LumberJocks Woodworking Forum banner
5K views 19 replies 12 participants last post by  EarlS 
#1 ·
Get a handle on it

For the 2018 Summer Mallet Swap I made a "dice" mallet which was well received. Since I wasn't doing much this summer I decided to make a batch of mallets and write a blog detailing the process.

These are the original set. The heads were made from African Blackwood, with cherry pips, and accent strips of Bloodwood and Bubinga. One handle is Zircote and the other is Brown Ebony.

Musical instrument Guitar String instrument Musical instrument accessory String instrument accessory


Since I didn't expect to make more of these I didn't keep the scribbles I used to "design" the original. I drew up a basic plan where the head is 5 1/4"x 1 7/8" and the exposed portion of the handle is 1 1/2" x 7". The pips are 3/8" diameter, spaced 1/2" from the edges, and equally spaced elsewhere.

Wood selection came out of whatever I had in my wood inventory, and there is a little of everything, both exotic and domestic.

Wood Flooring Floor Rectangle Typesetting


Let's focus on the handle first:

Handle blanks needed to 1 1/2" square and 9 1/2" long so that I could use on jig to form the curves. Several of the handles had to be laminated with accent pieces to meet the 1 1/2" requirement. I also chose to laminate a couple of the handles with more elaborate accents. I had decent luck using the new clear Gorilla glue on the exotic woods for the mallet swap so I chose to continue to use it for these glue-ups.

Musical instrument Wood Gas Engineering Folk instrument


Even with all of the clamps there were problems with the laminations. The main cause was wood moisture.
Several of the exotic pieces were not been properly dried so they started shrinking, cracking, checking, warping, cupping, twisting, and everything you can think of. That continued after they were glued up. Consequently, some of the initial ideas looked a lot different once I finished "adjusting" things to deal with the wood moisture issues. Talking to others, including the folks at Bell Forest Products, that is one of the main issues to deal with when working with exotics. If you let things dry you can wind up with a really expensive piece of useless wood that is full of cracks, checks, and distortions that make it unusable. My eventual solution, was to wipe a thin coat of Zinnsear sealcoat wax free shellaq on all of the newly exposed faces.

Once the blanks were glued, sanded, and properly sized, I set up the Leigh Mortise and Tenon jig for 1/2Ă—1 tenons. The nice thing about the Leigh jig is that the set up uses a center mark on the piece and the jig template does the rest of the work. Since all of the handles were the same size, one set up was all that was needed.

Wood Gas Machine tool Machine Auto part


I used the dadao blade to trim off some of the excess material on the sides to speed things up on the M&T jig.

Wood Hand tool Tool Stairs Rectangle


Each tenon was cut 2 1/8" long (which is the longest bit that can be used on the jig).

Wood Tool Office supplies Font Gas


Yep - that driver handle is a nice bonus item from HokieKen (Thank you Sir!!!)

After the tenons were finished I left the M&T jig set up for the heads (mortises) and moved over to the router to work on the handle's curves.

The curve was drawn using a French curve with the minimum width of 1" about 2/3 of the way from the bottom. A 1/2" rounded square knob forms the base of the handle. The template was cut out on the bandsaw and sanded smooth on a spindle sander. The 1 1/2" scrap piece allows the toggle clamps to be used to hold down the piece. A second piece of scrap provides the back stop for the handle. The scrap piece along to top provides a vertical stop for the tenon shoulder.

Automotive tire Wood Asphalt Road surface Flooring


Wood Flooring Table Hardwood Toy


Both sides were marked and rough cut on the band saw before using a 3/4" pattern bit with the router jig to form the side curves.

A short piece to accommodate the tenon horizontally replaced the the vertical stop.

Automotive tire Wood Asphalt Road surface Flooring


Some spacers were also required for the clamps.

Wood Floor Flooring Hardwood Art


Top view of handles with all 4 sides curved:

Rectangle Wood Paint Art paint Tints and shades


Side View:

Wood Typesetting Gas Rectangle Metal


After using a rasp, the random orbit sander, and some hand sanding the handles were complete. Along the way some of the accent pieces separated from the main piece. There were also tear out due to surprise grain changes and the type of wood (black palm was difficult to router)

The slot and holed for the expansion spacer finished the handle work. They still need to be finished before attaching the heads. The head portion will be the next post for this series

Wood Tool Hardwood Musical instrument accessory Kitchen utensil
 

Attachments

See less See more
26
#2 ·
Get a handle on it

For the 2018 Summer Mallet Swap I made a "dice" mallet which was well received. Since I wasn't doing much this summer I decided to make a batch of mallets and write a blog detailing the process.

These are the original set. The heads were made from African Blackwood, with cherry pips, and accent strips of Bloodwood and Bubinga. One handle is Zircote and the other is Brown Ebony.

Musical instrument Guitar String instrument Musical instrument accessory String instrument accessory


Since I didn't expect to make more of these I didn't keep the scribbles I used to "design" the original. I drew up a basic plan where the head is 5 1/4"x 1 7/8" and the exposed portion of the handle is 1 1/2" x 7". The pips are 3/8" diameter, spaced 1/2" from the edges, and equally spaced elsewhere.

Wood selection came out of whatever I had in my wood inventory, and there is a little of everything, both exotic and domestic.

Wood Flooring Floor Rectangle Typesetting


Let's focus on the handle first:

Handle blanks needed to 1 1/2" square and 9 1/2" long so that I could use on jig to form the curves. Several of the handles had to be laminated with accent pieces to meet the 1 1/2" requirement. I also chose to laminate a couple of the handles with more elaborate accents. I had decent luck using the new clear Gorilla glue on the exotic woods for the mallet swap so I chose to continue to use it for these glue-ups.

Musical instrument Wood Gas Engineering Folk instrument


Even with all of the clamps there were problems with the laminations. The main cause was wood moisture.
Several of the exotic pieces were not been properly dried so they started shrinking, cracking, checking, warping, cupping, twisting, and everything you can think of. That continued after they were glued up. Consequently, some of the initial ideas looked a lot different once I finished "adjusting" things to deal with the wood moisture issues. Talking to others, including the folks at Bell Forest Products, that is one of the main issues to deal with when working with exotics. If you let things dry you can wind up with a really expensive piece of useless wood that is full of cracks, checks, and distortions that make it unusable. My eventual solution, was to wipe a thin coat of Zinnsear sealcoat wax free shellaq on all of the newly exposed faces.

