Mallet Lamination Question

[Stew Hagerty]

I need a new mallet and I thought I'd try making one out of a piece of the hardest wood I have in my shop - Jatoba (Brazilian Cherry).

I don't have any thick stock, but I do have a decent sized piece of 3/4" left over from a project.

My question is: Which is better, lamination vertically or horizontally (as seen from one of the faces)?

If I laminate vertically, it would be 3 pieces wide with the handle basically dividing the center layer in half. And if I laminate it horizontally, it would be 6 layers tall and the handle will go right through the center of each layer.

What I am wondering is which way would be more durable? Which way would be less likely to split? Mallets take quite a bit of abuse, well I don't know about yours, but mine do at least.

I have some turned mallets of different sizes & weights that I use with my chisels and lighter stuff. I use my Big Bench Mallet primarily for pounding on stubborn mortises and beating on holdfasts. Although I also quite often use it, albeit with a lighter touch, for assembly as well.

What do you think? Horizontal or vertical?

[Mike Henderson]

One question is "What kind of mallet are you making?" There are carver's mallets which are turned on a lathe and there are the hammer style of mallets. If you're making a hammer style of mallet, make the face of the mallet end grain.

If you use face grain for the face, the wood will start to delaminate along the grain structure after a lot of usage.

If you're making a carver's style mallet, leave the lathe centers on the mallet so you can put it back in the lathe to smooth it down after it delaminates with long use. If making a carver's mallet, run the grain from top to bottom.

Mike

[Jim Belair]

I really don't think it makes much difference so personally would go with vertical, just for ease of construction. I find mallet "failure" usually amounts to flaking off the edges of the head as opposed to outright splitting.

[Stew Hagerty]

One question is "What kind of mallet are you making?" There are carver's mallets which are turned on a lathe and there are the hammer style of mallets. If you're making a hammer style of mallet, make the face of the mallet end grain.

If you use face grain for the face, the wood will start to delaminate along the grain structure after a lot of usage.

If you're making a carver's style mallet, leave the lathe centers on the mallet so you can put it back in the lathe to smooth it down after it delaminates with long use. If making a carver's mallet, run the grain from top to bottom.

Mike

I'm sorry, I should have been clearer. When I said "seen from one of the faces" I meant the end grain of a hammer style mallet. So both vertical & horizontal laminations would still end up with end grain on the working face of the mallet. I would never use face grain in a mallet; it wouldn't last a week around my shop.

[Jessica Pierce-LaRose]

I did mine out of three pieces of maple, laminated vertically, with the handle piercing the center half, as you allude to in your first option. The big advantage here is that I didn't have to chop a huge mortise (which was tough, because I didn't have a mallet at the time!) as sizing the center piece appropriately allowed me to make a well fit, tapered through-mortise for the handle with nothing but saws and planes. It's held up for years, although it's getting to the point where I would like to resurface it. I'm not too overly worried about the lamination holding, as the majority of the blows it receives are centered on the mallet - from the marks on its receiving end, it appears that 95% of the impacts have all been on the center lamination, which is backed by the through handle, so the lamination shouldn't be receiving any shear forces.

I don't think there's realistically a problem with either approach assuming good glue joins, but I've never seen one joined in the "horizontal" method you describe, but there's probably an uncountable number of shop made mallets made via the three-piece method; seems to be a reasonably well proven design.

I haven't seen an incredible amount of major failure in mallets, (although I'm sure it happens) but I've seen more than a few that were replaced/resurfaced just from general wear. Oddly enough, the couple of majorly failed mallets I've seen were of one-piece construction for the heads. I don't by any stretch of the imagination think I've seen enough of a sample size to draw any firm conclusions, of course.

In practice, even though one should expect a good service life from a mallet, given the fact that ultimately, a wooden mallet is apt to be a tool that will someday replaced, my initial instinct is to build it in whatever fashion is the easiest for you.

I will say, from the voice of experience, that if you use metal brads to align the pieces for your lamination, to make doubly certain that they're quite distant from wherever you think you might do shaping to the head of the mallet. I think that was the experience that finally kicked me into getting a dry grinder.

[Jim Koepke]

Just for the practical ease of construction my preference would be to have the laminations vertical. Having to make an angled mortise, for the tapered handle, through 6 pieces of lamination would be more work than is needed.

There are many examples of vertically laminated mallets. My memory doesn't recall any with horizontal laminations.

Here is a video on how Steve Ramsey makes a laminated mallet:

http://www.woodworkingformeremortals...od-mallet.html

Even if you do it different, there are a few good pointers that may lend themselves to your project.

jtk

[Adam Cruea]

I make my mallets with vertical lamination, but instead of chopping a mortise, I just saw out half the mortise on one side, then saw out the other half of the mortise on the other side, laminate the two sides, and voila.

Then just use drawbored pins to keep the handle firmly attached to the head.

[Stew Hagerty]

Alright, I went with vertical laminations. I got it all glued up but, because Jatoba is so hard, dense, and heavy, I didn't feel it necessary to put in shot like on WWMM. I beveled the ends @5° and the handle mortise @2°. I also rounded over all of the edges.

So... Now I need a handle. I have 3 different 1" thick boards (the mortise is 7/8") picked out as potential candidates.

Chontaquiro - a beautiful dark brown South American wood

African Mahogany
And
Birdseye Maple

Any recommendations, advice, or comments?

[Jim Koepke]

My choice would be for what felt best in the hand. Also would want a wood that isn't likely to splinter or split.

The Birdseye Maple would likely be saved for something where it would be seen more.

jtk

[Adam Cruea]

I would go with the one that has the most bend to it (shock absorption).

[Pedro Reyes]

I made mine out of cocobolo, laminated vertical. The middle piece had the mortise cut with splayed walls, the handle was fox-wedged in, never flying out. Doing this with horizontal would be a PITA.

/p

[John Crawford]

Not exactly addressing the question, but as long as we are talking mallets....

Recent Woodwrights Shop episode is on making "the big ash mallet":

http://video.pbs.org/program/woodwrights-shop/

[Gordon Eyre]

Here is the way I made mine:

image-2724119262.jpg

[Stew Hagerty]

Not exactly addressing the question, but as long as we are talking mallets....

Recent Woodwrights Shop episode is on making "the big ash mallet":

http://video.pbs.org/program/woodwrights-shop/

Thank you John. I honestly don't recall ever seeing that episode.
You just can't beat Uncle Roy.

[Stew Hagerty]

Here is the way I made mine:

<img src="http://www.sawmillcreek.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=274328"/>

Very nice Gordon. What woods did you use?