White Oak Mallet!

This project started with talking to my friend/co-worker about making. He is a leather working and welder. He has been making a lot of wallets and belts lately and I asked him how much it would be for a belt. Instead of using money, I pitched making a leather working mallet I exchange. He gladly accepted and gave me a few requirements on size and basically make t as heavy as possible! I decided I would make it out of white oak and then I would whatever I had in scraps to the handle and wedges. I went to Austin’s Hardwoods and got a lovely piece of white oak and started right away!

He wanted something round but after thinking about how I would make that with the tools I had available, I pitched having an octagonal head and he agreed that would work. I used my crosscut sled to cut the white oak into three pieces about 4 inches long. I picked the best looking orientation and cut the middle piece at 2 degree for the wedged tenon joint.

The next step was picking the piece for the handle and wedges. It needs to have the identical thickness as the center piece of the head, so they are seamless at the top. I ended up with a piece of maple and the white oak scrap as the wedge. I then hollowed out the center piece to add some BBs to get that extra weight. I added some glue so they wouldn’t rattle around and clamped the head together.

I then shaped the head using my table saw set to 45 degrees. I did this to all the sides to achieve the octagonal shape. I planed it smooth using my Stanley No. 4 plane and got ready to attach the handle. I used some wood glue and hammered the wedge into place using my personal mallet. I used a flush cut saw to cut off the extra material on top and left the mallet to sit overnight. This is where it gets interesting…. I found the mallet like this the next night when I was getting ready to finish it.

At first, I was extremely confused and not sure what the heck happened. I reached out to the glue vendor and they were extremely helpful. The thought the acetic acid in the glue is what was reacting with the zinc plated BBs. They recommended a different type of their glue or epoxy to avoid the corrosion. I ended up having to remake the whole thing. I used the same piece of white oak and this time used walnut for the handle. I had a nice piece with a lot of curl that tied in well with the curl of the white oak. I followed he same steps but this time I used two wedges in the head instead of one because I saw a little crack in the broken mallet. I hope you enjoy!