Once the blanks were glued, sanded, and properly sized, I set up the Leigh Mortise and Tenon jig for 1/2Ă—1 tenons. The nice thing about the Leigh jig is that the set up uses a center mark on the piece and the jig template does the rest of the work. Since all of the handles were the same size, one set up was all that was needed.

Wood Gas Machine tool Machine Auto part


I used the dadao blade to trim off some of the excess material on the sides to speed things up on the M&T jig.

Wood Hand tool Tool Stairs Rectangle


Each tenon was cut 2 1/8" long (which is the longest bit that can be used on the jig).

Wood Tool Office supplies Font Gas


Yep - that driver handle is a nice bonus item from HokieKen (Thank you Sir!!!)

After the tenons were finished I left the M&T jig set up for the heads (mortises) and moved over to the router to work on the handle's curves.

The curve was drawn using a French curve with the minimum width of 1" about 2/3 of the way from the bottom. A 1/2" rounded square knob forms the base of the handle. The template was cut out on the bandsaw and sanded smooth on a spindle sander. The 1 1/2" scrap piece allows the toggle clamps to be used to hold down the piece. A second piece of scrap provides the back stop for the handle. The scrap piece along to top provides a vertical stop for the tenon shoulder.

Automotive tire Wood Asphalt Road surface Flooring


Wood Flooring Table Hardwood Toy


Both sides were marked and rough cut on the band saw before using a 3/4" pattern bit with the router jig to form the side curves.

A short piece to accommodate the tenon horizontally replaced the the vertical stop.

Automotive tire Wood Asphalt Road surface Flooring


Some spacers were also required for the clamps.

Wood Floor Flooring Hardwood Art


Top view of handles with all 4 sides curved:

Rectangle Wood Paint Art paint Tints and shades


Side View:

Wood Typesetting Gas Rectangle Metal


After using a rasp, the random orbit sander, and some hand sanding the handles were complete. Along the way some of the accent pieces separated from the main piece. There were also tear out due to surprise grain changes and the type of wood (black palm was difficult to router)

The slot and holed for the expansion spacer finished the handle work. They still need to be finished before attaching the heads. The head portion will be the next post for this series

Wood Tool Hardwood Musical instrument accessory Kitchen utensil
You've got a regular mallet factory going there, Earl. Looking sharp, and thanks for the look at the mass production.
 

Attachments

#3 ·
Get a handle on it

For the 2018 Summer Mallet Swap I made a "dice" mallet which was well received. Since I wasn't doing much this summer I decided to make a batch of mallets and write a blog detailing the process.

These are the original set. The heads were made from African Blackwood, with cherry pips, and accent strips of Bloodwood and Bubinga. One handle is Zircote and the other is Brown Ebony.

Musical instrument Guitar String instrument Musical instrument accessory String instrument accessory


Since I didn't expect to make more of these I didn't keep the scribbles I used to "design" the original. I drew up a basic plan where the head is 5 1/4"x 1 7/8" and the exposed portion of the handle is 1 1/2" x 7". The pips are 3/8" diameter, spaced 1/2" from the edges, and equally spaced elsewhere.

Wood selection came out of whatever I had in my wood inventory, and there is a little of everything, both exotic and domestic.

Wood Flooring Floor Rectangle Typesetting


Let's focus on the handle first:

Handle blanks needed to 1 1/2" square and 9 1/2" long so that I could use on jig to form the curves. Several of the handles had to be laminated with accent pieces to meet the 1 1/2" requirement. I also chose to laminate a couple of the handles with more elaborate accents. I had decent luck using the new clear Gorilla glue on the exotic woods for the mallet swap so I chose to continue to use it for these glue-ups.

Musical instrument Wood Gas Engineering Folk instrument


Even with all of the clamps there were problems with the laminations. The main cause was wood moisture.
Several of the exotic pieces were not been properly dried so they started shrinking, cracking, checking, warping, cupping, twisting, and everything you can think of. That continued after they were glued up. Consequently, some of the initial ideas looked a lot different once I finished "adjusting" things to deal with the wood moisture issues. Talking to others, including the folks at Bell Forest Products, that is one of the main issues to deal with when working with exotics. If you let things dry you can wind up with a really expensive piece of useless wood that is full of cracks, checks, and distortions that make it unusable. My eventual solution, was to wipe a thin coat of Zinnsear sealcoat wax free shellaq on all of the newly exposed faces.

Once the blanks were glued, sanded, and properly sized, I set up the Leigh Mortise and Tenon jig for 1/2Ă—1 tenons. The nice thing about the Leigh jig is that the set up uses a center mark on the piece and the jig template does the rest of the work. Since all of the handles were the same size, one set up was all that was needed.

Wood Gas Machine tool Machine Auto part


I used the dadao blade to trim off some of the excess material on the sides to speed things up on the M&T jig.

Wood Hand tool Tool Stairs Rectangle


Each tenon was cut 2 1/8" long (which is the longest bit that can be used on the jig).

Wood Tool Office supplies Font Gas


Yep - that driver handle is a nice bonus item from HokieKen (Thank you Sir!!!)

After the tenons were finished I left the M&T jig set up for the heads (mortises) and moved over to the router to work on the handle's curves.

The curve was drawn using a French curve with the minimum width of 1" about 2/3 of the way from the bottom. A 1/2" rounded square knob forms the base of the handle. The template was cut out on the bandsaw and sanded smooth on a spindle sander. The 1 1/2" scrap piece allows the toggle clamps to be used to hold down the piece. A second piece of scrap provides the back stop for the handle. The scrap piece along to top provides a vertical stop for the tenon shoulder.

Automotive tire Wood Asphalt Road surface Flooring


Wood Flooring Table Hardwood Toy


Both sides were marked and rough cut on the band saw before using a 3/4" pattern bit with the router jig to form the side curves.

A short piece to accommodate the tenon horizontally replaced the the vertical stop.

Automotive tire Wood Asphalt Road surface Flooring


Some spacers were also required for the clamps.

