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.....
Now after three years of use.....
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.
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....
A side by side comparison
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.
The large one is 732g or 25.8 ounces.
Even though the old mallet is a lot bigger, it is not that heavy.
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!
That mallet has worked well, but the wood was a bit soft, here it is brand new unused.....
Now after three years of use.....
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.
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....
A side by side comparison
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.
The large one is 732g or 25.8 ounces.
Even though the old mallet is a lot bigger, it is not that heavy.
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!
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