First Turning - Mallet

[Rich Aldrich]

The sharpening station is up and running, not finished yet. I sharpened most of my tools and had the bug to turn something.

I started out with a relatively easy project today. I needed a good wooden mallet for my chisels, so I found a piece of scrap hard maple and mounted it between centers. It came out a little short, so I will probably make another at some point. I wasn't too concerned about sanding real fine, but it still came out ok.

[Steve Schlumpf]

Rich - congrats on your first turning! Most folks start off with what we call a bonker - just anything that is spindle turned. Yours is functional - how cool is that?

Hope you are enjoying your time on the lathe!

[Brian Effinger]

That's just not right. Your first turning is something so you can do flatwork!?! :eek: That should be illegal. :p :D :D

Seriously though, it looks good Rich. And welcome to the dark side! :D

[David E Keller]

I agree with Brian. Hard to trust a guy who makes flat working tools on a lathe, but I'm willing to let it slide just this once.:p:D

nice job

[Matt Owen]

That's really good, Rich. It's certainly a lot better than my first turning (a spin top). Very nice!

[John Keeton]

Rich, don't let these guys ride you on the flatwork thing. Truth is, there are several "closet" flatworkers in this forum - I know the real story on some of them.;):D

Excellent job on the mallet! Pretty soon, you will be giving Dave Jeske (Blue Spruce Tools) some competition!

[Rich Aldrich]

Thanks for the compliments. I am just a flat work guy that wanted to go round. :D

The way I figure this will work is that I will start off doing a flatwork project in the morning, get to a stopping point for a glue drying issue, go to the lathe and forget about the flatwork until the next morning, maybe.

Actually, I usually end up with so much dead time between flat work projects (the last one was 5 months) I wanted to start filling in with other work to keep a little money coming in so I can do family projects. I probably have a while before I start selling, but it will all come in time. I just want the shop to run on its own cash flow.

[Bernie Weishapl]

Great first turning. Looks great.

[Baxter Smith]

Mallet looks good! I use one quite often for something turning related!:)

[Curt Fuller]

There's only one thing that I think needs corrected on this turning. The first mallet shaped piece you turn is actually called a "bonker". The 2nd, 3rd, and so on can be mallets, but here on the creek there's always been kind of a tradition of turning a "bonker" before anything else.;)

That said, that's a heck of a nice Bonker!