Project Information
I made the head for this mallet in May of last year and it's been sitting on my bench since then. Last week I decided that I need to finish that bad boy! I've gotta work on this whole finishing projects before starting others thing.
Head and wedges are Brazilian Cherry and the handle is Maple. It's much smaller than my last couple mallets and I am friggin' pumped about it, I find my other mallet which weights 40 oz. (compared to this one at a meager 18 oz.) a little big for a lot of the work I do. This one feels great in my hand though (I know - That's what she said!) though and I think it will be much more versatile than my others.
The filling in the head is done with slinky maker used to for fishing, works great and gives it that true dead blow feel, I had to put tape over them before gluing the the head together so the bb's wouldn't fall out.
Finish is a little recipe I got from Mr. Shampeon that is quickly becoming one of my favorites, and the finish on the plane I received from him in the plane swap. Its a mix of mineral spirits, BLO and shellac. And then it has a couple coats of the mendota plane polish (paste wax, murphy's oil soap and BLO). I'm totally digging all of these shop recipes I find on here, still a newb but it makes me feel like the Walter White of carpentry when I make my own little batches of finish and polish.
The lettering on it was done with a transfer tip on a woodburning tool, I haven't sealed this one yet because I want to see how the text holds up with only this finish, I know with a lacquer it will seal it for good but I noticed the text lightened a bit just when polishing it with steel wool. The font is called "A dripping marker", so it is suppose to look like its running down.
Here's a couple of pre-finish pics.
Head and wedges are Brazilian Cherry and the handle is Maple. It's much smaller than my last couple mallets and I am friggin' pumped about it, I find my other mallet which weights 40 oz. (compared to this one at a meager 18 oz.) a little big for a lot of the work I do. This one feels great in my hand though (I know - That's what she said!) though and I think it will be much more versatile than my others.
The filling in the head is done with slinky maker used to for fishing, works great and gives it that true dead blow feel, I had to put tape over them before gluing the the head together so the bb's wouldn't fall out.
Finish is a little recipe I got from Mr. Shampeon that is quickly becoming one of my favorites, and the finish on the plane I received from him in the plane swap. Its a mix of mineral spirits, BLO and shellac. And then it has a couple coats of the mendota plane polish (paste wax, murphy's oil soap and BLO). I'm totally digging all of these shop recipes I find on here, still a newb but it makes me feel like the Walter White of carpentry when I make my own little batches of finish and polish.
The lettering on it was done with a transfer tip on a woodburning tool, I haven't sealed this one yet because I want to see how the text holds up with only this finish, I know with a lacquer it will seal it for good but I noticed the text lightened a bit just when polishing it with steel wool. The font is called "A dripping marker", so it is suppose to look like its running down.
Here's a couple of pre-finish pics.