Wood for Mallet

[Victor Stearns]

Greetings to the Vortex,
I have been thinking of spinning up a mallet to use with my chiseling. I have seen several very nice ones at various wood classes. My question iswhat type of wood will hold/last? I am considering ash.
Thanks
Victor

[Scott Hubl]

Try Hickory.:cool:

[Jim Podsedly]

Victor,

Here is one that I made from Ash. I do not use mine too much it was more for show and practice turning something different.

I have heard Ash is not that great because it could break at the rings (grain). I have not witnessed this so i cannot be sure about it though.

They are fun to make so you could make a few with different species of wood and test them out.

Jim

[Don Orr]

Beech is a traditional wood for carving/chisel mallets. Not the easiest to find though. We have a lot here in the Northeast since it is not used for lumber and a fungus is killing many of them.

[Jim Underwood]

I've been using a two piece mallet I made from some 4x4 Poplar 'stickers' for several years. It's soft enough not to leave a lot of marks on stuff, or mess up my drive center (when marking centers on blanks), and just about right for popping the banjo lever on my tailstock to keep it from creeping. The reason it works is that it's built more like a hammer with a big head than your traditional carving mallet. The 'business end' of the face is all end grain so it stand up better than it would if I was pounding with side grain.

I have wished for one a little harder and heavier though...

[Scott Lux]

I made one from Apple for a neighbor. He says it works well. If you want hard go hickory, black locust, honeylocust in that order for the domestics. I used apple for two reasons: 1) it is fairly hard but turns very well, 2) it was the right size piece in my garage

[Paul Gallian]

http://books.google.com/books?id=GFFB5-7FNbkC&pg=PA54-IA6&lpg=PA54-IA6&dq=chiseling+mallet&source=web&ots=RpVLGSzDan&sig=qNzEtrVwBJo8bJDz04U1Q8u9K1E&hl=en

[Jim Underwood]

Oooohhh... make a Puzzle mallet. I think someone shared how to make one over on the WWA website.

You might find plans for one on this forum if you searched.

[curtis rosche]

our wood shop teacher has one that he made that the handle is from oak the head is made from maple with walnut rings around the head the head is hallow and filled with buck shot the hammer face is covered with leather we use it all the time the lead moving in the head gives that little extra push

[Jim Underwood]

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=21449

Here's a thread that shows pix on how to do the puzzle mallet joint.

[Reed Gray]

Osage would be another good one, as would hard (sugar) maple. Then there are the exotics like Lignum Vitae. Hammer style would probably last longer than bat/bonker style because you are using the end grain rather than the side grain.
robo hippy

[Daniel Heine]

Hello,

I have turned several mallets from old wooden baseball bats. They work very well, and the used bats are cheap!!

Dan Heine

[Ben Gastfriend]

Oak works well.

[Kevin McPeek]

Here is one I made from maple and Rosewood. It looked better than it worked, it was just too heavy and big. I suppose that is the fault of the hack who turned it though. I can't say how it held up because I sold it.
I also made one with Makore and Maple with the same method but smaller and it works just fine.

[Kaptan J.W. Meek]

I turned one from Osage Orange (aka Boise d'arc or horse apple) and it's great for thumping chisels.. It's very hard, but it also should be fairly dry..
I would think Jatoba would do well too, if you wanted an exotic flair..

[Kurt Bird]

Hi,
I turned a carving mallet out of maple (from a 3x3 blank) about 5 years ago, and have used it for 100's of dovetails. It hardly looks used, and the weight always felt like it was just right. Of course, that might be because it's the only one I've ever used regularly. Anyway, I can recommend maple.
Kurt

[Jim Becker]

Mine is Osage Orange for the head and some scrap white oak for the handle. (I didn't have a piece of OO that was long enough at the time to do the whole thing in the size I wanted)

[Dennis Peacock]

I have a mallet made from Osage Orange and I have used it a LOT. Works great, right weight, and thank you Mr. Cothren for making it for me. :)

[Mike Henderson]

I use a mallet quite a bit for carving. The problem with all woods is that eventually the wood delaminates from the pounding. The best wood I've found is lignum vitae. You don't have to make the whole mallet from lignum vitae - you can make just the head of lignum vitae, or you can laminate the lignum vitae to the outside before you turn it (as I did - see pictures below).

Below are a couple of pictures of some of my mallets - I turn them by the dozen because I teach carving and I loan them to my students to use in the class. The first picture shows some of the student mallets, made from whatever scrap I have in the shop. There's oak, maple, walnut, and I don't know what else.

The second picture shows my mallets: from left to right - figured maple, maple with ebony accent, small lignum vitae, large lignum vitae, large oak, and finally bloodwood.

[Glenn Hodges]

I made a couple for a professional saddle maker out of wild black cherry. He bought one, and liked it so much he returned and asked me to make him another.

[robert baccus]

All good wood choices----other good domestic wood would be dogwood and hornbeam, dogwood being the besy probably. very shock resistant and was once a highly prized industrial wood.-----------ol forester

[Glenn Hodges]

In the old weaving mills the looms used dogwood and persimon for the shuttle because they were so hard and tough they would never wear out. Persimon was almost depleated around Georgia for golf club woods because it is so hard. Difficult to find, but extremely hard and tough is boxwood. Hickory has been mentioned, and along with its cousin, pecan is a useful wood because of its toughness and hardness. All the aforementioned woods will make great mallet heads. I have used persimon and dogwood in my shop with wild black cherry handles with good results.

[Thomas Bennett]

If you want a heavy mallot try an old bowling pin. I made several with the outer plastic left on the striking part. They are fun to turn and last a long time.