Wood Floor Flooring Hardwood Art


Top view of handles with all 4 sides curved:

Rectangle Wood Paint Art paint Tints and shades


Side View:

Wood Typesetting Gas Rectangle Metal


After using a rasp, the random orbit sander, and some hand sanding the handles were complete. Along the way some of the accent pieces separated from the main piece. There were also tear out due to surprise grain changes and the type of wood (black palm was difficult to router)

The slot and holed for the expansion spacer finished the handle work. They still need to be finished before attaching the heads. The head portion will be the next post for this series

Wood Tool Hardwood Musical instrument accessory Kitchen utensil
Nice work as usual, Earl!
 

Attachments

#4 ·
Get a handle on it

For the 2018 Summer Mallet Swap I made a "dice" mallet which was well received. Since I wasn't doing much this summer I decided to make a batch of mallets and write a blog detailing the process.

These are the original set. The heads were made from African Blackwood, with cherry pips, and accent strips of Bloodwood and Bubinga. One handle is Zircote and the other is Brown Ebony.

Musical instrument Guitar String instrument Musical instrument accessory String instrument accessory


Since I didn't expect to make more of these I didn't keep the scribbles I used to "design" the original. I drew up a basic plan where the head is 5 1/4"x 1 7/8" and the exposed portion of the handle is 1 1/2" x 7". The pips are 3/8" diameter, spaced 1/2" from the edges, and equally spaced elsewhere.

Wood selection came out of whatever I had in my wood inventory, and there is a little of everything, both exotic and domestic.

Wood Flooring Floor Rectangle Typesetting


Let's focus on the handle first:

Handle blanks needed to 1 1/2" square and 9 1/2" long so that I could use on jig to form the curves. Several of the handles had to be laminated with accent pieces to meet the 1 1/2" requirement. I also chose to laminate a couple of the handles with more elaborate accents. I had decent luck using the new clear Gorilla glue on the exotic woods for the mallet swap so I chose to continue to use it for these glue-ups.

Musical instrument Wood Gas Engineering Folk instrument


Even with all of the clamps there were problems with the laminations. The main cause was wood moisture.
Several of the exotic pieces were not been properly dried so they started shrinking, cracking, checking, warping, cupping, twisting, and everything you can think of. That continued after they were glued up. Consequently, some of the initial ideas looked a lot different once I finished "adjusting" things to deal with the wood moisture issues. Talking to others, including the folks at Bell Forest Products, that is one of the main issues to deal with when working with exotics. If you let things dry you can wind up with a really expensive piece of useless wood that is full of cracks, checks, and distortions that make it unusable. My eventual solution, was to wipe a thin coat of Zinnsear sealcoat wax free shellaq on all of the newly exposed faces.

Once the blanks were glued, sanded, and properly sized, I set up the Leigh Mortise and Tenon jig for 1/2Ă—1 tenons. The nice thing about the Leigh jig is that the set up uses a center mark on the piece and the jig template does the rest of the work. Since all of the handles were the same size, one set up was all that was needed.

Wood Gas Machine tool Machine Auto part


I used the dadao blade to trim off some of the excess material on the sides to speed things up on the M&T jig.

Wood Hand tool Tool Stairs Rectangle


Each tenon was cut 2 1/8" long (which is the longest bit that can be used on the jig).

Wood Tool Office supplies Font Gas


Yep - that driver handle is a nice bonus item from HokieKen (Thank you Sir!!!)

After the tenons were finished I left the M&T jig set up for the heads (mortises) and moved over to the router to work on the handle's curves.

The curve was drawn using a French curve with the minimum width of 1" about 2/3 of the way from the bottom. A 1/2" rounded square knob forms the base of the handle. The template was cut out on the bandsaw and sanded smooth on a spindle sander. The 1 1/2" scrap piece allows the toggle clamps to be used to hold down the piece. A second piece of scrap provides the back stop for the handle. The scrap piece along to top provides a vertical stop for the tenon shoulder.

Automotive tire Wood Asphalt Road surface Flooring


Wood Flooring Table Hardwood Toy


Both sides were marked and rough cut on the band saw before using a 3/4" pattern bit with the router jig to form the side curves.

A short piece to accommodate the tenon horizontally replaced the the vertical stop.

Automotive tire Wood Asphalt Road surface Flooring


Some spacers were also required for the clamps.

Wood Floor Flooring Hardwood Art


Top view of handles with all 4 sides curved:

Rectangle Wood Paint Art paint Tints and shades


Side View:

Wood Typesetting Gas Rectangle Metal


After using a rasp, the random orbit sander, and some hand sanding the handles were complete. Along the way some of the accent pieces separated from the main piece. There were also tear out due to surprise grain changes and the type of wood (black palm was difficult to router)

The slot and holed for the expansion spacer finished the handle work. They still need to be finished before attaching the heads. The head portion will be the next post for this series

Wood Tool Hardwood Musical instrument accessory Kitchen utensil
Nicely done Earl :)) I'm glad you decided to do this series. I'm looking forward to how you batch these puppies out!
 

Attachments

#5 ·
Get a handle on it

For the 2018 Summer Mallet Swap I made a "dice" mallet which was well received. Since I wasn't doing much this summer I decided to make a batch of mallets and write a blog detailing the process.

These are the original set. The heads were made from African Blackwood, with cherry pips, and accent strips of Bloodwood and Bubinga. One handle is Zircote and the other is Brown Ebony.

Musical instrument Guitar String instrument Musical instrument accessory String instrument accessory


Since I didn't expect to make more of these I didn't keep the scribbles I used to "design" the original. I drew up a basic plan where the head is 5 1/4"x 1 7/8" and the exposed portion of the handle is 1 1/2" x 7". The pips are 3/8" diameter, spaced 1/2" from the edges, and equally spaced elsewhere.

Wood selection came out of whatever I had in my wood inventory, and there is a little of everything, both exotic and domestic.

Wood Flooring Floor Rectangle Typesetting


Let's focus on the handle first:

Handle blanks needed to 1 1/2" square and 9 1/2" long so that I could use on jig to form the curves. Several of the handles had to be laminated with accent pieces to meet the 1 1/2" requirement. I also chose to laminate a couple of the handles with more elaborate accents. I had decent luck using the new clear Gorilla glue on the exotic woods for the mallet swap so I chose to continue to use it for these glue-ups.

