Mallet for battoning/small froe

[tombear]

A while back I was given some sections of old yew branch in the hope that they would not be badly split once the outsides were taken off. Unfortunately they were split quite deeply so they were chucked on the to burn pile. They were however immensely heavy for their size and very hard so as a practice job I turned one into a mallet for battoning. It blunted the gouges so ill have a sharpening session later but I'm happy with the result and I learned quite a bit in the process.

I didn't go mad getting the tool marks off as it is going to get wrecked sooner rather than later but I did linseed oil it to see how the wood coloured up.

Need to get a froe.

ATB

Tom

 

[Stevie777]

Nice Baton/Mallet, Shame about the splits. Is this normal for Yew. ?

 

[tombear]

Only if it has been really badly stored, I think the branches had been dead on the tree for many years before they were chucked on a exposed woodpile and left for however long.

One side is much less cracked than the other so ill use that as the striking side.

Atb

Tom

 

[crosslandkelly]

Looks too nice to use as a batton.

 

[Clouston98]

Lovely that is mate! Nicely done

 

[humdrum_hostage]

That looks like you spun it on a lathe!

Funnily enough I added a homemade Froe to my collection of tools the other day and made a mallet out of a branch from a plum tree. difference is, mine looks like a primtive club compaered to yours.

 

[tombear]

Cheers folks! Yup, spun on a lathe mainly as practice at turning a difficult and hard piece of wood.. Much to my suprise I only caught a crack and ripped a piece off once, and tha was a small piece. If I make more from the other pieces of yew I will just hack them into shape roughly with a hatchet , maybe smooth of the handle part with a canoe knife

atb

Tom

 

[Retired Member southey]

Lovely wood, though i wonder about its longevity as a variable pressure applicator. Yew has a tendency to shatter, if you cut wood from a felled yew you can find whole branches shattered along the growth rings withe the fibres looking like candied fruit.

 

[tombear]

I'll have to suck it and see! No biggy if it turns into a brush after a few strokes as it was a practice piece of a disposable item.

A quick google finds yew used for various forms of mallet head. carver, hedgers, croquet and fencing. This fencer uses it for his froe work.

http://christinas-garden.blogspot.co.uk/2012/03/new-garden-gate.html

Looking about I don't have owt that need battoning at the moment or I'd have a go and report back. Those big cracks will mean it won't last that long. When I get the wood I've been promised ill let folk know.

i so want to get a froe now. Thinking what I can sell I don't use.

atb

Tom

 

[mrcharly]

nice.

If you want to make it into a super mallet, drill a wide hole into the top and fill with lead.

 

[tombear]

Cheers! Ill see how it does as is before I start adding weight, its remarkably heavy as is.

found a last stray scrap of the beech branch so turned this

Ill get some of those stamped brass inserts when I see them next. It's now buried in chippings but is already cracking! I'm not so fussed as unless it completely falls apart it will still work as a candlestick. Il'l need to true up the base when its shrunk and I may add a disc of sheet lead to make it more stable. I turned the base as thin as I could from the bottom in the hope it will distort rather than crack. Ill linseed oil it in due course.

so apart from a couple of hardwood discs that came with the lathe I'm out of wood now, well except for two bits of wonderfull lime. One bit has a crack in it so not ideal for turning but the other is a fairly large chunk that he started turning into what I guess was a vase. The ends were still square so to see how it turned I roundered them off with some newly sharpened tools. I love lime! It turned beautifully, I'd heard it was good but this is lovely stuff to work! It is 13 inches long by 2.5 inch wide but about 3 inch in he had turned it down to a inch and a half so in reality there's a 2.5 inch section and a 10 inch section full thickness. So I'm wondering what to make from it that's useful? Ideally something bushy.

