What’s you chisel mallet?

[Tony Wilkins]

Been thinking of chisel mallets lately. For western chisels*, what mallet do you prefer and why? Size? Shape? Weight? What makes it an effective tool for you and your work?

*since Japanese chisels are primarily used with a metal gennou, though if you use something different I would be interested in that too.

[Tyler Bancroft]

You may laugh, but I often use a one pound rubber mallet. It's not as effective as a wooden mallet at transferring energy to the chisel, but it damps way down on vibrations, which I really appreciate, as I'm prone to elbow problems.

[Jim Koepke]

You may laugh, but I often use a one pound rubber mallet. It's not as effective as a wooden mallet at transferring energy to the chisel, but it damps way down on vibrations, which I really appreciate, as I'm prone to elbow problems.

You might like a dead blow mallet. These are made with a hollow head partially filled with metal shot. The theory is as the mallet comes down the shot is in a 'weightless' state. When the mallet hits its target the shot finishes the punch and negates the bounce back.

Here are the ones that are most used in my shop:

Shop Mallets.jpg

The one on the left came from the estate of a friend. The grip was formed to fit my hand. It looks to be a piece from an oak pallet. The one next to it is shop made from a hunk of oak from another friend who worked at a golf course when a tree came down in a storm. A neighbor slabbed it up and a few of the slabs ended up with me.

These are my 'tapping mallets' for light tapping on a chisel or to persuade a piece of wood to move into place.

The two on the right are also shop made from hunks of some type of cherry that came down on my property.

Here is a link to the making of the one on the upper right > https://sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?280200

The one on the lower right is here > https://sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?161952

There is a certain satisfaction in using a tool of one's own making with a custom fit handle.

jtk

[Stephen Rosenthal]

I use a Pfeil carver’s mallet. I prefer its rounded head and handle to the flat rectangular headed mallets. I feel it’s more forgiving of miss hits when pounding and very sensitive when lightly tapping, Others may disagree but it works for me.

[Jim Koepke]

it works for me.

This is a more important feature than what anyone else may think or say.

jtk

[Andrew Pitonyak]

I use a Pfeil carver’s mallet. I prefer its rounded head and handle to the flat rectangular headed mallets. I feel it’s more forgiving of miss hits when pounding and very sensitive when lightly tapping, Others may disagree but it works for me.

I have one of these, I like it.

I also have many other sizes and weights, all round and all wood except one of those "wood is good" mallets which might be my favorite.

[Jim Koepke]

Weight?

Forgot to mention my two shop made mallets are ~24 oz.

The smaller two haven't been weighed. My guess is they can't be more than about half the weight of the bigger whackers.

jtk

[Clifford McGuire]

I used to use a homemade maple mallet. But a few months ago I got the 20oz Wood is Good mallet. I wanted something quieter since I sometimes work late at night/early morning.

[mike stenson]

The, seemingly, ubiquitous 20oz wood is good mallet.

[ken hatch]

Been thinking of chisel mallets lately. For western chisels*, what mallet do you prefer and why? Size? Shape? Weight? What makes it an effective tool for you and your work?

*since Japanese chisels are primarily used with a metal gennou, though if you use something different I would be interested in that too.

Tony,

Like most thing in life, it depends. I like a metal mallet. Depending on what I'm doing and what the chisel handle is made of most of the time either a Crucible Tools Lumpy, or a Japanese 375 gram gennou. Some times I'll use a "Wood Is Good" carvers mallet or a Vaughan 1 1/4" white face mallet if the handle is made of something other than Hornbean but most of the time it is either a lumpy or a gennou.

ken

[Bob Jones 5443]

I picked up the 375 g gennou on a recommendation and it works great for me. I like the combination of its relatively light weight on my swinging arm, mixed with plenty of mass where it counts, directly above the chisel butt. It's all I use for chopping. But I'm only using it for dovetails with stock about 3/4" thick or less. Obviously a beefier mallet would be desirable for bulkier stock.

[Tom M King]

Wood is Good. 12oz., 18 oz., and 30 oz., depending on use. I used the 30 oz. for 15 hours in a row, over two days, and neither my arm, nor the 1-1/2 timber framing chisel suffered any overuse. I got tired of wearing out wooden ones, tried one of these, and haven't wanted to use any other chisel hitter since then.

[Thomas Crawford]

I mostly use a Blue Spruce 13oz round mallet. If I need more oomph I either use a cheap dead blow mallet or the crucible lump hammer. I'm pretty sure the lump hammer will split my Ashley Iles handle at some point.

[Thomas Crawford]

Is the weight just the weight of the head alone?

[Christopher Charles]

Gennou (220 g or 375 g) or wood is good. The latter is good for noise reduction as well.