What is the advantage of wooden mallets?

[Bobby O'Neal]

Are they to protect your chisel handles? Always wondered... Thanks

[Kent A Bathurst]

Are they to protect your chisel handles? Always wondered... Thanks

Yes.

But - if you look at Japanese chisels, you will see an iron hoop near the end of the chisel handles. These prevent the handle from splitting when whacked with a metal hammer. Of course, it has to be an Official Japanese Chisel Hammer :D [poking fun at myself - I have 2 OJCHs].

[Lee Schierer]

Mostly that you can make them yourself to any size an weight you desire.

[Frank Drew]

if you look at Japanese chisels, you will see an iron hoop near the end of the chisel handles. These prevent the handle from splitting when whacked with a metal hammer.

And they work (the hoops).

I need to make myself a tiny little wood hammer out of a really hard wood for use with my infill planes; either the heel of the plane or that small screw you tap to back out the iron can get mushed if you hit them with a steel hammer too often.

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Frank gives a good argument.

I have a mallet I turned for use at the lathe when starting my drive center into a piece of wood. If I used a hammer to do that I'll bet the #2 Morse taper wouldn't be a #2 very long.

[Bobby O'Neal]

So why beechwood? What characteristics make for a good mallet?

[Frank Drew]

So why beechwood? What characteristics make for a good mallet?

It's usually available in dimension sizes and it's relatively inexpensive, and it's fairly hard and heavy.

Dogwood, which I've never seen available commercially, makes a great mallet head and was a wood of choice for the purpose many years ago -- it's heavy and hard with very tight grain.

I made a mallet head out of a mahogany 16/4 offcut from a shop where I worked; it's fine for light taps with carving tools but this piece is really too soft for chopping work with bench work chisels.

[art san jr]

Frank gives a good argument.

I have a mallet I turned for use at the lathe when starting my drive center into a piece of wood. If I used a hammer to do that I'll be bet the #2 Morse taper wouldn't be a #2 very long.

Excellent idea..never thought of it. Learn something new everyday. Thanks.

Art.

[Russell Smallwood]

1.)Wooden - It is easy to build to any shape/width and it won't damage your tools. You can make a large one that doesn't weigh a ton.

Which brings me to:

2.)Mallet - Ever try to hit a chisel with a hammer with your eyes closed? This is essentially what you are doing when you bang the end of a chisel, you are usually not looking at what you're hitting, you're looking at what the other end of the chisel is doing.

[Mike Henderson]

So why beechwood? What characteristics make for a good mallet?
To a certain degree, a mallet is a consumable (note that I use round carver's mallets and not hammer shaped mallets). One issue is that your taste change - maybe you decide you like a handle that bigger around, or a mallet that's heaver or lighter, or maybe one that's shorter or longer. But also because all wooden mallets eventually delaminate. The wood starts to come apart at the grain lines.

Some wood is better than others. Lignum vitae is a good wood for mallets because it's heaver, and it doesn't delaminate as easily as maple (for example). You can purchase lignum vitae as turning blocks - usually green but you can dry it yourself before you turn your mallet.

But mallets are so easy to make that when a mallet starts to come apart, you can just make yourself a new one from whatever scrap you have in the shop.

Mike

[Frank Drew]

2.)Mallet - Ever try to hit a chisel with a hammer with your eyes closed? This is essentially what you are doing when you bang the end of a chisel, you are usually not looking at what you're hitting, you're looking at what the other end of the chisel is doing.

It's really not that difficult to hit a chisel squarely with a hammer, or with the sweet spot on a mallet.

[Russell Smallwood]

It's really not that difficult to hit a chisel squarely with a hammer...

I will have to take your word for it :)

I don't trust myself enough to try.

[rick carpenter]

Wooden mallets provide better kinetic energy transfer for chiseling wood (basically cutting it), versus metal hammers for chiseling rock/etc (breaking it off in pieces).

[Gary Herrmann]

Agree with Mike. I like round mallets just because you don't have to look at them when you pick them up. Mine is made from osage orange so will probably last awhile.

You have to be careful with osage though. It likes to crack.

[Rod Sheridan]

Are they to protect your chisel handles? Always wondered... Thanks

Speaking as a father, the advantage of wooden mallets versus steel hammers is that mallets don't rust when your kids leave them outside in the rain after pounding tent pegs in on a Girl Guides trip.:D

Regards, Rod.

