What's this mallet for?

[tombear]

Wandering around Bolton, as you do, I picked up this mallet thing for a quid in a charity shop.

It's 8 inch long, the handles well turned beech and the head is incredibly heavy. It's not been used. I assume that its for hitting a chisel but someone please put me out of my misery and tell me precisely what it's for?

atb

Tom

 

[British Red]

Its a carving mallet Tom - beautiful thing

 

[Kerne]

Its a carving mallet Tom - beautiful thing

Seconded - looks like a cracking example as well.

 

[British Red]

Meant to add, its Lignum Vitae that one - about £25 new.

 

[Paulm]

Lignum vitae head, top notch heavy carving mallet, certainly worth a lot more than a quid !

Cheers, Paul

 

[Macaroon]

Very nice, and I think it's a good one as it appears to be two pieces, the head slid over the handle; the cheaper ones tend to be one piece of turned Beech.......Good catch!

 

[tombear]

Excellent! Cheers for that. I didn't know if it was a masons or something that I was as unlikely to use. Cool! As you may have guessed I do have some decent carving tools and on holiday herself bought a boxed set of those surprisingly good carving tools Lidl was selling for £20 a pop.

i'd been dragged out shopping for a new mattress and as a reward was allowed to do a tour of the shops ( how sad is that? ) and that's all I found. A better score than I'd thought by far!


atb

Tom

 

[Harvestman]

Quality. A lovely item.

When you asked "What is this mallet for?" I thought "Hitting things of course. What else is a mallet for?"

Glad you got a sensible answer though.

 

[demographic]

As mentioned above its a carving mallet, and again as mentioned above looks like its got a Lignum Vitae head.

As a side note, you sometimes see them made from old crown green bowling err things as they are often Lignum.

Also Lignum Vitae was often used as propshaft bearings for submarines and small hydro plants as it was self lubricating and didn't mind water. Also Harrisons pendulum clock had parts made from it.

 

[British Red]

As a side note, you sometimes see them made from old crown green bowling err things as they are often Lignum.

Woods .

 

[demographic]

Woods .

Ta muchly. Can't say I've ever done it but I knew they used to make em out of Lignum Vitae all the same.
A nice chap who sometimes goes onto another forum I frequent made bearings for his French River land hydro project from the stuff.
Be aware that his site is massive and there's a lot of photos with not a huge amount of explanations for them. Its interesting and his family do everything but sometimes more writing for the pictures would help a bit.
He's a good bloke though.

 

[Paulm]

As mentioned above its a carving mallet, and again as mentioned above looks like its got a Lignum Vitae head.

As a side note, you sometimes see them made from old crown green bowling err things as they are often Lignum.

Also Lignum Vitae was often used as propshaft bearings for submarines and small hydro plants as it was self lubricating and didn't mind water. Also Harrisons pendulum clock had parts made from it.

Here's one I made earlier !







Very heavy for it's size due to the lignum head.

Cheers, Paul

 

[Harvestman]

That's a thing of beauty too!

 

[British Red]

Good gods that gorgeous Paul - bet that LV took the edge off your turning tools!

 

[tombear]

That is lovely, I wish my lathe skills was up to that standard! I see any number of bowls, often quite rough and cheap, on carboots. Mind I've got my one quid job so I'm happy!

atb

Tom

 

[tombear]

I picked up a really knackered bowls ball last year. And since I'd decided it was too hot to go out again I finally got to make my heavier carving mallet.

First off I took one of my beloved carboot 50p beech rolling pins and turned a section down to nearly fit down the hole in the bowls ball where the plastic caps had conveniently been broken off. I then sanded it until I thought it could be hammered on, turned a bunch of grooves into the place where the head would go, applied copius amounts of model aircraft grade Alphetic resin glue and with my heart in my mouth hammered the head on. I was convinced I would split the basically donut shaped piece of wood ( I'm pretty sure it's Lignum vitae , if not its some other super heavy, dense, impact resistant wood ) but it laughed it off which bodes well.

i'd sharpened a set of tools before I went over sick so they handled the very hard wood well.

The final shape was dictated by my trying to keep as much weight as possible while removing most flaws, cracks and holes. When some sort of balance was achieved i then took it through three grades of sandpaper, sawed off the ends, sanded down the turning stub things and gave it a coat of linseed.

It it weighs in a 1lb 10oz compared to its bought sibling at 13oz. I'll give it a day in the linseed tank which will probably add a ounce or so and swell the handle into the head, not that it's going anywhere.

im pretty pleased with it, feels right in my hand.

ATB

Tom

 

[British Red]

Thats a thing of beauty Tom - stunning

 

[Robson Valley]

Great. You will use them both. I have a 12oz and a 30oz. Once you get beyond a 15mm to maybe gouges which are 25 - 35mm wide, the little mallet just doesn't strike hard enough to get much of anything done. The bigger mallets are the more useful as you can choke up on the handle, even hold the head, for the finer work.

 

[Nice65]

Here's one I made earlier !







Very heavy for it's size due to the lignum head.

Cheers, Paul

Lovely Paul. I just got rid of two sets of woods. I knew they were Lignum Vitae, but had to clear excess baggage. I gave them to the local bowling club.

Ive seen it used as bearings on ships, even found it in skips on the old yards, heavy with oil and grease.

 

[Mesquite]

That's a great bit of toolmaking Tom, it's going to last you a lifetime for sure