Musical instrument Wood Gas Engineering Folk instrument


Even with all of the clamps there were problems with the laminations. The main cause was wood moisture.
Several of the exotic pieces were not been properly dried so they started shrinking, cracking, checking, warping, cupping, twisting, and everything you can think of. That continued after they were glued up. Consequently, some of the initial ideas looked a lot different once I finished "adjusting" things to deal with the wood moisture issues. Talking to others, including the folks at Bell Forest Products, that is one of the main issues to deal with when working with exotics. If you let things dry you can wind up with a really expensive piece of useless wood that is full of cracks, checks, and distortions that make it unusable. My eventual solution, was to wipe a thin coat of Zinnsear sealcoat wax free shellaq on all of the newly exposed faces.

Once the blanks were glued, sanded, and properly sized, I set up the Leigh Mortise and Tenon jig for 1/2Ă—1 tenons. The nice thing about the Leigh jig is that the set up uses a center mark on the piece and the jig template does the rest of the work. Since all of the handles were the same size, one set up was all that was needed.

Wood Gas Machine tool Machine Auto part


I used the dadao blade to trim off some of the excess material on the sides to speed things up on the M&T jig.

Wood Hand tool Tool Stairs Rectangle


Each tenon was cut 2 1/8" long (which is the longest bit that can be used on the jig).

Wood Tool Office supplies Font Gas


Yep - that driver handle is a nice bonus item from HokieKen (Thank you Sir!!!)

After the tenons were finished I left the M&T jig set up for the heads (mortises) and moved over to the router to work on the handle's curves.

The curve was drawn using a French curve with the minimum width of 1" about 2/3 of the way from the bottom. A 1/2" rounded square knob forms the base of the handle. The template was cut out on the bandsaw and sanded smooth on a spindle sander. The 1 1/2" scrap piece allows the toggle clamps to be used to hold down the piece. A second piece of scrap provides the back stop for the handle. The scrap piece along to top provides a vertical stop for the tenon shoulder.

Automotive tire Wood Asphalt Road surface Flooring


Wood Flooring Table Hardwood Toy


Both sides were marked and rough cut on the band saw before using a 3/4" pattern bit with the router jig to form the side curves.

A short piece to accommodate the tenon horizontally replaced the the vertical stop.

Automotive tire Wood Asphalt Road surface Flooring


Some spacers were also required for the clamps.

Wood Floor Flooring Hardwood Art


Top view of handles with all 4 sides curved:

Rectangle Wood Paint Art paint Tints and shades


Side View:

Wood Typesetting Gas Rectangle Metal


After using a rasp, the random orbit sander, and some hand sanding the handles were complete. Along the way some of the accent pieces separated from the main piece. There were also tear out due to surprise grain changes and the type of wood (black palm was difficult to router)

The slot and holed for the expansion spacer finished the handle work. They still need to be finished before attaching the heads. The head portion will be the next post for this series

Wood Tool Hardwood Musical instrument accessory Kitchen utensil
wow nice work earl looks like your in the mallet business buddy.great blog too.
 

Attachments

#6 ·
Get a handle on it

For the 2018 Summer Mallet Swap I made a "dice" mallet which was well received. Since I wasn't doing much this summer I decided to make a batch of mallets and write a blog detailing the process.

These are the original set. The heads were made from African Blackwood, with cherry pips, and accent strips of Bloodwood and Bubinga. One handle is Zircote and the other is Brown Ebony.

Musical instrument Guitar String instrument Musical instrument accessory String instrument accessory


Since I didn't expect to make more of these I didn't keep the scribbles I used to "design" the original. I drew up a basic plan where the head is 5 1/4"x 1 7/8" and the exposed portion of the handle is 1 1/2" x 7". The pips are 3/8" diameter, spaced 1/2" from the edges, and equally spaced elsewhere.

Wood selection came out of whatever I had in my wood inventory, and there is a little of everything, both exotic and domestic.

Wood Flooring Floor Rectangle Typesetting


Let's focus on the handle first:

Handle blanks needed to 1 1/2" square and 9 1/2" long so that I could use on jig to form the curves. Several of the handles had to be laminated with accent pieces to meet the 1 1/2" requirement. I also chose to laminate a couple of the handles with more elaborate accents. I had decent luck using the new clear Gorilla glue on the exotic woods for the mallet swap so I chose to continue to use it for these glue-ups.

Musical instrument Wood Gas Engineering Folk instrument


Even with all of the clamps there were problems with the laminations. The main cause was wood moisture.
Several of the exotic pieces were not been properly dried so they started shrinking, cracking, checking, warping, cupping, twisting, and everything you can think of. That continued after they were glued up. Consequently, some of the initial ideas looked a lot different once I finished "adjusting" things to deal with the wood moisture issues. Talking to others, including the folks at Bell Forest Products, that is one of the main issues to deal with when working with exotics. If you let things dry you can wind up with a really expensive piece of useless wood that is full of cracks, checks, and distortions that make it unusable. My eventual solution, was to wipe a thin coat of Zinnsear sealcoat wax free shellaq on all of the newly exposed faces.

Once the blanks were glued, sanded, and properly sized, I set up the Leigh Mortise and Tenon jig for 1/2Ă—1 tenons. The nice thing about the Leigh jig is that the set up uses a center mark on the piece and the jig template does the rest of the work. Since all of the handles were the same size, one set up was all that was needed.

Wood Gas Machine tool Machine Auto part


I used the dadao blade to trim off some of the excess material on the sides to speed things up on the M&T jig.

Wood Hand tool Tool Stairs Rectangle


Each tenon was cut 2 1/8" long (which is the longest bit that can be used on the jig).

Wood Tool Office supplies Font Gas


Yep - that driver handle is a nice bonus item from HokieKen (Thank you Sir!!!)

After the tenons were finished I left the M&T jig set up for the heads (mortises) and moved over to the router to work on the handle's curves.

The curve was drawn using a French curve with the minimum width of 1" about 2/3 of the way from the bottom. A 1/2" rounded square knob forms the base of the handle. The template was cut out on the bandsaw and sanded smooth on a spindle sander. The 1 1/2" scrap piece allows the toggle clamps to be used to hold down the piece. A second piece of scrap provides the back stop for the handle. The scrap piece along to top provides a vertical stop for the tenon shoulder.

Automotive tire Wood Asphalt Road surface Flooring


Wood Flooring Table Hardwood Toy


Both sides were marked and rough cut on the band saw before using a 3/4" pattern bit with the router jig to form the side curves.

A short piece to accommodate the tenon horizontally replaced the the vertical stop.

