Wood For Mallet ??

[Wallis Hampson]

I am wanting to build a mallet for mortising etc like the attached pic from LV. I am thinking of making it out of either Jatoba (Brazilian Cherry) or Ipe because I have some left from a project. Both are very dense and heavy which would seem to make a great striking surface but I never seen one comercially so I am wondering if there is something that I am missing. I realize it is more expensive than say beech or maple but not that much for such a small project. Does anyone have any reasons why I shouldnt use one of these woods?

[Homer Faucett]

A friend of mine turned a carving mallet with a jatoba head and osage orange handle. It was beautiful and hard, but quite heavy for its size.

I built two that look somewhat like your photo (loosely taken from a woodworking magazine article) out of cherry, just because I had some thicker offcuts from a tree that we had milled up a year or so ago. They turned out great, and were a great first project using my mortising machine.

I see no reason why a Jatoba mallet wouldn't work great, if one keeps in mind the weight and difficulty in cutting the wood.

[David DeCristoforo]

Dense heavy woods....good! No reason at all not to make your own mallet from either of the woods you mentioned. Nothing like working with a tool you made yourself. Years ago, a guy came to my shop wih a small log of "ironwood". Must have weighed a hundred pounds. He wanted me to saw it into knife handle blanks. I figured it would only take a half hour or so so I told him I would do it for a 1' long chunk off the end. Four hours and, I don't know, maybe a dozen bandsaw blades later I had earned myself a chunk of what had to be the most expensive wood I ever bought! I turned a one piece mallet out of it and it has been one of my favorite tools ever since.

[Wallis Hampson]

I may use a solid piece or I may to a glue up. Does anyone know if Brazilian Cherry is one of those oily woods that doesnt take glue that well and needs to be cleaned with acetone etc. before glue up?

[Warren Clemans]

I made a couple of chairs out of jatoba 4 or 5 years ago. Mortise and tennon joints were all glued with titebond II with no special prep. The joints are still tight, with no sign of glue failure. I didn't find it to be especially hard to work, but keep your tools sharp. I even steam bent the chair backs. Broke a few before I realized that I needed to pretty much double the steaming time that you would use for oak.

[Gary Herrmann]

I've got a couple pieces of lignum vitae I'm going to make a mallet out of; if I ever get through with the honeydos

My neighbors put in a brazilian cherry floor. Hmm, I wonder if they have cutoffs...

[Andrew Williams]

One of the first things I made when I moved in to this house. It is held together with Titebond II.
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BTW: For what it's worth, it was recommended to me that a person's mallet be made of wood that is not harder than their mortise chisel handles. The reason being that it's easier to make a new mallet than a mortise chisel handle. I figure eventually this mallet will overcome the beech handles and I will have to make new ones at the lathe. Since I don't have a lathe yet it would make a nice rationalization ;)

[Scot Ferraro]

Dense, heavy hard woods make great mallets. I have made them out of Bubinga and Maple with success. The nice thing about making them yourself is that if you damage the faces you know how to fix them or you can make another one.

Scot