I've completed my mallet! Great old maple trees were sadly cut down at a church in town . Before it had all been cleared, I scavenged a piece for a mallet head! The handle was a dry maple limb (firewood)
Since I did this slowly over about 3 days I used a homemade pastewax to coat the end grain and pieces that I have cut so the mallet head didn't dry too quickly!
The mallet head was hand sawn to length, then shaped with my framing chisel
The mortice was cut with my brace and bit and my mortice chisel.
to lay out the mortice and the dimensions of the handle I used a centre line method which I used in my log building class!
I marked a centre line and carried it over to the other end using pin and a string. dimensions were referenced off the centre line.
After sawing to my lines I knocked off the waste with my chisel and a maple limb (primitive mallet for the mallet-less ) then I planed down to my lines.
After planing, I used my rip saw to saw the handle to width then planed those sawn edges until it fit my mortice.
I then used my (freshly sharpened!) pocket knife like a spokeshave to shape the handle. I changed the angle and used my knife as a scraper for further shaping and smoothing the handle.
I rubbed home made pastewax into it and it is done! Ready for use!
. Before it had all been cleared, I scavenged a piece for a mallet head! The handle was a dry maple limb (firewood)
) then I planed down to my lines.
