Mallet

[Uncle Alvah]

I'd be interested in opinions on this styly of mallet as oppose to block style or rounds ones. http://www.leevalley.com/us/wood/page.aspx?p=30263&cat=1,41504,43688

[deepcreekdale]

Pretty pricey for what you get, it sure is pretty though. Use whatever is comfortable to you. I have been using a rawhide mallet my wife bought me for Christmas 38 years ago. I have seen some builders working with a round piece of hardwood that they found on the ground and roughly shaped how they liked. The only time a specialty hammer/mallet is called for is when engraving. Even there, in his book, John Schippers shows a picture of an engraving hammer made out of a round piece of steel.

[Gaeckle]

I've used these for a number of years
https://woodcraft-production-weblinc.netdna-ssl.com/product_images/wood-is-good-mallet-20-oz-3-1-2-head/584511e569702d19cc0002dc/zoom.jpg?c=1480921573

For everything elseI use a number of ball peen hammers that go from very tiny to a moderate size one. The mallet I am using is great for diving chisels and give fantastic control. It's very well balanced. They can be found at Woodcraft.

[Long John]

Uncle,

I am a believer in making my own tools when I can.  My favorite mallet has been with me for almost 20 years.  It was made from  the root ball and trunk of a hop hornbeam tree growing on a hillside near my home.  You can see it in the picture below.



My engraving was hopelessly stuck in the crappy phase until I made my own chasing hammer out of a railroad spike.  Now I am progressing and hope to attain mediocrity this decade.  A tool is an extension of the hand of the craftsman.  How you work, the height of your work bench, how you hold the chisel and the particulars of the cut and the wood being cut will all have input into your choice of tools.  Don't be afraid to think outside of the box!  My transition to my own chasing hammer came when I read, for the 5th time, in John Shippers book on engraving how one of his students was having problems with the simplest of cuts until he abandoned the commercially available hammer and started using a bar of steel to drive the graver.  Epiphany!

Best Regards,

John Cholin

[JCKelly]

Haven't tried it but that Lee Valley looks pretty good to me. A lot of thought went into designing that tool, in my, ignorant but surely humble, opinion.

H***, even if I don't use it I might buy it just because of its Canadian, and not Chinese, heritage.

[smylee grouch]

I turned my own carving mallet out of a well seasoned piece of ironwood about 30 years ago. It's kinda beat up but can still wack 'em pretty good.   

[rogerpjr]

I started out using a rawhide hammer I got from Tandy MANY years ago but I transitioned to one like Gaeckle showed and have used it for years.

[WadePatton]

My current bench mallet is a borrowed rawhide-in-the-iron-pipe-tee sort.  A bit much for most jobs.

As I am now cutting bodock for firewood, I'm constantly scanning for the right piece to make a "whole grain/primitive" mallet.

Also, this one is rather simple to make, traditional, and can be sized to suit your purposes.  We used a gigantic one (a sledge mallet I suppose) in some of the "fine tuning" of timberframe construction.   It's a three-part series. 



-oh listen to Paul brag on the bodock!  (I started watching this one again).  Suppose I should get on with it.- 

[okieboy]

 Lee-Valley makes some very nice tools. That mallet is perfectly designed to roll off of the work bench.

[David R. Pennington]

Traditional style mallet I made out of a burly piece of cherry and hickory handle. I also use an old potatoe masher, one of those round wooden turned ones.

[Dale Halterman]

I used to turn mallets out of fire wood and use them until they broke or splintered, them turn another. Several years ago my son gave me one of those Woodcraft deals and I have been using it ever since. Looks like it will last longer than I will.

Dale H

[Eric Krewson]

A granddaughter, a chunk of maple firewood, a hobby lathe and I have all the mallets I need in different sizes. This one is huge but I have another smaller, more handy one made by my other granddaughter. They are simple, fun to make and can be made out of just about any hardwood.