Roy's Mystery Mallet #4: How Small Can You Go?

So I had some extra time on my hands… and I wondered, just how small can you go with this rising dovetail mystery mallet?

So I pulled out a piece of 3/4” oak that was sitting around, cut it in half, and started laying out the cuts for a very thin “mallet.” I used a blue pen, which is part of the dark line you see along the joints. (They actually are very tight—tighter than I expected.) I didn’t take a lot of time to in laying it out, and my entire time in the shop was 45 minutes. As you can see, I did not include the tenon. But I did include both side dovetails.

Why am I posting this? To show how versatile and simple this joint really is. I also wanted to check to see if you actually need to relief-cut the back sides of the dovetails. I didn’t this time. I simply clamped dovetails to compress them and began sliding it in place. I used a 3 lbs hammer to drive the “handle” into the “head,” but I didn’t really it it that hard this time. Once it got started, the whole thing went together very easily.

Practice. This is a great exercise in layout, chiseling, sawing, getting your head around these goofy angles!

So get out to the shop and have some fun!

-- Glen, Pennsylvania, Colossians 3:23 "Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men."