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This is my offering for this year's Mallet Swap.

My main project was a machinist's hammer. This guy ended up weighing in at a hair over 3# so it's a good sized whacker. I figure most anybody can use a good sized hammer with one steel face and one brass face. The head diameter is around 1-7/8" and the head and handle are made from 1045 (I think) steel. The brass face is well… brass. Since it is a woodworking site and all the swappers are woodworkers, I wanted to include wood in my design so I put a couple of rings in the head and a collar on the handle that are some VA Walnut. Below is the hammer construction before the wood was added.


And a couple of process shots:




As a bonus, I made a carver's mallet. My recipient was John McClure and he had a project where he refurbished and re-handled an old hatchet which was my original idea for a bonus. But I know that John doesn't have a lathe so I figured a carver's mallet would be a safe bet :)

The head is Hard Maple and the handle is some nice figured Walnut my buddy EarlS sent me. Nothing fancy here, just a whacker to be used. Handle is attached with a blind wedged tenon. I really like this method of attaching handles. No glue but that thing will never come out of there.


I had a great time in this swap and a great time making these tappers. I hope they serve John well for a long, long time!

Comments and questions welcomed as always :)

Gallery

Comments

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Nice work, Kenny.

Blind wedged tenons are so much better than glue for this application, IMO.
 

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I get to go first Ken. That is one awesome beater. This one is useful for anything you need to hit. Adding the Virginia walnut was a nice touch. Nothing like Virginia walnut. Did it come off that slab I gave you? Nice job buddy!
 

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Youz fancy….

Great nice work Kenny. I'm assuming the heads of the hammer unscrewed so you could get the wood in there? Really loving the curl on that walnut. Is it from the walnut tree you feed the squirrel army with?

Rich
 

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Nice work, Kenny.

Blind wedged tenons are so much better than glue for this application, IMO.

- JayT
Thanks JT! You opinion aligns with my own on this one so, obviously, you are right ;-)

I get to go first Ken. That is one awesome beater. This one is useful for anything you need to hit. Adding the Virginia walnut was a nice touch. Nothing like Virginia walnut. Did it come off that slab I gave you? Nice job buddy!

- jeffswildwood
Thanks Jeff! VA Walnut makes everything better ;-) I haven't gotten to the chunk you gave me yet. Still using up some pieces I cut for turning stock last summer :)
 

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Awesome job buddy! A damn good offering!
 

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F@&$&'hjjnbhsnz grrr
 

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Respect is due sir. Nice work!
 

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Thanks Andy, Rich and Dave :) Rich, the faces are indeed threaded onto the main part of the head. I thought I had a pic showing that but turns out I don't…
 

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Very cool Kenny.

BTW, what technique are you using to etch your mark on the bottom of the handle? Do you have some sort of mask?
 

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F@&$&'hjjnbhsnz grrr

- KelleyCrafts
+1 Dave K

So what are going to do for the next swap? Hard to top these mallets.
 

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Fine work, Kenny. That looks like it was a lot of fun to put together. I was going to ask if you even knurl. Bro. Nice wedgie.
 

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Very cool Kenny.

BTW, what technique are you using to etch your mark on the bottom of the handle? Do you have some sort of mask?

- Lazyman




Dave's wife made me a bunch of vinyl decals of my mark on her Cricut (or similar, not sure) printer. They are by far the easiest and most reliable masks I have found. Then I wrap the surrounding area in electrical tape.

I build an etcher using a DC transformer wall plug so that it will do both AC and DC etches. DC removes some metal and AC darkens the area.






I took these pictures with the intent of writing a blog post on the device and it's use. I haven't gotten around to opening the enclosure up to take pics of the electronics though… Here is where I got the idea. His build is pretty much the same, I just packaged mine a littler different and I got better results with higher voltage components.
 

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11,255 Posts
That's a sexy whacker Kenny.
 

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So this is why we started in August. Great work, Kenny!
 

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Wow, didn't even realize there was a swap going. Great machining on the head, I would love to have a combined soft/hard faced hammer like that.
 

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Nice work Kenny
awesome in fact.
Very generous swap items.
Cheers
Anthony
 

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damn kenny,you do have have super powers.that is frigin beautiful !!!!!
 
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