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View Full Version : A couple of small projects



Dave Cav
03-30-2008, 2:47 AM
Over the last several weekends while I was waiting for the glue to set up, or otherwise between phases of the casework I'm making, I made a couple of small projects. I wanted a nice heavy mallet, as the one I made years ago was essentially a lump of hardwood with a dowell stuck in it, and resembled one of Gary Larsen's Cow Tools more than a mallet. The other was a good layout knife. I have been using an old re-ground kitchen paring knife, and it was beveled on both sides.

I made the mallet out of a piece of scrap oak laminated up for the head, and a short piece of teak for the handle. The knife was a little more interesting in that I had to think for a while about what to use for the blade. I finally remembered that I had several extra 1/2" x 1/16" HSS cut off blades for my little metal lathe; I ground a spear point on one and used JB Weld to laminate it into another pair of teak strips. I think they turned out pretty good; the layout knife is pretty sharp and being HSS, should be pretty durable. The photo makes the knife blade look black on the end, but it's actually bright and shiny along it's length. I used a rasp and sandpaper to form the knife handle, a spokeshave and sandpaper to shape the mallet handle, and a block plane to bevel the edges of the head. (Yes, I did use the bandsaw and belt sander to do the major forming and flattening on the head. No one's perfect. :o )

gary Zimmel
03-30-2008, 7:46 AM
Dave

Nice job on the tools. I'm sure they will be used lots..

David Tiell
03-30-2008, 8:10 AM
Very nice! I especially like that marking knife!