Automotive tire Wood Asphalt Road surface Flooring


Some spacers were also required for the clamps.

Wood Floor Flooring Hardwood Art


Top view of handles with all 4 sides curved:

Rectangle Wood Paint Art paint Tints and shades


Side View:

Wood Typesetting Gas Rectangle Metal


After using a rasp, the random orbit sander, and some hand sanding the handles were complete. Along the way some of the accent pieces separated from the main piece. There were also tear out due to surprise grain changes and the type of wood (black palm was difficult to router)

The slot and holed for the expansion spacer finished the handle work. They still need to be finished before attaching the heads. The head portion will be the next post for this series

Wood Tool Hardwood Musical instrument accessory Kitchen utensil
Those are some awesome Mallets. I noticed the elaborate router jig. I've made many tenons on the table saw. Could these handles be made this way? Thanks for sharing can't wait to see you make the heads.
I under stand your problem with checking. I remember when I made my bench and bought 4Ă—4" rough sawn timber. I squared it on my jointer and started making the tenons on the ends and noticed the checking started. I had to let them dry out for another nine months before starting again.
 

Attachments

#7 ·
Get a handle on it

For the 2018 Summer Mallet Swap I made a "dice" mallet which was well received. Since I wasn't doing much this summer I decided to make a batch of mallets and write a blog detailing the process.

These are the original set. The heads were made from African Blackwood, with cherry pips, and accent strips of Bloodwood and Bubinga. One handle is Zircote and the other is Brown Ebony.

Musical instrument Guitar String instrument Musical instrument accessory String instrument accessory


Since I didn't expect to make more of these I didn't keep the scribbles I used to "design" the original. I drew up a basic plan where the head is 5 1/4"x 1 7/8" and the exposed portion of the handle is 1 1/2" x 7". The pips are 3/8" diameter, spaced 1/2" from the edges, and equally spaced elsewhere.

Wood selection came out of whatever I had in my wood inventory, and there is a little of everything, both exotic and domestic.

Wood Flooring Floor Rectangle Typesetting


Let's focus on the handle first:

Handle blanks needed to 1 1/2" square and 9 1/2" long so that I could use on jig to form the curves. Several of the handles had to be laminated with accent pieces to meet the 1 1/2" requirement. I also chose to laminate a couple of the handles with more elaborate accents. I had decent luck using the new clear Gorilla glue on the exotic woods for the mallet swap so I chose to continue to use it for these glue-ups.

Musical instrument Wood Gas Engineering Folk instrument


Even with all of the clamps there were problems with the laminations. The main cause was wood moisture.
Several of the exotic pieces were not been properly dried so they started shrinking, cracking, checking, warping, cupping, twisting, and everything you can think of. That continued after they were glued up. Consequently, some of the initial ideas looked a lot different once I finished "adjusting" things to deal with the wood moisture issues. Talking to others, including the folks at Bell Forest Products, that is one of the main issues to deal with when working with exotics. If you let things dry you can wind up with a really expensive piece of useless wood that is full of cracks, checks, and distortions that make it unusable. My eventual solution, was to wipe a thin coat of Zinnsear sealcoat wax free shellaq on all of the newly exposed faces.

Once the blanks were glued, sanded, and properly sized, I set up the Leigh Mortise and Tenon jig for 1/2Ă—1 tenons. The nice thing about the Leigh jig is that the set up uses a center mark on the piece and the jig template does the rest of the work. Since all of the handles were the same size, one set up was all that was needed.

Wood Gas Machine tool Machine Auto part


I used the dadao blade to trim off some of the excess material on the sides to speed things up on the M&T jig.

Wood Hand tool Tool Stairs Rectangle


Each tenon was cut 2 1/8" long (which is the longest bit that can be used on the jig).

Wood Tool Office supplies Font Gas


Yep - that driver handle is a nice bonus item from HokieKen (Thank you Sir!!!)

After the tenons were finished I left the M&T jig set up for the heads (mortises) and moved over to the router to work on the handle's curves.

The curve was drawn using a French curve with the minimum width of 1" about 2/3 of the way from the bottom. A 1/2" rounded square knob forms the base of the handle. The template was cut out on the bandsaw and sanded smooth on a spindle sander. The 1 1/2" scrap piece allows the toggle clamps to be used to hold down the piece. A second piece of scrap provides the back stop for the handle. The scrap piece along to top provides a vertical stop for the tenon shoulder.

Automotive tire Wood Asphalt Road surface Flooring


Wood Flooring Table Hardwood Toy


Both sides were marked and rough cut on the band saw before using a 3/4" pattern bit with the router jig to form the side curves.

A short piece to accommodate the tenon horizontally replaced the the vertical stop.

Automotive tire Wood Asphalt Road surface Flooring


Some spacers were also required for the clamps.

Wood Floor Flooring Hardwood Art


Top view of handles with all 4 sides curved:

Rectangle Wood Paint Art paint Tints and shades


Side View:

Wood Typesetting Gas Rectangle Metal


After using a rasp, the random orbit sander, and some hand sanding the handles were complete. Along the way some of the accent pieces separated from the main piece. There were also tear out due to surprise grain changes and the type of wood (black palm was difficult to router)

The slot and holed for the expansion spacer finished the handle work. They still need to be finished before attaching the heads. The head portion will be the next post for this series

Wood Tool Hardwood Musical instrument accessory Kitchen utensil
James - I made one version of the mallet exactly like you described, by cutting the tenon on the table saw. It is the oak handle in the front left of the last picture with 2 cuts in it. The head was made by running the 2 halves of the head across a dado stack set up to match the tenon, then the halves were glued together. I'll make a point of referring to what I did when I write up the process for the heads.

The Leigh M&T jig is great to have as long as the mortises and tenons you are making are part of their templates or can be made by mixing and matching templates and bits. If not, the trusty table saw and dado stack work just fine to make big tenons, and the mortises can be made on a mortising machine or set up with a homemade router jig, or any number of ways. It's helpful to have more than one way to do something like this.

Now that I know I need to pay attention to the checking and moisture with exotics, I'm not having to deal with so many surprises.
 

Attachments

#8 ·
Get a handle on it

For the 2018 Summer Mallet Swap I made a "dice" mallet which was well received. Since I wasn't doing much this summer I decided to make a batch of mallets and write a blog detailing the process.