ATB

Tom

 

[Macaroon]

Squirt some Epoxy into the cracks, then wrap it up as tightly as you can with wet rawhide strips (dog chews). The rawhide will shrink and tighten the cracks to the glue and the rawhide will stick to the wood; you'll have a mallet that'll last for yonks. Very cheap, quick and easy to do

 

[tombear]

Cheers! As it happens I've a bag full of raw hide strip, ex a industrial sized dog chew left over from edging one of the kids shields.

Anyroad, as I mentioned in another thread I've a Ray Iles premium froe on order of a hour or so ago, so ill soon have that to have a whack at. This is making me one happy bunny! Coupled with the 8" draw knife thats coming with it its going to make prepping wood for the lathe a lot easier.

in lieu of a band saw I'm going to have to learn to use my jigsaw properly. It came with a bar thing that bolts on to cut circles and I believe you can get extra long blades to fit most jigsaws.

ATB

Tom

 

[tombear]

The froe and drawknife arrived a couple of days since and I've just hot wax dipped the storage cases I made for them. They are still drying / curing and hopefully will end the nice reddish brown the seax scabbards came out. I used the ratty edge bits of the 4.5 mm veg tan shoulder we got cheap.

Now for the wood to chop up!

atb

Tom

 

[tombear]

The shavings they were stored in seam totally dry now as does th wood itself so I dug out th two turned from green beech bits and pretty much soaked them in walnut oil

The serving spoon in the background needs the handle thinning a vast amount. Vaguely thinking of carving something into the top face of it, maybe cribbed from the Saxon spoons dug up at York...

ATB

Tom

 

[tombear]

Well, after a few weeks use, as predicted the cracked yew batton died a death. Admittedly it was against some incredibly twisted and knotty, resiny, thick hawthorn left over from band sawing some blocks to season and use later. First about a third of the head end broke off and then after a quarter of an hour more wailing another split started that went into the handle so it became unsafe . So i need to find some solid wood to carve a better walloping stick.

Hawthorn makes excellent firewood so all the edges and gnarly bits got chopped into sticks and will be dumped. Next to the fireplace to dry out.

The wood with potential I've sealed the ends of with some paraffin wax and its all now stored in the coolest dry place I could find. One piece I decided to turn green so whipped out a blank and started but unfortunately Hawthorn has lived down to its reputation and before I'd finished turning the bowl its started to crack, just from a half a days drying out and the friction of the too. I hope some of the woods worth using once its dried out as the trial piece has gone a lovely rich brown colour with just a coat of walnut oil.

When its finished drying/ cracking ill trim where I sawed it off the lathe and use it for nuts or some other dry storage.

i did band saw some spoon and spatula blanks from the scrappy bits at the edge. I sealed the grain ends and if they haven't cracked after a few weeks ill shape them.

atb

tom

 

[tombear]

Within 24 hrs the cracks had reached the base. Since the cracks were so bad even before I finished turning it apart from applying some oil I've made no attempt to halt the drying process just to see how bad the stuff cracks. Pretty horrendously as it happens ! Ill see how the rest dries out and work around any cracks that do form.


Roll on the guy cutting the beech and sycamore he needs to do.

atb

tom

 

[humdrum_hostage]

Yowch!

"please mind the gap!"

I dont know if its worth a try, somebody told me to carve the bowl the other way so the base would have been closest to the centre of the ring and the lip of the bowl closest to the bark? I havent tried it yet as I am short of wood at the moment.

 

[tombear]

Well its worth a try! Everything I've read about hawthorn says I'd be amazingly lucky for it not to split when worked green.

All good learning.

ATB

Tom

 

[tombear]

As reported elsewhere the batton only survived a few sessions the pretty much exploded when I processed a lot of hawthorn.

Not having owt better I've quickly turned another from a willow log I was given.

Willow, so it will crack sooner rather than later but beggars can't be choosers. I made it bigger and heavier from experience from using the last one. In a vague attempt to stop the cracking its getting 24hrs in the linseed oil bath. I'm thinking of binding either end of the striking head with wire and maybe the handle with some rawhide as was suggested before. The oil will add to the weight anyway.

atb

tom