Large Carvers Mallet

This was my first time roughing out a raw piece of wood. Our friends had an Ornamental Plum tree cut down in their yard and the wood is very dense so I nabbed some pieces for mallets. I roughed out five or six for joiners mallet heads that are currently drying under the house, and this larger piece for a carvers mallet. I don’t (yet) have a proper carpenters axe so I put a shiny new edge on my camping hatchet to get the job done. Once it was square enough I turned it down to the finished product you see here, leaving as much wood as possible. I wanted it to stay heavy so I can use it with the froe I hope is in my future. It is just over four pounds now, we’ll see what it dries out to…

-- "This is hell, but I planned it, I sawed it, I nailed it, and I will live in it until it kills me." - Alan Dugan