Project Information
A little over 5 years ago, I was run down by an SUV and suffered a serious Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI). I was so messed up I didn't realise that I was messed up. Now, after a lot of vision therapy and sheer effort, I've improved to the point that I can actually put some hand tools to some wood and have it turn out somewhat as planned. I'm improving, day by day and month by month, albeit ever so slowly. This mallet is the most complex and complete thing I've made so far, and it's something that wasn't even possible for me to do even a year ago.
I followed Paul Sellers example, making the head of one piece and making a tapered and shaped handle. This was done completely with hand tools; no electrons were harmed in any way.
The head of mallet was a block of wood, species unknown, that was salvaged from an old pallet. It is heavy, hard and dense! As you can see from photos 3 and 4, it's from the pith of the tree and it hides a fork/branch. The combination of wood density, hardness and wild grain made chopping, tapering and fitting the mortise even more challenging for me.
It took a very long time for me to make this mallet, but I'm happy with the results. Working in the shop forces my brain to relearn what the accident took from me, and that's a good thing. Like any project, we learn things along the way that we can apply to future projects. For me, this means that I'll need to make a smaller, lighter mallet when I finish some more items on my ToDo list.
I followed Paul Sellers example, making the head of one piece and making a tapered and shaped handle. This was done completely with hand tools; no electrons were harmed in any way.
The head of mallet was a block of wood, species unknown, that was salvaged from an old pallet. It is heavy, hard and dense! As you can see from photos 3 and 4, it's from the pith of the tree and it hides a fork/branch. The combination of wood density, hardness and wild grain made chopping, tapering and fitting the mortise even more challenging for me.
It took a very long time for me to make this mallet, but I'm happy with the results. Working in the shop forces my brain to relearn what the accident took from me, and that's a good thing. Like any project, we learn things along the way that we can apply to future projects. For me, this means that I'll need to make a smaller, lighter mallet when I finish some more items on my ToDo list.