This was made from some spalted hawthorn wood for the head and ash for the handle. The head was turned on the pole lathe to get the shape I wanted that seemed to fit the wood. The wood was very hard and also pretty wet as it had been sitting outside since the summer but it did turn well.
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| Finished mallet after treating with linseed oil. |
The ash was from the same tree that I made the picture frames from but this particular log was straight grained and ideal for this handle. I enjoyed turning this and finding different grip positions on the handle as I knew the mallet head was going to be big and heavy.
The end of the handle was turned to a diameter of 1 inch so that it could be fitted through the centre of the head. Drilling the hole for the handle in the head was tricky but proved straight forward by using the pole lathe centres to draw a line around the head and then drilling about half way from both sides. I had previously used the pole lathe and pencil to mark a centre line around the head. If you are practised with a traditional brace it is easy to get the holes to meet precisely.
The handle was attached by glueing and placing a beech wedge across the grain of the handle and the head to reduce the chances of the wedge causing splitting.
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