[Mike Henderson]

I will have to take your word for it :)

I don't trust myself enough to try.
It's not something you think about, you just do it. I can't explain it more than that.

Mike

[Tony Bilello]

I make mallets from 4x4's. I have a woodworking and refinishing business. They come in handy for lots of things. You can tap joints in tight, bang up the mallet and yet not damage the hardwood furniture parts. I also use them for hitting chisels and other tools. I much prefer them to hammers. 178549

[Michael Titus]

If you're using all-wood chisel handles (w/o metal hoops) it is recommended that you use a mallet made from softer wood than the chisel handle. That way, heavy use will wear and damage the mallet and not the chisel handle. Mallets are much easier and cheaper to replace than a set of chisel handles.

[Van Huskey]

My only issues with round mallets is they always go rolling away from me, my same issue with the smaller Pfiel bench chisels.

[Rick Fisher]

Van.. Just bandsaw a flat spot on round mallets.. They still roll, but dont get away.

[Larry Edgerton]

I bought a SnapOn dead blow for something else, tried it one day with a chisel, and now seldom use a wood mallet. Causes no chisel damage, less shock on the arm, transfers energy well, and never splits. I have since picked up a couple of cheaper ons and for woodwork they work just as well.

[Frank Drew]

Wooden mallets provide better kinetic energy transfer for chiseling wood (basically cutting it), versus metal hammers for chiseling rock/etc (breaking it off in pieces).

Rick, why is that?

[Kirk Poore]

It's really not that difficult to hit a chisel squarely with a hammer, or with the sweet spot on a mallet.

Yahbut, if you don't hit it quite square, it will carom off and hit you in the hand. Round wooden mallets hurt a lot less when they do that.

Kirk

[Cody Colston]

I have a couple of round mallets with Walnut handles and Bois d' Arc heads for carving and chisel work. The end of the head is flat so that I can stand them up rather than laying them down where they would roll.

I also have a Dogwood gavel-style mallet with an Ash handle. I faced the Dogwood head with thick leather and use it when assembling projects. The leather prevents marring the pieces if I have to tap a joint together.

[Jim McFarland]

Advantages? Can be made to whatever shape you want -- and in my case from "free" wood -- this is from a persimmon tree we lost in an ice storm a few years back. Persimmon was hard enough to made wooden golf club heads in the past so hard enough for my chisels.

[Chris Friesen]

This may be sacrilege, but for general pounding and banging on carpentry (as opposed to cabinetry) chisels it's hard to beat a rubber/plastic deadblow hammer with shot inside.

[lowell holmes]

Besides, they look good on the bench.

[Dusty Fuller]

Its cheaper (and "prettier") to make my own. I try to keep an eye out for dead/dying or cut-down dogwoods specifically for this purpose. I've got a small supply ready to be turned when needed. I'm still on my first that I made almost three years ago. And I also like the feel of wood as opposed to plastic/rubber.

[rick carpenter]

Going from memory... Wooden mallets having a softer face don't rebound like metal hammers do. They are in contact with the chisel longer, letting the energy transfer over a longer period of time with a "softer" start, to let the chisel cut the wood. When they don't rebound as fast, your arm swing "continues" forward longer too.

[John Coloccia]

Because you don't have to worry about orientation as the chisel moves about carving our whatever you're trying to do. Forget about your own accuracy (where I agree with Mike....it's no big deal...you just do it). The ergonomics of a round mallet are far superior to a hammer for this kind of work, IMHO.

Flat wooden mallets are nice because you can tap things together without harming the wood. It's not so much that it's made of wood. It's that there is a much larger surface area you're working with. A metal hammer the size of a typical bench mallet is called a sledgehammer.

It's actually useful having a small metal hammer around for tapping dovetails together. You can really feel what's happening as you tap. Taping together with a mallet gives very little feedback as you're hitting such a large area at one time. Those little Japanese hammers are really perfect for this kind of work, though I don't have one.

That's my opinion.

[Roger Bullock]

When I was starting out on the lathe, I turned several (for practice) in both soft and hard woods. some were one piece with round heads others were turned handles and square heads. I gave away many but ended up with several around the shop. One by the lathe for setting centers and driving wood onto centers (less damage to both), a couple on the workbench assembly table, and one by the drill press. Good use of scrap or free wood. Build a few and give them a try, if you don't end up using them, well at least you honed your woodworking skills.