Mallets of your dreams

I’ll post in and follow this one! But I too am mallet-less….

-- Mos - Twin Cities, MN -- Stanley #45 Evangelist - www.youtube.com/MosquitoMods

I’ll play. My very humble chisel mallet, first lathe project. Scrap cherry, beech from a no-account wooden jack.

-- Don't anthropomorphize your handplanes. They hate it when you do that. -- OldTools Archive

Shameless copy/paste from the chisel thread:

I prefer a round mallet for use with chisels. I have a few, but my favorite is a maple version that my mother gave me. She’s an ex-antique collector. When she owned this tool, it was a potato masher. As soon as I took possesion, it became a mallet. LOL.
FYI- these are in virtually every antique store East of the Mississippi River, and can be had for under $5.

Pictured beside a 1.75” Buck Bros.

Very nice Smitty
-

Ted, that mallet sort of reminds me of one of those old leg lamps… except oddly proportioned for a leg lol

-- Mos - Twin Cities, MN -- Stanley #45 Evangelist - www.youtube.com/MosquitoMods

Maybe a Peg Leg Lamp…

-- Don't anthropomorphize your handplanes. They hate it when you do that. -- OldTools Archive

Smitty – I like that mallet…it looks fancy!

Ted – that mallet looks like it means business! The handle looks pretty comfy too.

-- Jason K

http://lumberjocks.com/projects/71999

Got a chance to use this for the first time last night. First attempt at hand cut dovetails! First joint, cut the tails, chopped out the waste, all good. Next, cut the pins, chopped out the waste, all… oops. I chopped out the pins and left the waste. Doh! But it wasn’t the mallet’s fault. :)

-- John, BC, Canada

John- Very nice!

A Stanley #11 lignum vitae mallet. For me, it’s an effective dust collector so far…

-- Don't anthropomorphize your handplanes. They hate it when you do that. -- OldTools Archive

Some great mallets here. I think I’m going to try and make the one Ted posted it seems to be shaped nicely for several different grip options.

However, I love Smitty’s and it looks like a fun turning exercise.

Here is what I’ve been using. Made before having a lathe. Firewood Red Oak, inspired by Asian carving mallets I’ve seen. Very simple but handy, you can hold it anywhere. Roughed out with my machete and jointed with hand planes.

-- Mauricio - Woodstock, GA - "Confusion is the Womb of Learning, with utter conviction being it's Tomb" Prof. T.O. Nitsch

Mauricio, I just want to to say that after seeing your saw bench and mallet, I am going to add a machete to my woodworking tools arsenal!

-- John, BC, Canada

Smitty, don’t you have an cool, patina’d, vintage mallet with a round head? I recall seeing it in some of your picks a while back.

-- I hate being bipolar. It's awesome! :^ ) ^:

nwbusa, sweet mallet, I havent chopped of my pins yet but made tons of other mistakes, I bet you’ll never do that again and mark out your wast next time. ;-)

The machete works, It takes the place of a Hewing hatchet and drawknife but its not the ideal tool for the job. But hey, we need excuses to whip out the machete, just feels bad aas. LOL.

-- Mauricio - Woodstock, GA - "Confusion is the Womb of Learning, with utter conviction being it's Tomb" Prof. T.O. Nitsch

Just the three posted here… No surprises to pull out at this point!

Here’s the third, an old oak woodie I’ve had since I was about 10, I think…

-- Don't anthropomorphize your handplanes. They hate it when you do that. -- OldTools Archive

I’ve seen a video on youtube where Mexican carvers us a short fat machete to rough out their sculptures. That would be idea. I wish I had one. A standard machete is too long so the repetetive chopping its tough on your wrist

-- Mauricio - Woodstock, GA - "Confusion is the Womb of Learning, with utter conviction being it's Tomb" Prof. T.O. Nitsch

John – I really like the contrast on that mallet!

Smitty – that Stanley mallet looks huge! I need one like that to compensate for my small…hands.

Mauricio – your machete made whacker reminds me that I actually DO have a mallet! Dad made it for me when I was 10 for my leather tooling. Its just a single piece of osage orange that he shaped…I’ll have to dig it out and get a pic.

-- Jason K