Go into the world and do well. But more importantly, go into the world and do good.
I currently have a somewhat large rounded mallet made of Osage orange. I plan on making another one soon as that one sustained some damage due to a hidden crack, although it works just fine. I'll also add two more stepping down in size for each. I like the round style mallets for this kind of work...feels comfortable to me.
--
The most expensive tool is the one you buy "cheaply" and often...
I have a beech mallet I use. Plan to turn myself one at some point.
Altho having had Labs for years, I keep wondering if I can train my pups to headbutt the chisel handles at just the right angle.
Think about it. Is there anything harder than a Labrador skull?
Where did I put that tape measure...
Up to now I have used a brass mallet for the blade and a separate flat-faced bloodwood mallet for the body-taps.
I recently put a cylinder of ash around one end of the brass mallet do I can just turn it around for the body. It is denting my purpleheart plane - side grain and end grain.
The face of the ash mallet is smaller, but I would assume that end grain ash is softer than the bloodwood.
Any ideas on this?
Veni Vidi Vendi Vente! I came, I saw, I bought a large coffee!
Turn your carving mallet out of one of the softer hardwoods like Bigleaf Maple, add some lead to the head, and you won't need to spend any money on a dead-blow mallet.
““Perhaps then, you will say, ‘But where can one have a boat like that built today?’ And I will tell you that there are still some honest men who can sharpen a saw, plane, or adze...men (who) live and work in out of the way places, but that is lucky, for they can acquire materials for one third of city prices. Best, some of these gentlemen’s boatshops are in places where nothing but the occasional honk of a wild goose will distract them from their work.” -- L Francis Herreshoff
Yep I made them all, and all with wood from my firewood pile. I'm glad you got some ideas - after all I got most of them from someone else.
The red gum comes from trees we planted in out small suburban garden some 30 years ago. During the last decade we have had to have them all taken down I had one milled - still have most of the slabs under my house, and I have milled one myself. Since then I have taken up home milling in a big way and now have a whole sea container worth of timber that's undergoing drying.
I use a hammer. Although I have a few mallets and a couple of dead blow hammers, but I find that a regular hammer (hitting with the side of the head) does just fine. No issues with tearing up my chisels and just the right amount of force. For finer work, I'll pick up a smaller hammer.
Ernie Hobbs
Winston-Salem, NC
When we get a lathe, after making a bunch of chisel handles, one of the things I want to make is some carver's mallets. I used to use mostly the flat faced mallet. Now that my sharpening skills have become acceptable, the finesse of light taps with a round headed tool are more to my liking.
The bottom beater is made from a remnant of an old pallet.
jtk
Hi, my name is Ethan, and I'm addicted to lignum vitae carver mallets.
I do have another carving mallet I turned myself out of Osage Orange...
If I can get my hands on a good piece of LV for not too much, I'd like to turn a mallet out of that at some point.
(In all disclosure, I believe I've acquired two more LV mallets that I've not taken pictures of and uploaded to my photobucket account...
What do you hit your chisels with? .....
A deliberate blow from a wood mallet and a lot of pride....
Sarge..
Different things. I've got a completely ordinary flat-face rectangular wooden mallet. I've also got a really old, beat up wooden mallet with a round head.
But at the L-N event in Oakland I ordered some stuff from Glen-Drake: a Tite-Hammer and a couple of right-handed Chisel Hammers, and I like them a lot. They recoil very well, which makes using them a bit easier, as he demonstrates in his DVD.
Awesome mallets Ethan! This thread is giving me a mighty hankering to turn myself one.
What's the diamter of the mallet in your second picture? Any other measurements you could give would be appreciated. Thanks in advance!
-Ryan C.
Ryan,
I'll measure tonight and throw you some numbers.
Ethan