Compound mallet - PEP BB roundwood.sand.compoundmallet

Ok, so I learned that a spade bit doesn't like the hand drill, and that I need a better selection of auger bits. I also need a hex adapter for my brace and my yankee screwdriver. After much trial and error, I finally found a combination that kind-of sort-of worked.

I thought the cedar handle would compress a bit more than it did. I pounded this thing in so hard that if this mallet won't count, I'll just make another one. This one won't budge at all. One tip that folks might consider to avoid handles that don't go all the way through would be to split out a sqaureish handle and carve it round after it has been inserted. The corners can really bite into the green wood.

Nicole Alderman wrote:

paul wheaton wrote:I kinda wonder for folks that want a super dry stick for the handle, if putting is somewhere warm for a few days would help.   Or maybe "bake at 150 for an hour"?  :)

To get my wood dry, I tend to stick it in front of my woodstove, or near it in some fashion (about 2 or 3 feet away, so it can't catch fire, but does get dry and heated). One could also stick it near their hot air vent, if they have electric heating (my vents push out barely hot air, so it's not like it's a fire hazard. Those with hotter vents, should distance their sticks further).

I was drying jerky in the oven when I made my spoon bb so I experimented with this drying method to take advantage of the extra space in the energy intensive oven. I had the door propped open at 160 and my spoon wood was dry enough to sand in about 2 hours.

Submission for compound mallet

I used a green piece of magnolia for the head and a dry piece of Japanese maple for the handle.

I did not have a brace so I cobbled a poor man's scotch auger together and got to twisting.

I need to buy a brace because this thing took an hour to drill!

After completing the hole I smoothed out the handle and notched a dead stop cut into the connection end of the handle and use it to make clean cuts with a carving knife getting the connection down to the largest size that I could pound through the green wood head. I'm excited to see how well or poorly it dries. Its pretty solid already.

Did this one last night, cut the round log from the same branch that my last malet came from.  A dry oak branch was laying close by.  I didnt have a hand drill, so i used a 9mm socket and 14" wratchet to twist the 1" auger bit.

I used my pocket knife to carve the handle and whittle a wedge for the end. The hard dry oak was not easy to carve.

Finally after driving the handle in place, I drove a wedge into the handle end to make it more snug.

I stripped the bark off of the head and left to dry in front of a dehumidifier, a paper liner is under the head in case it weeps sap all over.

Over all time laps of less then 2 hours.

Here's my go at it. Used hatchet to hack down some staghorn sumac, saw to cut a good sized length off for the head. Handle made from some sumac sticks I had lying around already dry. Used a chisel and blunt side of hatchet to hammer out the shaft hole which made me *very* much appreciate drills. Head did tighten up and even crack a bit, but handle was still a little wobbly so I shimmed the handle with a small sliver of wood and she works like a beaut!

This is my first ever PEP badge. And THIS is a tiny ad!

(How'd I do, boss?)

Edit: updated handle. How now, brown cow?

Randy Fox wrote:Did this one last night, cut the round log from the same branch that my last malet came from.  A dry oak branch was laying close by.  I didnt have a hand drill, so i used a 9mm socket and 14" wratchet to twist the 1" auger bit.

I used my pocket knife to carve the handle and whittle a wedge for the end. The hard dry oak was not easy to carve.

Finally after driving the handle in place, I drove a wedge into the handle end to make it more snug.

I stripped the bark off of the head and left to dry in front of a dehumidifier, a paper liner is under the head in case it weeps sap all over.

Over all time laps of less then 2 hours.

Ratchet on auger is bloody *brilliant*. I'm stealing this idea and you can't stop me!!!

D.W. Stratton wrote:Here's my go at it. Used hatchet to hack down some staghorn sumac, saw to cut a good sized length off for the head. Handle made from some sumac sticks I had lying around already dry. Used a chisel and blunt side of hatchet to hammer out the shaft hole which made me *very* much appreciate drills. Head did tighten up and even crack a bit, but handle was still a little wobbly so I shimmed the handle with a small sliver of wood and she works like a beaut!

This is my first ever PEP badge. And THIS is a tiny ad!

(How'd I do, boss?)

Edit: updated handle. How now, brown cow?

Don't know if my edit replacing the last image with an updated, stab-free handle triggered a review by staff who give badges or not so I thought I'd throw this in just in case. Though you have to admit, a mallet with stabby bits is 90% of the way to a solid polearm.... 🤣

I have compounded my mallet interest.

Chunks of wood:



The tools used (although I didn't use all of the chisels, or the rasp... I basically just used the mortise chisel/mallet and the knife.



I chiseled a square hole to fit the head in with a wedge.  I'm not super thrilled with it.  I mean, it works, and I can hit stuff with the mallet, but I want to learn better ways. I did use some of this experience to make a rock solid hammer handle though in another BB.

Rob, could you show me a picture of the top of the mallet? (I only ask because I didn't get my certification the first time because my handle didn't go all the way through the head).

Thanks!

For this project, the head needs to be green wood (fresh) and the handle dry wood so that the head shrinks and grips the handle.  That's also why the handle needs to go all the way through.  If it doesn't, the head can't shrink around the handle all the way through the head.

I'll tweak the format of the top post to make that a bit more clear...