Mallets

Wood mallets are a good shop tool and one every turner should have in their own shop.

They can be made a one-piece or two-piece models.

		Making a Wood Turned Mallet by James D. Thompson
In this tutorial, James shows us how he uses leather to make a mallet head. It's not complicated and will make a mallet that you can use with your metal tools, like your carving gouges. The tutorial doesn't really cover turning the handle but show some good photo's of it. An experienced turner will know how to do this and any beginners should reference our "How to make Tool Handles" in the Articles section of Woodturning Online.

		Turn a wooden mallet with an oval handle by Keith Larrett
In this photo tutorial, Keith shows us how he turns a wood mallet on this lathe. What's special about this tutorial is that Keith makes an oval handle for his mallet. Holding a mallet with an oval handle is more comfortable and better suited for our hands. And since the technique of an oval handle can be applied to many tools, it's one well worth learning. So, go ahead and make one yourself to get that great technique done!

		Scrap Mallet by Tom Hintz
One of the by products of many chuck-based turning processes is a cut-off tenon, sometimes called a spigot. When I first started using my lathe I threw these remnants in the trash, but lately began keeping the better ones as it occurred to me I could glue them up to make something useful. In this project, Tom shows how he uses those scrap cut-offs to make a glue-up mallet, both the head and the handle.

Woodturning Mallets Projects by Tom Hintz

Turning a Carver Mallet by Tom Hintz

The one-piece carvers mallet is a great project for new woodturners because in its simple forms it is easy to turn but provides good practice with basic turning tools and skills. Start out with simple shapes to build confidence and skills before adding more difficult design elements to increase the challenge at your own pace.

As your skills increase, the basic mallet can morph into nutcrackers, tenderizing hammers or even pestles for mortar and pestle sets. Once the basic procedures are mastered, your creativity is the only limitation when creating gifts, or just having fun on a rainy afternoon.

		Turning a Mallet on a Wood Lathe by Korisnik
This YouTube video shows you how to make a mallet with an oval handle. It's ~4 minutes long.

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