A plane adjusting mallet from scraps

[Chris Griggs]

I've been working my tail of to get my current project (for Mom) done before Xmas. It looks like I'll get it done in time, so this morning, I decided to give myself a break from smoothing, scraping, sanding, oiling, and shellacing and make a little something for myself. I've got two wedge planes on the way - one Kanna and the little LN infill shoulder plane - so I decided to make myself a little plane adjusting mallet. I saw and split the head from a chunk of apple that I keep around for repairing saw horns, and made the handle from some 8/4 soft maple left over from when I build my vice chops. No idea if those are good woods for this sort of thing, but its for adjusting planes and doesn't need to be all that strong anyway. Plus it was a fun quick project to build, that gave me some sorely needed quick gratification. Pics of the build and final (or near final) product are below. Right now the wedge is all that's holding the head on, I may glue it later or I may just keep it as is. At the moment, I can pull the wedge out with a pliers and remove the head so that I can still do some shaping on it if I feel a need to. Also, no finish on it - might put on some BLO or Watco or might keep it raw. Anyway, came together nicely and once again was a lot of fun to build.
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[Jim Koepke]

Nice looking mallet.

They are not only a lot of fun to make, it is always a great feeling to use a tool you have made.

jtk

[Chris Griggs]

Well after an early meal I got back over to the bench and did some final shaping, redid the wedge, slapped some Tried & True, and , of course, branded on my initials. Oh what fun...

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[Chris Griggs]

BLAST! Had issues refitting the new wedge during glue-up. Head wouldn't align with the tenon shoulder of the handle. Tried to force the alignment with a clamp. Snapped it! Now we can all learn from my mistake! Looks like I'll be making a new handle... LOL!!

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[Bob Stroupe]

I like your brand.
Bummer about the handle.

[Tony Shea]

That's too bad. I have similar breakages on hammers that I've made where the neck tappered to small to fit into its' mortise. Since I've learned that the mortise in the head needs to be about as large as you can make it. Also, twisting a handle is another issue i've had while fitting a round tenon into a round mortise.

One other place for concern is about your Kanna. A Kanna can really be hard on a hammer/mallet. I've never been a fan of using a metal hammer to adjust the blade in any of my Kanna as the blade steel you're hitting is fairly soft. So I've made myself a couple wooden mallets for the job with Jatoba heads to hold up to the beating. And believe me, they do take a beating. Make the mallet robust enough to stand up to the beating. Much different than small plane adjusting hammer's for western metal or wooden planes.

[Chris Griggs]

Thanks for advice Tony. I salvaged the head and remade the handle. I widened the mortise and left the handle wider at the top. Also, I decreased the amount of taper in the mortise. On the first one, I think I over tapered it so when I drove the wedge I split the tenon which is why it broke of so easily. This one held up when I drove the wedge and the head seated much better on the tenon shoulders this time. I haven't done a ton of wedged M&T joints - they are deceptively tricky. I'm realizing the amount of taper is very easy to over do, and then things just split out - its also surprisingly easy to drive the wedge in crooked. Anyway, this little project was a good learning experience; I definitely learned some stuff that I can apply to furniture projects.

Tony, yeah I'll need to be careful how heavily I use this - I think I picked a pretty lousy piece of wood for the head and I wouldn't be surprised if it doesn't hold up to well. If I need more force for the Kanna, I have a 12oz brass chisel hammer that I'm guessing will work.

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[Tony Shea]

I would also chamfer the heads' face edges to prevent splitting off chunks of the head. Not sure if you've done so already but is a neccessity. Nice job of you're mallet. I do believe the cause of the split was probably the taper being too large. In reality you only need a very slight taper to prevent the wood from backing out. And I typically use epoxy as my glue of choice for mallets. Has a nice elasticity (spell?) characteristic that helps with all the pounding.

[Chris Griggs]

Thanks Tony - Yep they're chamfered, just doesn't show up in the pic. Although perhaps I should enlarge the chamfers some. Thanks for the epoxy tip - I'll use that when this one breaks, and I need to make another. I'm guessing I may need to remake it before too long - next time I'll get a chunk of exotic hardwood for the head (ligum vitae, purple heart or something) - I've got a friend near by whose a turner and he always has little chunks of stuff like that around.