Various mallets pros and cons

[DiLeon]

Old-Man-Workshop-Sculpture-Artist-Art-Studio-4622221.jpg

OH my, Glad to hear that. and love to see your shop too.
Cheers
Chuck

not my studio but it looks like this major.....
sorry, it looks like a bomb hit it....It has stuff crammed into corners all machines are on wheels and crammed into corners until usage,...they have old army tarps on them.... there is tools and everything for wood carving in plastic cat litter buckets with labels on them as they seal and waterproof that goes to the ceiling. I do not let people in my shop because something on the ceiling may fall on them...LOL. Believe me when I say that you do not want to see it...it is functional, not pretty at all.

[NoDNA]

I work out of a large two-car port that is somewhat enclosed in... plus creative storage ...my shop has to be rearranged depending on the project. When you get those cranes dropping ten-foot logs off which are over 900 pounds you get super creative really fast...mind you I only weigh 130 and busted up....smile.That project the owner wanted as a weight-bearing pole in the middle of his living room of a house he was building ...to be done in three months.... carved with full-size hibiscus flowers and leaves...plus Hawaiian birds and lizards. Lots of new tools were needed, and fast learning went into that one. As so do other commission projects.

OH my, Glad to hear that. and love to see your shop too.
Cheers
Chuck

[DiLeon]

I have wooden and plastic mallets of different sizes, but my current favorite is a leather mallet made by a friend of Vic Hood. It has a golf club handle about 7 " long and these leather discs that are probably attached to a threaded shaft or something. Very comfortable to use! Works great and is even quieter than plastic.

Wow whoever made that mallet should get an award. I love quiet because I listen to radio, or music, or audible books while I work.....and bang, bang, bang does not cut it. Great post Mike!!!

[mpounders]

Mpounders I like the golf club handle.

I think Gene Grisham is the guy who makes them.

[buckbeans]

Mpounders I like the golf club handle.

[mpounders]

I have wooden and plastic mallets of different sizes, but my current favorite is a leather mallet made by a friend of Vic Hood. It has a golf club handle about 7 " long and these leather discs that are probably attached to a threaded shaft or something. Very comfortable to use! Works great and is even quieter than plastic.

[buckbeans]

Steve Reed where can you get the urethane for making the mallet? I really like the Wood is good mallet and I have three of them. HoweverI want to design my own mallet that i believe is not on the market.

[DiLeon]

Just back one Di, and saw the one of yours.. It is easy for me to use with the longer hand and small head. Ghessh if I had all those I wood have no room for chips n dust.. Cheers Chuck

I work out of a large two-car port that is somewhat enclosed in... plus creative storage ...my shop has to be rearranged depending on the project. When you get those cranes dropping ten-foot logs off which are over 900 pounds you get super creative really fast...mind you I only weigh 130 and busted up....smile.That project the owner wanted as a weight-bearing pole in the middle of his living room of a house he was building ...to be done in three months.... carved with full-size hibiscus flowers and leaves...plus Hawaiian birds and lizards. Lots of new tools were needed, and fast learning went into that one. As so do other commission projects.

[NoDNA]

Just back one Di, and saw the one of yours.. It is easy for me to use with the longer hand and small head. Ghessh if I had all those I wood have no room for chips n dust.. Cheers Chuck

[DiLeon]

I'm with Nebraska! I've never really used a wooden mallet and when I do use one it's the wooden mallet that I imported from my leathercraft days so it's not a conventional woodcarving mallet. Looks more like Chucks!

No such thing anymore with conventional tools, I saw a video a day ago....this guy was actually using a small log with bark and all.... as a mallet on his wood carving. I sat there and laughed he was darn good with it, and fast at using it on his chisels. IF I could figure out how to post that video, I would have put it on here.

[DiLeon]

IMG_0145.jpgPalm style Brass mallets are lightweight, secure, and ideal for many things. You can also use this hammer for gunsmithing. These mallets are a piece of art built to support the jewelry, leatherworker, woodworker, mechanic, machinist work. Brass mallets are typically used in a situation where one does not want to deform the object being struck. Being slightly softer than steel, it will not cause a steel shaft to mushroom with repeated blows. It will also not produce a spark when striking other objects. With the bronze or brass mallet, all that is needed is a light-controlled tap.

My brass mallets are compact and delicate in the hand. The brass mallet is a special little piece I think. I like it because it really affords a lot of different holding/striking positions. I can grasp the head, work from either side,..great balance and control. It fits my hand nicely. Some of the fancy ones are, but most are affordable. The carving tools are a little more delicate and I do reserve the brass mallet for them. Sometimes you have to hit in awkward positions to accommodate the grain when carving and the mallet excels at that issue.

These are ideal if you have arthritis…easy on the hands, wrist and shoulder…. do not have to hard grip and push chisels all day. Just easy tap.

I have two small Shop Foxes brass mallets and two new J Smiths… which have more little more weight and are bigger. The new ones I got from John Smith who is on this forum, he makes them with beautiful handles and I am very happy with them! Prices are right and handles can be made to size. You can PM him. Also John makes some really nice chip knives. He has a few unusual shape knives I could use in deep relief work.

These are my favorite mallets, as they can be used for lots of things where a full mallet or hammer is just not OK in wood carving.

[DiLeon]

IMG_0141.jpgThis is my bench holder for my mallets also holds burrs while I working and misc. items. This is most of the woodcarving mallets....some mallets are in other craft buckets.

When I need to gently "persuade" a chisel then I will use the light, slender mallet. One of the reasons that we carvers use round mallets, by the way, doesn't have all that much to do with accurate strikes - it's because there are often-encountered situations where the carving tool must be held in such a way that the mallet has to be swung at weird angles, and it'd be really difficult and unwieldy to use a joiner's mallet with a flat face to do that kind of work.

However, when I need to work with Japanese, dovetail chisels, or a large wide good chisel. These chisels need to be wacked with authority. Which need a heavier duty mallet heavier such as LV mallet, as often weight and balance is thought out nicely.

You generally want to save your chisel handles so you use a softer mallet than the handles. If you use a steel hammer on regular chisels, the end of the chisel handles will get mushroomed pretty well, including possible splitting. If you make your own chisel handles, you can replace the handles when they get damaged, but most people choose a softer mallet and spare the chisel handles.

[Eddy-Smiles]

I'm with Nebraska! I've never really used a wooden mallet and when I do use one it's the wooden mallet that I imported from my leathercraft days so it's not a conventional woodcarving mallet. Looks more like Chucks!

[Steve Reed]

Great thread Di. As a former maker of Wood is Good mallets, I am partial to them. I have spent hours and hours pressing them onto handles etc. I am glad that they went to the green from the dark ones. The new ones look nicer, at least to me. I use the 18oz version and have a small brass headed one as well. Haven't done any large pieces since my accident. The last piece I did using a mallet was a Santa out of Catalpa a few years ago. He stands about 30" high. Catalpa Log Santa (original work from Chainsaw roughout).jpg Done from a chainsaw "roughout".

[Claude]

Thanks for beginning this thread, Dileon - lots of good info here.

Claude