Club style mallet - PEP BB roundwood.sand.club

Minimum requirements:
  - roughly 16" long and 4" diameter at the fat end
  - handle that you can comfortably hold
  - handle is smooth enough that you won't get a splinter using it
  - made with hand tools only

To document this Badge Bit, provide proof of the following as pictures or a video (<2 mins):

  - Your chunk of wood that you are starting with (about 16 inches long and 4 inches in diameter)
  - progress about half way through, with the hand tools you have decided to use for this
  - final product held in your hand showing that your thumb and first finger can touch (any fatter than that and your hand will get very tired using it)


So everything went wrong with this BB when it came to prep. My draw knife is in my shed which is packed tight for the winter... Along with my hatchets.


I used a wood carving knife and a tomahawk to complete this BB. I had to get over worrying about taking too much wood because taking only small pieces was taking forever. Once I started swinging, the handle came together really quick.

Took me about two hours to make this mallet—including sawing the chunk of wood from a cut branch we brought down a couple of weeks ago, shaving off the bark with a hatchet, chiseling the handle out, smoothing it with a pocket knife, and then sanding the handle.

Ah well, never done this before.

I made myself a stand / holder with two concrete blocks, so I could sit on a low chair to work and also so the blocks would hold the mallet while I held the chisel with one hand and my (bought) mallet with the other. Without that, it would have taken me a lot longer.

Also, I checked that all the tools were sharp before I started using them.

Next time, I wouldn’t be afraid to take off bigger chunks of the handle with the chisel. My hand is pretty small, so it would have gone faster if I’d been less delicate at this stage.

Had a white oak fall due to a storm and decided to make use of the windfall. Started with a hatchet, switched to an axe. Then, after the handle was roughed out, switched to a knife. Finally, I cut off the excess with my bow saw.

I used a length of a cottonwood branch that went down in a storm and my hatchet.

First time making something like this with a hatchet- I found it to be kinda fun.

I have small hands and wanted a 2 handed mallet so I left the handle good and long.

I made a club out of a fallen cottonwood tree, using a saw, chisel, and hammer. I used a little sand paper at the end to smoother the handle and a couple burs in the head of the mallet.

My club mallet is just over 16in long and 4in in diameter at the fat end. I opted for a tapered transition and took a lot of material off given that I'm a petite person and I wanted it to feel balanced.

Attachment 1    - Your chunk of wood that you are starting with (about 16 inches long and 4 inches in diameter)
Attachment 2    - progress about half way through, with the hand tools you have decided to use for this
Attachment 3    - final product held in your hand showing that your thumb and first finger can touch (any fatter than that and your hand will get very tired using it)

Using a piece of pine that is roughly 16" long and 4" diameter at the fat end, and using hand tools only, I made my first club mallet at Wheaton labs. No splinters and can hold quite comfortably due to the weight not being so heavy for my small hands.
   

   

I went back to the lab for my own bb themed SEPPer weekend, first thing I knocked out was this mallet :)

I was splitting firewood the other day and whenever my axe got stuck in the wood, I hit it with another piece of wood from a thick branch to finish the split. The makeshift club was not heavy and I thought to myself how silly it is to make my life harder.
I remembered this BB and found it to be the perfect time to make a club style mallet. It's nice and heavy and finishing splits is a lot easier!

Excuse the metric system on the measuring tape, the mallet measures 50cm in length, which is around  19".

Tools used:
- Bow saw
- Hatched
- Small axe
- Drawknife
- Measuring tape