This morning, I took out the chamfering attachment to my low-angle block plane and set to work on the head. This was relatively easy work, and soon I had moved to the handle. I tried to work out some funny stuff that was going on in the handle, but wasn’t altogether successful. This is okay, because this (and one flaw on the head) does not affect the operational aspects of the tool.

When it was all said and done, I had this:

Groovy. I tested its grip and balance a little. It’s mostly to my liking; when I make the next one, I may put a thicker handle on it.

That left the finish. I went to the local hardware store and found nothing that I could stand. So I decided to use the same oil/varnish blend (“danish oil”) that I put on the workbench. This means that the mallet will show camouflage with the bench (because it’s made of the same wood), but this is okay.

I was a little disappointed at having to use the same finish as earlier because I really want to get started with varnishes. What I will probably do, however, is apply clear non-gloss polyurethane on top once the oil/varnish cures. This should provide a lot more protection against sweat and grime.

I cut out the handle with a combination of a dovetail saw, a coping saw, a chisel, and a low-angle block plane. I would do a few things differently when marking next time, but it’s not like it’s a big deal.

The mallet components now looked like this:

Not bad. The handle fits the head, and it definitely feels like something you can whack stuff with. Except for those nasty sharp edges. I marked out the cross-section on the end of the handle and set about it with a spokeshave:

This was the first time I used a spokeshave! That was fun. Though I might want to try getting my Stanley #151 in working shape. It’s not easy to adjust the depth on the #51 I was using, but then again, it wasn’t that bad.

There was the very edge of a knot on one side of the handle, so that made it difficult to avoid tearout. So I used a little sandpaper to even out that part, and now we’re getting somewhere:

Still left to do is chamfer some edges, even up the head faces, and apply a finish. I have decided against an additional bevel on the top of the head, partly because I like the ray-fleck pattern, and partly because I feel lazy.

After waiting a day for the glue to cure, I removed the clamps and set out to remove the center of mallet head. It was a piece of cake with that small tenon saw:

Then it was time to glue and clamp the third piece of the head:

Then there would be another day of waiting. Well, I did mark out the piece for the handle before calling it a day, but that’s not much work.

I marked out three sections of the milled lumber in the shape of the mallet head and cut them out. Except that I didn’t do the top bevel; I figure that I can do it after I glued the thing up.

I picked out a piece for the center and marked out the part where the handle will go through. After paring to the knife edge, I sawed partway down the sides. Finally, I knocked out a little bit off the top area between the saw kerfs so that it ended up looking like this:

The reason for removing that piece was that my plan was to glue that face to another piece like this:

The theory is that when the glue is dry, I’ll be able to saw from the other side, remove the center (where the handle will eventually go), clean it up, then glue on the last piece. The center will now comprise of two parts, perfectly in-line. Well, I hope I used enough glue.

I sat down today with some graph paper and tried to get a concrete drawing for the mallet. After a little fooling around, I was happy with one that I came up with, then drew it up in Inkscape:

The planned dimensions are 5″ wide and 10″ long. The striking faces are about two and a half inches long.

The mallet will be roughly 2 5/8″ deep. I don’t know for sure, because I’m too lazy to check the exact width of my newly-milled piece of lumber. The idea here is to laminate the head, and at the same time, eliminate the need for making a complicated angled mortise for the handle (as well as save a lot of money on lumber). We’ll see how this works out. In any case, the striking faces should be roughly square.

Though the drawing’s handle is rather angular-looking, it will be oval in the final product.

One very amusing thing about the design is that all fits in actual size on a printed sheet of 8.5×11″ paper. Useful, too, I guess.

[Update: Here are the SVG plans for the mallet.] sigh