These are the original set. The heads were made from African Blackwood, with cherry pips, and accent strips of Bloodwood and Bubinga. One handle is Zircote and the other is Brown Ebony.

Musical instrument Guitar String instrument Musical instrument accessory String instrument accessory


Since I didn't expect to make more of these I didn't keep the scribbles I used to "design" the original. I drew up a basic plan where the head is 5 1/4"x 1 7/8" and the exposed portion of the handle is 1 1/2" x 7". The pips are 3/8" diameter, spaced 1/2" from the edges, and equally spaced elsewhere.

Wood selection came out of whatever I had in my wood inventory, and there is a little of everything, both exotic and domestic.

Wood Flooring Floor Rectangle Typesetting


Let's focus on the handle first:

Handle blanks needed to 1 1/2" square and 9 1/2" long so that I could use on jig to form the curves. Several of the handles had to be laminated with accent pieces to meet the 1 1/2" requirement. I also chose to laminate a couple of the handles with more elaborate accents. I had decent luck using the new clear Gorilla glue on the exotic woods for the mallet swap so I chose to continue to use it for these glue-ups.

Musical instrument Wood Gas Engineering Folk instrument


Even with all of the clamps there were problems with the laminations. The main cause was wood moisture.
Several of the exotic pieces were not been properly dried so they started shrinking, cracking, checking, warping, cupping, twisting, and everything you can think of. That continued after they were glued up. Consequently, some of the initial ideas looked a lot different once I finished "adjusting" things to deal with the wood moisture issues. Talking to others, including the folks at Bell Forest Products, that is one of the main issues to deal with when working with exotics. If you let things dry you can wind up with a really expensive piece of useless wood that is full of cracks, checks, and distortions that make it unusable. My eventual solution, was to wipe a thin coat of Zinnsear sealcoat wax free shellaq on all of the newly exposed faces.

Once the blanks were glued, sanded, and properly sized, I set up the Leigh Mortise and Tenon jig for 1/2Ă—1 tenons. The nice thing about the Leigh jig is that the set up uses a center mark on the piece and the jig template does the rest of the work. Since all of the handles were the same size, one set up was all that was needed.

Wood Gas Machine tool Machine Auto part


I used the dadao blade to trim off some of the excess material on the sides to speed things up on the M&T jig.

Wood Hand tool Tool Stairs Rectangle


Each tenon was cut 2 1/8" long (which is the longest bit that can be used on the jig).

Wood Tool Office supplies Font Gas


Yep - that driver handle is a nice bonus item from HokieKen (Thank you Sir!!!)

After the tenons were finished I left the M&T jig set up for the heads (mortises) and moved over to the router to work on the handle's curves.

The curve was drawn using a French curve with the minimum width of 1" about 2/3 of the way from the bottom. A 1/2" rounded square knob forms the base of the handle. The template was cut out on the bandsaw and sanded smooth on a spindle sander. The 1 1/2" scrap piece allows the toggle clamps to be used to hold down the piece. A second piece of scrap provides the back stop for the handle. The scrap piece along to top provides a vertical stop for the tenon shoulder.

Automotive tire Wood Asphalt Road surface Flooring


Wood Flooring Table Hardwood Toy


Both sides were marked and rough cut on the band saw before using a 3/4" pattern bit with the router jig to form the side curves.

A short piece to accommodate the tenon horizontally replaced the the vertical stop.

Automotive tire Wood Asphalt Road surface Flooring


Some spacers were also required for the clamps.

Wood Floor Flooring Hardwood Art


Top view of handles with all 4 sides curved:

Rectangle Wood Paint Art paint Tints and shades


Side View:

Wood Typesetting Gas Rectangle Metal


After using a rasp, the random orbit sander, and some hand sanding the handles were complete. Along the way some of the accent pieces separated from the main piece. There were also tear out due to surprise grain changes and the type of wood (black palm was difficult to router)

The slot and holed for the expansion spacer finished the handle work. They still need to be finished before attaching the heads. The head portion will be the next post for this series

Wood Tool Hardwood Musical instrument accessory Kitchen utensil
Not sure how I missed this post but glad I found it.

Those are looking fantastic Earl!!! Way to go man. I like the variety as well. It's creative, uses up scraps, and they will all be pretty unique. Super cool!
 

Attachments

#9 ·
Get a handle on it

For the 2018 Summer Mallet Swap I made a "dice" mallet which was well received. Since I wasn't doing much this summer I decided to make a batch of mallets and write a blog detailing the process.

These are the original set. The heads were made from African Blackwood, with cherry pips, and accent strips of Bloodwood and Bubinga. One handle is Zircote and the other is Brown Ebony.

Musical instrument Guitar String instrument Musical instrument accessory String instrument accessory


Since I didn't expect to make more of these I didn't keep the scribbles I used to "design" the original. I drew up a basic plan where the head is 5 1/4"x 1 7/8" and the exposed portion of the handle is 1 1/2" x 7". The pips are 3/8" diameter, spaced 1/2" from the edges, and equally spaced elsewhere.

Wood selection came out of whatever I had in my wood inventory, and there is a little of everything, both exotic and domestic.

Wood Flooring Floor Rectangle Typesetting


Let's focus on the handle first:

Handle blanks needed to 1 1/2" square and 9 1/2" long so that I could use on jig to form the curves. Several of the handles had to be laminated with accent pieces to meet the 1 1/2" requirement. I also chose to laminate a couple of the handles with more elaborate accents. I had decent luck using the new clear Gorilla glue on the exotic woods for the mallet swap so I chose to continue to use it for these glue-ups.

Musical instrument Wood Gas Engineering Folk instrument


Even with all of the clamps there were problems with the laminations. The main cause was wood moisture.
Several of the exotic pieces were not been properly dried so they started shrinking, cracking, checking, warping, cupping, twisting, and everything you can think of. That continued after they were glued up. Consequently, some of the initial ideas looked a lot different once I finished "adjusting" things to deal with the wood moisture issues. Talking to others, including the folks at Bell Forest Products, that is one of the main issues to deal with when working with exotics. If you let things dry you can wind up with a really expensive piece of useless wood that is full of cracks, checks, and distortions that make it unusable. My eventual solution, was to wipe a thin coat of Zinnsear sealcoat wax free shellaq on all of the newly exposed faces.

