Maple & Purple Heart Chisel Mallet

Fine looking mallet!

One question. Is the Purple Heart gonna be “impact” resisitant enough? Just wondering.

Jimmy

-- Jimmy

While PH is plenty hard, I found it a little brittle. I’ve only purchased about 10BF and it was all from the same place, so I can only speak from a limited sample of it. I used it as a letter opener and it held a sharp edge. I’m curious as well, hope someone will chime in with a bit more knowledge. Need a mallet myself.

-- Jeff, South Carolina

Nice mallet: I wonder if I would use something that looks that nice.

-- Brian, Lebanon PA, If you aren’t having fun doing it, find something else to do.

I’d be curious to see how this holds up too. It does look beautiful and made well. But I’ve found PH to be brittle too, and believe that the corners will soon be on the floor. But, it depends on what the user is using it for I guess. Maybe it’s a show piece? Good job at any rate.

-- ~ Inspiring those who inspire me ~

I’ll put it this way…

A few months back my front wheel drive car threw a bearing. They are of
course pressed in. With the lack of any real tools to get the old bearing out
I grabbed a scrap piece of PurpleHeart, cut it to the proper width. It was
approx. 10” x 1 3/4”. Lined it up and hit with a 3 lb mallet, it successfully
drove out the bearing. To my surprize the purpleheart had very slight compression
marks from the mallet but that was it, the wood sustained some pretty serious
blows from a three lb mallet.

We use loads of the wood, I love it! It is tough enough that Alva Hardwoods down in
FLA [my sons used to work for them] sells it to truckers for floorboards in the trailers.
PurpleHeart can be a bit brittle on the endgrain, thus we always protect the edges of a board. I can’t really
tell if you have or not, but I’d round over the edges of the mallet. With that done your mallet
should last for years to come. That is if you dare to use such a beautiful tool!

-- - Michael [..for God's glory." 2 Cor. 10:31] Over 300000 species of trees, yet we take the credit for their beauty...

The problem is that if you round over the ends you loose some of the face that you are hitting with, and you could end up reflecting off the round edge on accident. Maybe if the tool was made with the face grain exposed it would be good, but the entire face of the mallet is end grain and in my opinion will splinter. But then again, how hard are you going to be swinging it?

-- ~ Inspiring those who inspire me ~

Thats one fancy looking mallet, I’m sure you brother will love it. Well done.

Woody.

-- Woody, UK

Nice looking mallet – and in my High School Colors! – I’d wondered about that combination of woods, you’ve sold me – and perhaps I’ll have some nice gifts for fellow alumni.

-- I am always doing what I cannot do yet, in order to learn how to do it. - Pablo Picasso -- http://blanchardcreative.etsy.com -- http://snbcreative.wordpress.com/

thanks for all the kind words ya’ll. i did put a slight chamfer on the edges of each face in order to protect the edges from splintering but i suppose only time will tell. if it does hold up well then i’ll let ya’ll know after the new year when it has seen some use.

-- "Who but a fool would discard seeminly useless parts? To keep every cog and wheel is the first precaution of intelligent engineering" -- Aldo Leopold

I love the design and workmanship on this nicest mallet I have ever seen.I was turning some pens last week and also found purpleheart to be very brittle shearing apart when being drilled and turned however I made a few will post pics later well done anyway sir god bless your friend in Scotland Alistair

-- excuse my typing as I have a form of parkinsons disease

Personally I would use this to hang up for looks in my house before I used it. It is way to nice looking to use it!! Thank you for sharing. You also just gave me an idea on a fun project for myself. Thanks

-- Allison, Northeastern Ca. Remember, Amateurs built the Ark. Professionals built the Titanic!

That is the most elegant tool of persuasion I’ve ever seen. Thanks for sharing.

-- My favorite piece is my last one, my best piece is my next one.

Great design and construction. i think it will take the beating but I’d hang it up as a show piece.

-- Bob A in NJ

Very impressive Isaac….you’ve done a great job with this one. You’re brother will love it…it’ll be hard for him to take that first blow.

My experience with PH is like others here…very hard, but can be brittle. I think it will hold up fine though…even if you’re brother does decide to use it.

-- Martin, Kansas

I can’t tell how big the stump is that the mallet is sitting on, but it looks like a giant’s mallet! How big is that thing?

Very nice work!

Hesed,

it’s really not that big. the stump is kinda missleading. the total length is around 15”, that may sound a bit long but since i didn’t put any lead into the mallet head you kinda need that much length to develop a good swing.

thanks for the kind words too.

i appreciate all ya’ll chimin’ in on how the PH may fare, i sincerely hope it is put to good use (not just left to hang on a wall) oh and Martin, i went ahead and saved my brother from that first agonizing blow by hammering on some white oak with the mallet and my 1/2” chisel, just to see if the PH was going to pop off or crack or whatever. i’d much rather it happen in my shop than midday on Christmas. well it’s almost 2 so g’night all you lumberjocks.

-- "Who but a fool would discard seeminly useless parts? To keep every cog and wheel is the first precaution of intelligent engineering" -- Aldo Leopold

Hey Isaac—

I’ve done a mallet very similar to yours. The only concern I would have with it would be a pretty forceful glancing blow. If your brother can manage to hit the end of his chisel without getting extremely wild, I predict a lot of good chiseling.. no, wait… that’s not what I meant… LOL.

Very attractive!

-- There's no tool like an old tool...

Thor would be proud to use that mallet. I wouldn’t be able to strike anything with it without cringing, its to beautiful. You could display a wall of weapons with it being the first. Then if anyone ever broke into your house you would have a choise of which weapon to use on them.

-- another tip from cooperedpatterns

VERY NICE!!! Like some of the others that have commented….. I don’t think that I could strike that against aaannnnything.

-- Cheers and God Bless

Kristoffer,
thanks man and welcome to LJ’s, are you new or did this pop up on the “roll the dice” feature? Anyway, as it turns out I ended up giving my brother this mallet!

From Chisel Mallets

From Chisel Mallets

and the purple heart mallet went to my wife, who uses it in the kitchen to make bread crumbs and other types of crumbs (cracker crumbs, etc…) when she’s cooking. it works very well for that and hey…it’s still a noble enough use for a nice mallet. so it will probably never see another chisel handle in it’s life.

-- "Who but a fool would discard seeminly useless parts? To keep every cog and wheel is the first precaution of intelligent engineering" -- Aldo Leopold