What mallets & hammers do you use?

[Greg Portland]

Kirk, do you prefer that mallet due to the material of the head or the shape (or both)?

[Kirk Poore]

Kirk, do you prefer that mallet due to the material of the head or the shape (or both)?

Mostly the shape of the head. I started off doing a fair amount of carving, and with the round mallet I could just pay attention to the gouge, not how I was holding the mallet. The flat faced mallet I initially used kept caroming off and hitting me in the hand.

This mallet was initially a cheap backup for when I was teaching a class, but the more I used it the more I liked it. Then I started using it to set mortise & tenon joints and I didn't have to use a scrap piece to prevent marring or denting the work, and it's been an every day tool since.

Kirk

[Roy Lindberry]

This is a shop made mallet that I use for everything right now. It is a walnut handle with a hickory head - just some scrap I had laying around. The head is roughly 6x4x2.5 with a split handle wedged in.

I don't know how much it weighs, but it is really a little too bulky and heavy for light chisel work. That is a Bailey #5 next to it, if that gives any reference. I plan to make a smaller mallet one of these days. I also want to rework the handle, because its a bit wide and uncomfortable.

[harry strasil]

Greg, Chris is right. What I used is the thin, black, springy metal used to strap stuff down to pallets.

[Tony Shea]

Roy, I really like your mallet, the wood combination looks wonderful. Does the face have a forward cant of 5deg or so that is common with that type of mallet? If not, would you make it with an angled face or does a straight 90deg face work fine? And also, does the hickory hold up well to the abuse and enviormental changes?

Again, that mallet is very nice looking and something that has inspired to me to make on for myself. At the moment I use a Wood is Good rubber carving mallet, japanese barrel mallet, and a dead blow to pound joinery together. I think your style of mallet would be better suited for my to pound my joinery together.

[Roy Lindberry]

Roy, I really like your mallet, the wood combination looks wonderful. Does the face have a forward cant of 5deg or so that is common with that type of mallet? If not, would you make it with an angled face or does a straight 90deg face work fine? And also, does the hickory hold up well to the abuse and enviormental changes?

Again, that mallet is very nice looking and something that has inspired to me to make on for myself. At the moment I use a Wood is Good rubber carving mallet, japanese barrel mallet, and a dead blow to pound joinery together. I think your style of mallet would be better suited for my to pound my joinery together.

Thank you for the compliment, Tony. Though I can't take credit for the design...I found it somewhere on the web and really liked it, though the wood choices were my own, since that is what I had on hand.

It is just a straight face, and so far I haven't seen any reason to desire the angled face. I used hickory scraps because I know it is a dense and strong wood, and at this point I am not disappointed. I haven't used it a ton, but for what I have, it seems to hold up very well.

The head is actually three slabs with the middle one sectioned out for the handle (I didn't want to worry about mortising a solid block, nor did I have a solid block anyway). I liked the character of the arched head and as a bonus the offcut from the arch was used for the wedge. All in all, I'm happy with it, but still being a relative newbie I don't know if other woods would make a better choice. One thing about the hickory is that it gives the mallet some heft, so it does make it good for some heavier work.

[Ken Kimbrell]

Knocked this one together using red oak from the BORG... kind of plain looking, but if you want to give something a really serious whack it gets the job done.
The small one works OK as well.
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EDIT:
Just realized that this topic was a couple of years old. For some reason it came up in the results of my ‘New Posts’ search and I posted without first looking at the dates... Sorry.
(The delete option is not working for me, otherwise I would done so; maybe I'm doing it wrong?)