$116.00 and two chisels later

[Richard Dooling]

Well you know how people say that when you get really good at something you "can do it in your sleep?" May be they're just waiting till you go to bed.

.

[Cliff Rohrabacher]

So I'm working on the project I bought these chisels to help me do.
My steel capped Stanley's weren't long enough. And there I am whacking my shiny new chisels with something other than the claw hammer I use on my Steel Capped Stanley chisels and it comes to me.
"I need a mallet." All I had was a chunk of off cut elm with one end smaller than the other.

So I meandered out to my brush heap in the back yard up against the woods where I tossed some thick apple branches a year or so back.
I whip out my itty bitty Echo Chain saw I use for limbing trees back when I used to tree climb and lopped off me a sizeable chunk of apple 'bout as thick as my thigh.

It was purdy. The bark was still on it but it was purdy just the same.

I cut the ends sort of, mostly, kind of, square-ish to each other, found the centers by eyeball jammed in a drive center and a live center on the other and proceeded to make myself that mallet. I wanted a square end mallet but didn't want to invest the time.

I used to look at those adorable round mallets that people have and snicker: "Yah round, that's goanna work" and chuckled.
Well, by golly it's a pisser of a mallet~!! I was wrong round is good.

So after whacking my shiny new chisels on this box project I messing with, it occurred to me if I wanted my shiny new apple mallet to last longer than the week I better seal the thing so the moisture in it doesn't come out all at once like. The wood was wet still.

So it's taken a good shellacking and is hanging to dry.
I hope the shellac does the job. I figured it was the best way to go better 'n BLO 'cause of the fact that shellac dissolves in Alcohol and Alcohol mixes on the molecular level with water and water was what I wanted to slow down. So being alcholol based the shellac would get in deeper into the wood.
I have no clue if this is going to work out like that in practice but, it's better 'n letting it split. It's a purdy mallet and damn if it don't work just fine - being round 'n all.

[Cliff Rohrabacher]

Scott, Those darn old bikes seem to collect in my garage as well, an R90-6, and R60-7, an 850 Commando, a 1930 James..........Rod.

When ya get yerself a '57 Vincent you do give me a call please.Vincent_Calendar_Pic.jpg