2019 Mallet Swap

Bloodwood and Brass

This one I had to redo a couple of times. Originally I wanted to do a spalted pecan handle with red resin inlays that was stabilized, but it broke in the head. I had to re-bore the head and come up with a new solution. Once redone, I sanded the head up to 800 and brought it to the buffing wheels… I now need new wheels. The brass was turned on a wood lathe with a set of carbide tools from Dave (Kelley Crafts who makes awesome tools), files and like 40 grit sand paper.

This was the original handle with issues

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Next was the hex head. At first I was going to do a similar handle to the original one I had planned for the round brass, but after the issues I had I decided against it. This one was going to be blue though instead of red. For this, the shape was already there, I just had to cut to length, drill out the hole and work a handle for it. This handle started out as spalted hickory and was cut to rough shape on the handsaw. I then finished the shaping with a shinto rasp and finished with about 6 coats of Waterlox

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The last one was the carted mallet. From a single piece of wood that was punky, wet, cracked and full of bug tunnels right from the fire wood pile…. Exactly what I wanted!! This one got rough turned, dried in an oven for more cracks, stabilized, re-turned, loaded with superglue and the crushed turquoise accents then sanded . I really like how the stabilizing darkened the wood a little and how the crushed stone pops against it. Mental note… Next time filling cracks with turquoise and superglue… don’t do it on a plate.. you’ll lose the plate…

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Nice work Rich!!

-- Bill - Rochester MI

Beautiful!

-- Galootish log blog, http://www.timberframe-tools.com

Meh. Those are okay Rich but I expect more from you.

Those are all awesome man! I especially like the brass carver’s mallet. I gotta get me one of those :-)))

-- Kenny, SW VA, Go Hokies!!!

Woodcraft sells a Pfeil version for like $80… lol

Rich

Meh. Those are okay Rich but I expect more from you.

Those are all awesome man! I especially like the brass carver s mallet. I gotta get me one of those :-)))

- HokieKen

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Not to me they don’t.

-- Kenny, SW VA, Go Hokies!!!

Nicely done, Rich! And sent overseas, no less!

-- Dave - Santa Fe

I was the lucky receipient of those mallet – and I have to say I love them Rich, and I really appriciate the work you lay into them.

Good job Rich, and thank you so much!

-- It’s good to have an end to journey toward; but it is the journey that matters, in the end. - Ursula K. LeGuin

Rich – your mallets look like something I would expect to see if I open a master woodworker’s tool chest. Great choice of wood. Glad to see you kept with it even with the difficulties.

-- Earl "I'm a pessamist - generally that increases the chance that things will turn out better than expected"

Love that stubby brass mallet

-- Rick M, http://thewoodknack.blogspot.com/

Next swap I’m going to bribe the boss to make sure you get my name. Great work!!!

-- You can lead a horse to water, but you can't tie his shoes. Blaze Foley

Super job Rich. Wow, you really put a lot of work into those. I really like that shiny brass carvers mallet.

-- We all make mistakes, the trick is to fix it in a way that says "I meant to do that".

Interesting set of hammers there, especially love the polished carving mallet.

-- Allen, Colorado (Instagram @bobasaurus_woodworking)