its no blue spruce but hey!!

[Robert Culver]

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Its no Blue Spruce but I was inspired by one of his Mallets this weekend so I thought I would try to make my own. Put a little bit of lead in the head for added weight. Feels pretty good in the hand to believe It or not!! Just thought I would share!

[jeff vanek]

Looks great, I made the exact same thing this weekend myself !

[Tony Wilkins]

Don't think you have any reason to downplay this effort. From here it looks as good as Dave's offerings and saying that I'm a big fan of his tools. Good work bud.

[Robert Culver]

Thanks for the complements guys!! Im a big fan of Daves work as a matter of fact I just placed a order for a couple of his skew chisels and would love to his his offering of this mallet but I promised myself to cut back on my tool budget a little this year since im looking to adding a actual shop in time and that will be a big project...

[Jim Koepke]

That is a nice looking mallet.

I knocked out the mortise in a birch mallet head a few days ago. Was hoping my bandsaw blades, to cut the handle, would be here on Friday.

After making a few mallets it doesn't seem right to buy one.

jtk

[Daniel Rode]

That's a really nice looking mallet. I like the shape of the handle. Seems like it would allow you to choke up to take lighter taps.

Making a mallet is on my todo list. I hope mine comes out half that well.

[Robert Culver]

you hit it right on the head Daniel you can choke up and be comfortable or you can take a full swing from the base of the handle and its comfortable in the hand. at least mine anyway the added lead makes it feel like a beast but not so heavy that I think it will be cumbersome!

[Chris Griggs]

Very nice mallet!

[Jim Koepke]

the added lead makes it feel like a beast

So how did you add the lead?

Any other tips learned in the project to pass on?

jtk

[Robert Culver]

saw this on a you tube video.. what I did was spit the head into 3 sections the center piece is the same thickness as the tenon on the mallet then I drilled a 1 1/8 inch hole in the front and back of the center piece staying back from the face and the center as much as I could then I cut the center out of it the width of the tenon and I angled it slightly maybe 2 deg to allow for wedges in the top of the mallet. I then glue the bottom and the center pieces up leaving the top off....Then you fill the holes with lead I used lead bbs like shot gun shot and a couple of pieces of tungsten to beef it up a bit more. then I filled the voids between the shot with some 2 part epoxy so it wouldn't shake and move around but you could skip this step. once its all dried I glued the top of it on. then you can shape the head and handle once its all shaped glue and wedge the handle. I guess the biggest tip would be to make sure the shot is level with the top so it doesn't effect the top piece when you do your final glue up.

[Jim Koepke]

Thanks for the write up Robert.

It didn't look like a laminated head, so that made me wonder. Now looking closer one seam is visible.

If the epoxy was left out for the lead bbs to "float" it would work like a dead blow mallet.

jtk

[Tony Wilkins]

For those looking to do their own, Roy Underhill did a version on his last episode of the year. http://video.pbs.org/video/2365021538/

[Robert Culver]

I considered leaving the bbs to float but wanted to see how it would work if they were not I cut some dovetails with it today and it feels great the leather face is nice to I have never had one with a leather face just a wood is good mallet . i could have done a better job on the laminating if I would have taken a little more time with it but hey nothing is prefect right ?? heck it was a quick easy project and i have plenty of scrap if I want to make another one. something to beat the winter time blues lol!!