Ash mallet "delamination" or "flaking"

[Michael Ray Smith]

I apologize if this topic has been discussed before.

I made this mallet a year or two ago. As I think you can see from the pictures, the wood is "delaminating" on each side of it. I made it from a round ash (white ash, probably) blank for turning baseball bats. (I'm not a turner and don't have a lathe, so I shaped it with a drawknife and spokeshaves.) My thought was that ash would be a good choice precisely for the same reasons it's used to make baseball bats, notwithstanding the difference between a baseball and a chisel handle.

I was trying to figure out if I could have anticipated and, even better, avoided the problem, and I remembered when I was a kid, we were always told not to hit a baseball on the bat's trademark, that the bat would break if we did. I always figured that it was superstition, but it turns out there's some truth to it. I found out that ash bats will "flake" (what I was calling delamination), and they're more likely to do it if you hit the ball on the side with the trademark -- or on the side directly opposite from the trademark, which is what we did as kids! But it's a bit more complicated than that. To reduce flaking, you should hit the ball on the side 90 degrees from the mark, but that orientation also makes it more likely for the handle to break. All that is discussed here: http://www.woodbat.org/

It also turns out that maple bats don't flake like ash bats do, which means hard maple would have been a better choice than ash for my mallet. But, of course, maple is more expensive, and because I bought two ash blanks, and because a baseball bat is much longer than a mallet, I still have enough ash to make several more mallets. And they're fun to make, so that's what I'll do.

But now I'll be careful to strike the chisel "parallel to" the grain....as the above website puts it, like striking with the edge of a deck of cards instead of the face. I'm thinking I may flatten two sides a bit so that I won't inadvertently use the wrong side....and to keep the mallet from rolling around.

Has anyone else run across this before?

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[Jason Dean]

Michael,

I believe what you have discovered is the basic premise behind making ash baskets. As near as I understand from my study, the ring-porous nature of ash allows you to crush the early wood with a mallet or hammer de-laminating it into thin strips that are woven into baskets.



https://pfollansbee.wordpress.com/tag/ash-baskets/

[Mike Henderson]

In my experience, no matter what wood you use for a round mallet, it will eventually start delaminating. I have mallets of all different woods and they all seem to delaminate after I've used them enough.

Mike

[Greg Wease]

Michael, are those known as "ash holes"?

[Michael Ray Smith]

Interesting. Thanks.

[Michael Ray Smith]

Nice to know it wasn't just because I did something stupid.

[Michael Ray Smith]

Uhhhh, yeah. I guess so.

[george wilson]

Use elm for a mallet. It has interlocking grain.

[Mike Brady]

When I toured the Louisville Slugger factory, the guide told me that ash bats are much stronger than the maple equivalent, but the maple takes stains and embossing much better so they are "prettier". And you know, you got to be pretty! What you describe, Michael, is not a surprise to me. I made an entire Roubo bench out of 110 bf of white ash, so I can understand how small bits might flake off under abuse. That wood has awesome tensile strength, however; so you might flake it, but you won't break it!

[george wilson]

The Cabinet Maker's Shop in Wmsburg. had some old benches(probably made in the 1950's) made of oak. That wood also breaks off in little pieces,too. Eventually they were replaced with maple benches,beech not being available at the time(at least not enough to make large benches from.