Once the blanks were glued, sanded, and properly sized, I set up the Leigh Mortise and Tenon jig for 1/2Ă—1 tenons. The nice thing about the Leigh jig is that the set up uses a center mark on the piece and the jig template does the rest of the work. Since all of the handles were the same size, one set up was all that was needed.

Wood Gas Machine tool Machine Auto part


I used the dadao blade to trim off some of the excess material on the sides to speed things up on the M&T jig.

Wood Hand tool Tool Stairs Rectangle


Each tenon was cut 2 1/8" long (which is the longest bit that can be used on the jig).

Wood Tool Office supplies Font Gas


Yep - that driver handle is a nice bonus item from HokieKen (Thank you Sir!!!)

After the tenons were finished I left the M&T jig set up for the heads (mortises) and moved over to the router to work on the handle's curves.

The curve was drawn using a French curve with the minimum width of 1" about 2/3 of the way from the bottom. A 1/2" rounded square knob forms the base of the handle. The template was cut out on the bandsaw and sanded smooth on a spindle sander. The 1 1/2" scrap piece allows the toggle clamps to be used to hold down the piece. A second piece of scrap provides the back stop for the handle. The scrap piece along to top provides a vertical stop for the tenon shoulder.

Automotive tire Wood Asphalt Road surface Flooring


Wood Flooring Table Hardwood Toy


Both sides were marked and rough cut on the band saw before using a 3/4" pattern bit with the router jig to form the side curves.

A short piece to accommodate the tenon horizontally replaced the the vertical stop.

Automotive tire Wood Asphalt Road surface Flooring


Some spacers were also required for the clamps.

Wood Floor Flooring Hardwood Art


Top view of handles with all 4 sides curved:

Rectangle Wood Paint Art paint Tints and shades


Side View:

Wood Typesetting Gas Rectangle Metal


After using a rasp, the random orbit sander, and some hand sanding the handles were complete. Along the way some of the accent pieces separated from the main piece. There were also tear out due to surprise grain changes and the type of wood (black palm was difficult to router)

The slot and holed for the expansion spacer finished the handle work. They still need to be finished before attaching the heads. The head portion will be the next post for this series

Wood Tool Hardwood Musical instrument accessory Kitchen utensil
Very interesting and nice work!!!
 

Attachments

#10 ·
Get a handle on it

For the 2018 Summer Mallet Swap I made a "dice" mallet which was well received. Since I wasn't doing much this summer I decided to make a batch of mallets and write a blog detailing the process.

These are the original set. The heads were made from African Blackwood, with cherry pips, and accent strips of Bloodwood and Bubinga. One handle is Zircote and the other is Brown Ebony.

Musical instrument Guitar String instrument Musical instrument accessory String instrument accessory


Since I didn't expect to make more of these I didn't keep the scribbles I used to "design" the original. I drew up a basic plan where the head is 5 1/4"x 1 7/8" and the exposed portion of the handle is 1 1/2" x 7". The pips are 3/8" diameter, spaced 1/2" from the edges, and equally spaced elsewhere.

Wood selection came out of whatever I had in my wood inventory, and there is a little of everything, both exotic and domestic.

Wood Flooring Floor Rectangle Typesetting


Let's focus on the handle first:

Handle blanks needed to 1 1/2" square and 9 1/2" long so that I could use on jig to form the curves. Several of the handles had to be laminated with accent pieces to meet the 1 1/2" requirement. I also chose to laminate a couple of the handles with more elaborate accents. I had decent luck using the new clear Gorilla glue on the exotic woods for the mallet swap so I chose to continue to use it for these glue-ups.

Musical instrument Wood Gas Engineering Folk instrument


Even with all of the clamps there were problems with the laminations. The main cause was wood moisture.
Several of the exotic pieces were not been properly dried so they started shrinking, cracking, checking, warping, cupping, twisting, and everything you can think of. That continued after they were glued up. Consequently, some of the initial ideas looked a lot different once I finished "adjusting" things to deal with the wood moisture issues. Talking to others, including the folks at Bell Forest Products, that is one of the main issues to deal with when working with exotics. If you let things dry you can wind up with a really expensive piece of useless wood that is full of cracks, checks, and distortions that make it unusable. My eventual solution, was to wipe a thin coat of Zinnsear sealcoat wax free shellaq on all of the newly exposed faces.

Once the blanks were glued, sanded, and properly sized, I set up the Leigh Mortise and Tenon jig for 1/2Ă—1 tenons. The nice thing about the Leigh jig is that the set up uses a center mark on the piece and the jig template does the rest of the work. Since all of the handles were the same size, one set up was all that was needed.

Wood Gas Machine tool Machine Auto part


I used the dadao blade to trim off some of the excess material on the sides to speed things up on the M&T jig.

Wood Hand tool Tool Stairs Rectangle


Each tenon was cut 2 1/8" long (which is the longest bit that can be used on the jig).

Wood Tool Office supplies Font Gas


Yep - that driver handle is a nice bonus item from HokieKen (Thank you Sir!!!)

After the tenons were finished I left the M&T jig set up for the heads (mortises) and moved over to the router to work on the handle's curves.

The curve was drawn using a French curve with the minimum width of 1" about 2/3 of the way from the bottom. A 1/2" rounded square knob forms the base of the handle. The template was cut out on the bandsaw and sanded smooth on a spindle sander. The 1 1/2" scrap piece allows the toggle clamps to be used to hold down the piece. A second piece of scrap provides the back stop for the handle. The scrap piece along to top provides a vertical stop for the tenon shoulder.

Automotive tire Wood Asphalt Road surface Flooring


Wood Flooring Table Hardwood Toy


Both sides were marked and rough cut on the band saw before using a 3/4" pattern bit with the router jig to form the side curves.

A short piece to accommodate the tenon horizontally replaced the the vertical stop.

Automotive tire Wood Asphalt Road surface Flooring


Some spacers were also required for the clamps.

Wood Floor Flooring Hardwood Art


Top view of handles with all 4 sides curved:

Rectangle Wood Paint Art paint Tints and shades


Side View:

Wood Typesetting Gas Rectangle Metal


After using a rasp, the random orbit sander, and some hand sanding the handles were complete. Along the way some of the accent pieces separated from the main piece. There were also tear out due to surprise grain changes and the type of wood (black palm was difficult to router)

The slot and holed for the expansion spacer finished the handle work. They still need to be finished before attaching the heads. The head portion will be the next post for this series

Wood Tool Hardwood Musical instrument accessory Kitchen utensil
Earl thanks for the info. I see why your using the jig. It's great for mass production.
 

