I needed a wood mallet and kept forgetting to grab one at the store, so I made one. My buddy casey gave me some red oak pallets and they had been sitting in my woodshop (garage) for several months now. I figured I would try to make one from that wood.

Step 1: Preparing the Wood

Remove any nails and thickness plane the boards. The board started at 1" thick by the time I was done the final thickness was 3/4 of an inch.

Step 2: Lay Out

I took the wood to my chop saw and started cutting. No real plan here just cut the boards how I thought they should be cut.The head of the mallet will be three boards wide. The outside boards will be one peace 9 inches long. the the center boards will be cut in two each 3.5 inches leaving a gap for the handle.

Step 3: Glue Up

I glued the boards together and left a 1.75 inch opening in the middle of the block for the handle. So this is the time if you are a friend or family member or a clamp supplier to realize a good Christmas gift this year is wood clamps. I made it work with what I had. After the glue set up I drilled some 3/8 holes for some walnut dowels. I do not think they are necessary it just looks cool. i then cut a 5 deg bevel to the head of the mallet. this also squared up the mallet face.

Step 4:

The handle I ripped a peace of the same pallet wood 1.5 inches wide for the handle. I then when went over to my Shopsmith and started turning the handle. I wanted the handle to stick out of the top of the hammer because it looks cool. So I just started turning. I finish sanded the handle to 600 grit.

Step 5: Finishing

I inserted the handle in to the head of the mallet and drove two more dowels in to the mallet head to secure the handle. After this I hand sanded the dowels and passed the complete mallet through the planer to trim the dowels perfectly smooth. I did about 5 min of hand sanding to 600 grit. I finished the handle with three coats of Watco Danish oil.

I am going to make several more for friends of mine for Christmas who do wood working. I even made a mallet with a round head.

Thanks for reading please vote. I want a Instructables t-shirt in a bad way.