Keyaki Mallet

Stuart Ablett

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Location
Tokyo Japan
A while back I made a wooden mallet >> LINK << from left over scraps of the back bench I put on my SawStop when I first got it.


That mallet has worked well, but the wood was a bit soft, here it is brand new unused.....


mallet_ver_1_1.jpg


Now after three years of use.....


IMG_4690.jpg

you can see how dented the face of the mallet is.


I had a chunk of Red Keyaki sitting here that was a good size for a mallet head, so I got it squared up, and made a mallet!

Keyaki is also known as Japanese or Chinese Elm, I think it is harder than regular NA Elm, maybe more like Slippery Elm, but it is hard dense stuff.


IMG_4683.jpg

The handle is from some local Oak that I harvested a while back, I drilled four smaller holes and then squared it up to one large hole. I flared out the top of the hole a bit so when I drove the wedges into the top of the handle they would have some room to spread out. I used epoxy to help hold it all together.


I really like the grip that the hockey tape job gives my clamp handles, so I thought I'd try it out on this mallet handle.


The top has some cool burl in it....
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A side by side comparison
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The old mallet is larger, and will be kept on for really large bashing jobs, but the new mallet is a better size for tapping type jobs.

IMG_4691.jpg

The large one is 732g or 25.8 ounces.
Even though the old mallet is a lot bigger, it is not that heavy.

IMG_4692.jpg

580g is about 20.5 ounces
The smaller mallet is only about 20% lighter than the larger one.
I finished it off with my beeswax & mineral oil wipe on finish.
Fun project that I should get years of use out of.

Cheers!
 
Last edited:
The new mallet looks great, but I think the old one is just getting broken in ;) It'll be handy having both, since they have different characteristics.
 
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