For to long i have been abusing my chisels with a metal hammer and pretty much wrecking them.

So i decided it was time for my 1st ever joiners / wooden mallet.

As with all my projects this was made from scrap wood, but it looks brilliant (to me at least) and i think my chisels will be thankful.

A relatively simple project with a bit of flare is probably the best way to describe this.

To see the build head over to my YouTube channel -

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCRMjvilGRdZxHqr34...

I hope you enjoy, let me know what you think by leaving a comment.

Thanks

GG

Step 1: Making the Head

First and most important - The head of the mallet needed to be a good size with strong end grain.

I found a small fence post with a nice grain pattern and decided it would make a good mallet head, all i did next was cut two pieces at - and making sure the gluing surface was flat , used an exceeding amount of glue to stick them together.

Step 2: Making the Handle

While the head was gluing up i moved on to the mallet handle.

This step is mostly down to personal preference. so i measured out what i felt would be a good size handle for myself ( ) adding a few extra cm for detail and sanding.

Then i simply cut a pallet board down to size , ripped it in half, and again using an excess amount of glue, glued the two pieces together, giving me a rough handle.

Step 3: Clean Up and Marking

Once all the glue had dried properly it was time to figure out what i wanted the mallet to look like.

To do this i planed down all sides of both the handle and mallet to give me a better idea of what i was looking at, and then drew out a design that i wanted making sure there was still enough of a handle and head to use.

Step 4: Cutting Handle to Shape

Now that i had my design drawn out it was time to cut it out , i went through the handle making loads of small relief cuts down do the line i had drawn and was then able to just knock the pieces off with a chisel giving me the rough shape i had wanted.

I cut off some material on both sides to give myself a tenon that would be attached to the mallet head.

Next i smoothed out some of the saw marks and made sure the handle felt ok in my hand.

Which it did.

Step 5: A Whole Lot of Filing / Rasping

now that my handle was in the rough shape i was looking for it was time to refine the shape and round it out into a better handle shape.

This was achieved by drawing reference lines along the handle and using a rasp to remove most of the material down to the line. Then i came in with a file to give it a smoother finish.

The whole time stopping and testing how it felt to hold.

Step 6: Making the Mortise

Now my handle was almost done it was time to make a mortise so i could actually attach the two pieces.

this was a lot less difficult than i had thought, i simply found the center of the mallet head, transferred the tenon over the center.

Then using my drill and a wood bit and spade bit, drilled out the outline of the mortise and used a spade but to remove all the material.

Using a chisel i cleaned up the sides and made sure they where square and the tenon fit snugly.

Step 7: Plane Down the Head

.To add some more detail to the head and knock off the corners i used my plane to put a heavy 45 degree on all sides.

Step 8: Sanding

Before i glued anything together i thought it would be easier to sand all parts before gluing them together.

I started off at 80 grit an moved up to 120 grit. once everything was sanded down i wiped off all of the dust and went on to gluing it all up.

Adding clamps i cleaned off any glue squeeze out and left it to dry.

Step 9: More Sanding & Finish

Once the glue had dried i sanded again at 240 grit to get a nice smooth feel on all surfaces, and got rid of any glue squeeze out i had missed.

For a finish i used some diamond heard satin clear coat and i knew the mallet would be used a lot and i thought that would offer the most protection.

I put 6 coats of finish on rubbing down with 500 grit sand paper between coats until the final coat.

This gave me a nice smooth finish that should hopefully withstand some beating.

Step 10: Test & Job Done

Once the final coat was fully dry it was time to test the mallet.

It felt nice in my hand and had some good weight to it, and best of all it wasn't messing up my chisels!

It turned out great in my eyes and has a good hit to it with little energy put in.

A nice project that i think looks great and was made using scrap wood and mainly hand tools.

I hope you liked this and have a go at making your own.

To watch the process head over to my YouTube channel -