Attachments

#11 ·
Heads Up

The heads started out as 2Ă—2x12 (African Blackwood), 2Ă—2x18 (Ebony and Yellowheart) and 3Ă—3x12 (Bloodwood, East Indian Rosewood).

Rectangle Wood Wood stain Flooring Hardwood


After cleaning off the wax and squaring things up, the pieces were ripped to 1 7/8" squares.

Since the Leigh M&T jig was already set up for the 1/2X1 mortise and tenons all i had to do was mark centers for the mortises that would receive the tenon on the handle. The handle tenons were cut first so hey can be checked for fit without taking the head blank out of the M&T jig. I also left the blanks long to work better with the hold downs on the jig. Short pieces like the heads (5 1/4") are difficult to keep secure in the jig due to the work area opening.

Gadget Electronic engineering Auto part Laptop accessory Machine


After each of the mortises was finished, I checked the fit with a couple of the handles. The blank was then flipped so the mortise for the second head could be cut.

The blanks were cut to final length (5 1/4" which is 1 7/8" dice + 1 1/2" handle + 1 7/8" dice"). I also cut the 1/8" wide x 1/4" deep slots for the accent wood to define the edges of the dice.

Center marks for the 3/8" pips were made for the different dice faces. I would recommend 5/16" rather than 3/8" as I had some cracks form between the pips when I put the plugs in. The holes were 3/8" deep but I would suggest that they only need to be 1/4" deep since they are decorative only. I used a set of spacers to index the holes in the corners without having to switch anything around. That way, at least things lined up even if they might be slightly off center. The set up was adjusted to accommodate the center hole. I wrote the number of pips on each face and lined up all of the heads the same way so I wouldn't mess up and drill out the incorrect number of holes for a face.

Wood Gas Hardwood Machine Composite material


Wood Urban design Floor Building Flooring


The pips were made from dowel stock and drilling out plugs.

Wood Floor Flooring Gas Hardwood


After drilling the plugs, the back waste was removed on the bandsaw:

Wood Wood stain Flooring Hardwood Stairs


All of the plugs went through the dowel plate to make sure they were round and not over sized.

Wood Level Rectangle Wood stain Gas


Plugs and inlay pieces were glued onto the heads.

Wood Urban design Flooring Hardwood Landscape


Rectangle Circuit component Gas Recreation Electronic device


The walnut head was made using a different approach. Blanks 1 7/8" wide, 5 1/4" and 15/16" thick were made. A dado stack on the table saw was used to make the mortise for the square handle tenon.

Rectangle Grey Wood Flooring Beige


The pieces were glued together and the walnut head was completed in the same manner as the other ones.

Rectangle Wood Toy Recreation Font


Wood Rectangle Material property Urban design Flooring


After sanding things flush and rounding over the edges the heads were prefinished using a coat of laquer sealer, then a coat Seal-A-Cell with 400 grit sanding between coats and then sanding to 2000 grit before applying Behlen's Deluxing Compound.

The finished handles were attached to the mallets:

Wood Crosscut saw Font Fashion accessory Musical instrument accessory
 

Attachments

#12 ·
Heads Up

The heads started out as 2Ă—2x12 (African Blackwood), 2Ă—2x18 (Ebony and Yellowheart) and 3Ă—3x12 (Bloodwood, East Indian Rosewood).

Rectangle Wood Wood stain Flooring Hardwood


After cleaning off the wax and squaring things up, the pieces were ripped to 1 7/8" squares.

Since the Leigh M&T jig was already set up for the 1/2X1 mortise and tenons all i had to do was mark centers for the mortises that would receive the tenon on the handle. The handle tenons were cut first so hey can be checked for fit without taking the head blank out of the M&T jig. I also left the blanks long to work better with the hold downs on the jig. Short pieces like the heads (5 1/4") are difficult to keep secure in the jig due to the work area opening.

Gadget Electronic engineering Auto part Laptop accessory Machine


After each of the mortises was finished, I checked the fit with a couple of the handles. The blank was then flipped so the mortise for the second head could be cut.

The blanks were cut to final length (5 1/4" which is 1 7/8" dice + 1 1/2" handle + 1 7/8" dice"). I also cut the 1/8" wide x 1/4" deep slots for the accent wood to define the edges of the dice.

Center marks for the 3/8" pips were made for the different dice faces. I would recommend 5/16" rather than 3/8" as I had some cracks form between the pips when I put the plugs in. The holes were 3/8" deep but I would suggest that they only need to be 1/4" deep since they are decorative only. I used a set of spacers to index the holes in the corners without having to switch anything around. That way, at least things lined up even if they might be slightly off center. The set up was adjusted to accommodate the center hole. I wrote the number of pips on each face and lined up all of the heads the same way so I wouldn't mess up and drill out the incorrect number of holes for a face.

Wood Gas Hardwood Machine Composite material


Wood Urban design Floor Building Flooring


The pips were made from dowel stock and drilling out plugs.

Wood Floor Flooring Gas Hardwood


After drilling the plugs, the back waste was removed on the bandsaw:

Wood Wood stain Flooring Hardwood Stairs


All of the plugs went through the dowel plate to make sure they were round and not over sized.

Wood Level Rectangle Wood stain Gas


Plugs and inlay pieces were glued onto the heads.

Wood Urban design Flooring Hardwood Landscape


Rectangle Circuit component Gas Recreation Electronic device


The walnut head was made using a different approach. Blanks 1 7/8" wide, 5 1/4" and 15/16" thick were made. A dado stack on the table saw was used to make the mortise for the square handle tenon.

Rectangle Grey Wood Flooring Beige


The pieces were glued together and the walnut head was completed in the same manner as the other ones.

Rectangle Wood Toy Recreation Font


Wood Rectangle Material property Urban design Flooring


After sanding things flush and rounding over the edges the heads were prefinished using a coat of laquer sealer, then a coat Seal-A-Cell with 400 grit sanding between coats and then sanding to 2000 grit before applying Behlen's Deluxing Compound.

The finished handles were attached to the mallets:

Wood Crosscut saw Font Fashion accessory Musical instrument accessory
wow a lot of work earl but the results look well worth the effort.i guess from now on well call you the mallet man-lol.
 

Attachments

This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top