Jim Koepke
02-06-2020, 9:29 PM
Well, Abraham Lincoln's Birthday is coming up next week, so to honor this historic day it seemed appropriate to make a mallet out of a piece of bog cherry that came down in a storm a few years ago.
This is pretty much like my first mallet in design and material > https://sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?161952
It is almost 9 years old now and the handle has become well polished from use.
To start on a new mallet, a section was cut off of the little log above the milled pieces:
425409
The ends of the piece for the head of the mallet were coated with wax. It turned out to not be necessary. The piece about 6" long trimmed off the end was left on the bench and hasn't developed any cracks. The pieces were cut using my bandsaw then planed smooth.
The top and bottom of the mallet head were marked with Xs from corner to corner to find the approximate center. After this the handle center was found and then the dividers was given a little squeeze for marking the ends of the mortise:
425410
The handle was cut to ~1-1/4" so it could be trimmed to fit the 1" mortise.
Then the mortise ends were laid out:
425411
The taper of the handle was drawn on the handle and then transferred to the sides of the head to help with the chisel work.
Then the mortise gauge was set to the chisel and marked the mortise:
425412
A light first pass was taken:
425413
The old mallet is still in the picture. After all, it takes a mallet to make a mallet.
Roy Underhill did this on his program when making mallets. Since for a mortise this deep it is easier to start with drilling out some of the waste. For this a 1" forestner bit was used. Side to side the centers lined up. From end to end the angled faces were already cut when the Xs were marked and the holes, drilled from top and bottom, were misaligned by a bit more than 1/16", no big deal.
After a lot of chopping and paring with repeated checks of the tapered mortise with bevel gauges it was time to start on the handle.
First it was cut to fit the width of the mortise and smoothed. With the taper and handle shape drawn on the handle the bottom was cut straight and then the taper was cut.
A little work with a spoke shave and the test fit was good:
425414
A bit more cutting to shape the top, smoothing with spokeshaves and chamfers all around and it is starting to look like a mallet:
425415
Most of what is left to do is to make it feel like it belongs in my hand.
jtk
This is pretty much like my first mallet in design and material > https://sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?161952
It is almost 9 years old now and the handle has become well polished from use.
To start on a new mallet, a section was cut off of the little log above the milled pieces:
425409
The ends of the piece for the head of the mallet were coated with wax. It turned out to not be necessary. The piece about 6" long trimmed off the end was left on the bench and hasn't developed any cracks. The pieces were cut using my bandsaw then planed smooth.
The top and bottom of the mallet head were marked with Xs from corner to corner to find the approximate center. After this the handle center was found and then the dividers was given a little squeeze for marking the ends of the mortise:
425410
The handle was cut to ~1-1/4" so it could be trimmed to fit the 1" mortise.
Then the mortise ends were laid out:
425411
The taper of the handle was drawn on the handle and then transferred to the sides of the head to help with the chisel work.
Then the mortise gauge was set to the chisel and marked the mortise:
425412
A light first pass was taken:
425413
The old mallet is still in the picture. After all, it takes a mallet to make a mallet.
Roy Underhill did this on his program when making mallets. Since for a mortise this deep it is easier to start with drilling out some of the waste. For this a 1" forestner bit was used. Side to side the centers lined up. From end to end the angled faces were already cut when the Xs were marked and the holes, drilled from top and bottom, were misaligned by a bit more than 1/16", no big deal.
After a lot of chopping and paring with repeated checks of the tapered mortise with bevel gauges it was time to start on the handle.
First it was cut to fit the width of the mortise and smoothed. With the taper and handle shape drawn on the handle the bottom was cut straight and then the taper was cut.
A little work with a spoke shave and the test fit was good:
425414
A bit more cutting to shape the top, smoothing with spokeshaves and chamfers all around and it is starting to look like a mallet:
425415
Most of what is left to do is to make it feel like it belongs in my hand.
jtk