Mallet Wt. for Dovetails, Mortises?

[Tom M King]

I don't know why, but I find a round head more natural feeling. I don't remember ever miss hitting with one, but when I used to use the more square faced ones, I do remember the handle torquing sometimes, and the marks left on the face were not all in the same place. I haven't had a squarish one for ages. Personal preference, I guess.

A few Summers ago we were working on some sills in a 1798 house. I used a 1-1/2" timber framing chisel, and a 30 oz. Wood is Good mallet for 15 hours in a row over two days-mostly sitting on an upended 5 gallon bucket. Neither my arm, elbow, nor chisel handle suffered a bit from it. If it had been a hard, wooden mallet, I expect all three would have been feeling it.