenter's Hatchet....

Along with that Plastic headed Mallet....I have a 32 Round Carver's Mallet,,shaped to fit my hands exactly ( Spalted Hard Maple, BTW)...and a 12 oz. Ball Peen hammer. All depends on the wood I am chopping...and how my right arm is feeling that day....there is a 10 oz Round Carver's Mallet in the Tool Cabinet...but..I find it is way too light to do much chopping...barely can drive a gouge...
1st Mortises, getting there .JPG
Just some days I simply am in a MEAN Mood...and you have to be when the wood is Ash...
A Chopping Day, next 5 laid out .JPG
Other days, this is just fine..
Carver's Mallet.JPG
This is the 32 oz Carver's Mallet...for when Uncle Arthur (itis) won't let me grip skinny handles (rainy days, usually?)

Shop Saturday, Upper Right side.JPG
The mallet in that door, was my Late Father -in-law's....I guess I need to keep it around....skinny handle, too light weight...tends to bounce off of most chisels..

All depends on what is needed to get done...BTW...Chopping Poplar is way easier than chopping Ash...Oak...Maple....

[Mel Fulks]

With mallets for all let us bang the the stuff we are making while making sure the heads ,of wood ….and bone don’t fly off .
That always brings a tear to my eye , so I wear a face shield.

[Michael Bulatowicz]

Math to determine which mallet?! While it sounds good as a theory, in practice it is about the same as determining the ideal speed to push a hand plane.

(snip)

But I accept that others will disagree ... which shows how much personal preference is part of our decision, and not math.

Maybe you should try going back and reading the thread, including Tom’s original question. Nowhere do I see anyone suggesting using math to choose a mallet—only to understand and demonstrate the “why” in the original post. I see no attempt to answer Tom’s question in your response, but you did a fine job of setting up a strawman and then steering the topic to yourself.

[Rafael Herrera]

I don't think anyone has been suggesting that math will tell us what is the "best", that's absurd.

At least that's what I understand from reading the thread. If that's not the case, you should at least quote the post that you're responding to.

There have been some incorrect comparisons of "delivering momentum" or "delivering energy". Trying to understand what is going on satisfies curiosity, it might not make one a better woodworker, but it might stop one from thinking nonsense like start using a sledge hammer or thinking that because "all wood is different" there's no point in analyzing this.

To generalize, a little understanding is always helpful, specially when deciding on a choice. There are a lot of people that use their purported expertise to dispense advise. In many cases with other motives, sometimes commercial gain without disclosure or simply fame and recognition (barf).

Rafael

[mike stenson]

Maybe you should try going back and reading the thread, including Tom’s original question. Nowhere do I see anyone suggesting using math to choose a mallet—only to understand and demonstrate the “why” in the original post. I see no attempt to answer Tom’s question in your response, but you did a fine job of setting up a strawman and then steering the topic to yourself.

There are a bunch of posts in this thread that are dedicated to physics, not picking a mallet. So I got a chuckle out of Derek's post. Maybe a bit grumpy this morning.

[Edward Weber]

Some of you are taking this way too seriously.
It should be obvious that a light weight mallet requires more speed (velocity) to do the same work as a heavier mallet, which would require less speed due to it's increased weight.
The amount of energy the chisel needs to cut the wood remains the same in both cases. It's how the energy is delivered that you all seem to want to argue about.
One or two hits with a heavy mallet, or eight to ten hits with a light mallet, both methods have their place, both achieve the same outcome, both deliver the same amount of energy to the chisel, the same amount of wood gets cut in each method.

This is just a method of work that is as individual as each piece of wood.
Most woodworkers have more than one weight of mallet for this very reason, as Derek pointed out in his post.
There is no "right" mallet
There is no mathematical formula to determine whats best
Physics tells us the why and how
It's up the the individual to determine which is needed for their work
The easiest way to do this IMO, is to pick up a mallet and try it out

[Michael Bulatowicz]

There are a bunch of posts in this thread that are dedicated to physics, not picking a mallet. So I got a chuckle out of Derek's post. Maybe a bit grumpy this morning.

Whether you’re grumpy this morning or not, you should be able to see that in Tom’s original post he asked a question about the physics of mallets. What followed was a discussion about the physics of mallets. In what way was that discussion off-topic for the thread?

[Edward Weber]

http://www.closegrain.com/2013/04/ar...e-popular.html