Turning a carving mallet

[Blackswanwood]

Has anyone turned a carving mallet from a lignum vitae crown green bowl?

I have acquired this …




My outline plan is to:

1. Bandsaw a slice off the bottom to give a flat face (top of the mallet)
2. Drill through the centre
3. Turn the top of the handle to fit the hole before gluing and wedging
4. Mount the mallet as one piece on the lathe before turning to final shape.

I’d welcome any pointers or thoughts as to whether that is the best approach.

Cheers

Robert

 

[AndyT]

Paging @Pete Maddex !

 

[Phil Pascoe]

I did a thread on UKworkshop when I turned mine, but I searched earlier and can't find it. I used hot melt and drilled the bowl on the lathe.
I used a new 2MT 15/16th bit (because that's what I had) which left a very clean hole, the glued the turned handle into it. You can get a good enough fit, any wedge is superfluous/decorative.
I'll try to get pics tomorrow. One thing I would say is if you've not made one before, don't be tempted to make it as large as you can -it will be too heavy for repetitive use. I have two, different sizes, and the smaller one gets all the work.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

lignum carver's mallets.

Follow up to - post1370663.html#p1370663 My two are done. Ash and hornbeam handles. The larger one for many purposes is too heavy.

www.ukworkshop.co.uk

 

[Pete Maddex]

I have made a couple, I drilled mine out with a flat bit, turned a tenon on the handle stock longer than the ball so I could clamp it in the chuck and turned the handle.


Mallets by pete maddex, on Flickr

You need the Ball-o-matic 2000 to cut a flat on a ball.




Ball-o-matic 2000 by pete maddex, on Flickr


Then have a nice weight to them, you need to leave them in a sunny windowsill to tan.

Pete

 

[Blackswanwood]

Perfect - thanks gentlemen.

 

[PAC1]

I made one 40 years ago so cannot recall the details. However depending on what you are carving you might want to think about the weight of the mallet. Mine is too heavy for detail carving furniture but great for sculpting. The question then is can you get two out of one bowling ball or just one.

 

[Steve Maskery]

I actually prefer a round carver's mallet to a rectangular joiner's mallet. Mine was turned from a branch off the Bramley apple tree in the garden of my house when I was married. The tree was planted in 1937 or shortly after and I made the mallet, perhaps, 30 years ago. Ash handle. I love it, actually. It's looking a bit sad these days, actually, not helped by me buying a couple of hold-downs. They have really wrecked it, TBH.
Whilst I do have dome logs big enough in diameter, they all have the pith of the tree in them. Getting a piece big enough from a tree withough including the centre is a bit more problematic. I do have a piece of eucalyptus from my friend Ray's tree in Derbyshire. It's big enough, but I have no idea if it will make a decent mallet head. I can't help thinking that eucalyptus may be relatively soft. Has anyone any experience of eucalyptus?

 

[Windows]

Lots of types of eucalyptus, but all of the ones I looked at on the wood database were as hard or harder than oak if that helps. My quick glance suggested eucalyptus species are mostly not as hard as ash or beech, but then you have jarrah (Eucalyptus marginata) which is much harder and there may be others. Can you hit something with it and see if it dents?

 

[Steve Maskery]

In its current state it is just a piece of firewood, but this thread has rekindled my interest in turning it into a mallet.
Next time I go into the workshop, I'll snap my existing mallet.
For such a simple tool, they are ridiculously satisfying to use, aren't they?
S

 

[Phil Pascoe]

A good thing for making your own is you can chose the shape. I have fairly large hands and find small hafts uncomfortable.

 

[Doug]

I found whole bowling ball mallets too heavy & unwieldy for the kind of work I undertake.
Years ago I had the opportunity to get my hands on a Blue Spruce mallet & admired it greatly so when I was given half a bowling ball I decided to go along with their design.

This was the write up I did of it https://www.ukworkshop.co.uk/threads/lignum-mallet.129082/

 

[Tellurian]

I made a couple from bowling balls. Ages ago and if I remember correctly, I simply held the bowl by hand in the drill press and drilled a hole through it before mounting on the lathe to turn to a pleasing shape. Not much danger holding it by hand, there's nothing that can cut if it does start to spin but I suppose there are dangers involved with that method.
I shall try and remember to take a photo of mine tomorrow.

 

[wallace]

I was at a car boot sale with my father in law once and he came up to me all excited with a bargain he had bought for me. A bag of balls to make mallets with. Turns out they were resin/plastic ones. My arm nearly dropped off lugging them around for the remainder of the sale.

 

[Pete Maddex]

I made a couple from bowling balls. Ages ago and if I remember correctly, I simply held the bowl by hand in the drill press and drilled a hole through it before mounting on the lathe to turn to a pleasing shape. Not much danger holding it by hand, there's nothing that can cut if it does start to spin but I suppose there are dangers involved with that method.
I shall try and remember to take a photo of mine tomorrow.

I used a single handed clamp to steady the bowl when drilling.

Pete