Black locust mallet?

It's reasonable

Dick Coers

Really any species of wood can be made into a mallet. It's the lifespan that is the variable.

Re: Black locust mallet?

John K Jordan

I like black locust for turning, it's hard and heavy but a little bland (not important for a mallet of course!)

If hardness is important, here are the Janka hardness numbers of some local woods, from the Wood Database.

Osage Orange 2620,

Persimmon 2300,

Dogwood 2150,

Black Locust 1700,

I used Dogwood for my current mallet since I had some and love turning it.

I don't understand the other numbers in the Wood Database that look like they are related to toughness, but from comparing the four I suspect black locust may about be the toughest of these.

I probably have a mallet sized piece of wood in osage or persimmon so send me an email if you want to try making a mallet from one of those as well. I'll probably be driving near your area the middle of August.

JKJ

properties to consider

Bill Tindall, E.Tn.

as others have said, anything makes a suitable mallet. But for chisels splitting resistance is the primary property to optimize. Locust splits easily, maybe the easiest of any wood I deal with. It is trivial to split fence posts from seven foot logs, even knotty logs. Dogwood is the best chisel handle material.

A second property for chisels is weight. Many prefer a light handle to keep the center of gravity low on the tool. Again, locust not the best choice for weight.

It makes long lasting fence posts, the best use for it.

Re: properties to consider

Barry Irby

I have not tried to look up "splitting resistance". It could be important in a mallet.

I had a stash of Osage Orange. My cousin had a grandson and I made her a high chair for him out of the OO. There was a brick floor and he dragged the chair around on it and turned it over more than once. The chair shattered in numerous places. So Osage may be as hard as woodpecker's lips, but it's brittle. Might not be the best mallet.

must be your construction

Bill Tindall, E.Tn.

It is the preferred wood for bows, according to a cousin bow maker. And persons in our club have made mallets of it. If it splits pounding maybe a steel hammer was called for.

variations in wood species

John K Jordan

>>>I had a stash of Osage Orange. ... So Osage may be as hard as woodpecker's lips, but it's brittle. Might not be the best mallet

Not all osage is the same. Just like not all pupleheart and not all dogwood. Some of the osage I've had seems quite splintery such that I can't use a skew chisel on it when turning thin spindles. Other osage I've turned was not like this.

If you want the perfect heavy, non-split-able mallet maybe go with some kind of weighted artificial material. Anything else will eventually degrade - even my dogwood mallet has to be dressed occasionally to clean up splintering fibers on the side-grain surfaces. Well, once in 10 years, but hey.

The subject of this thread started with making a mallet using some available domestic wood already in hand to make a mallet. Expanding it to making chisel handles that resist splitting when pounded with a mallet is something else. Ferrules can help, of course.

If expanding the topic to a better mallet wood than black locust, domestic or not, consider lignum vitae, Guaiacum spp. - strong, tough, and oh so heavy - or the similar verawood (argentine lignum vitae, Bulnesia spp.), not native to the US but sometimes grown in Florida.

BTW, my favorite use for osage orange is garden stakes and twitch (twist) sticks for tightening diagonal brace wires when fencing - the wood will be there long after I'm gone. JL, I just remembered I still have a couple of osage logs and chunks if you want some pieces.

JKJ

Re: properties to consider

Joe in a Cleveland suburb

The last mallet I made was out of a chunk of scrap walnut. It has lasted a while and cost me nothing to make. Not the best choice, but who cares.

I have several chunks of OO that have been lying around for years. Some day (year) I'll make a new mallet out of the OO.

Re: Black locust mallet?

William Duffield

I've made dozens of mallets, from many different species of wood. My maul (a.k.a. beetle) for my froe is black locust. It is a fair performer, but there are much better choices. It does splinter, but striking the back of a steel froe is particularly hard on any wood.

As far as the best choice among domestic species, it depends on the design of your mallet. If the mallet will be striking with its end grain, you should choose hornbeam, Carpinus carolinensis. This is Lie-Nielsen's choice for chisel handles. If instead the mallet will be striking with the face grain, your best choice is hop hornbeam, Ostrya virginiana. The numbers published by the USDA Forest Products Lab Center for Wood Anatomy Research confirm my personal experience.

For many years my favorite mallet has been one I turned from a single block of hop hornbeam. However, that opinion may change after I get home from Maine next week with a weighted, epoxy impregnated, curly hard maple mallet made by Dave Jeske for Lie-Nielsen.

Re: must be your construction

Hank Knight

The French name for osage orange is bois d'arc, I.E., "bow wood."

When you're making the mallet...

david weaver

it really doesn't matter. Locust, dogwood, osage, beech, maple, oak, hickory...

all make suitable mallets. Get the weight and proportions right. if you're striking a lot of wood chisels that have relatively soft handles and no hoops, you might want to go with something softer than locust. Locust has extreme focus in the direction of the grain, lots of conviction. Just like osage does (thus it's a great bow wood). Get it turned a little bit and it will shed fibers pretty easily.

Beech would be my choice of all of the above because it's not musical and it makes for quieter and more comfortable malleting on the handle hand. Dogwood if you need some extra density and toughness for a carving mallet or mortise chisels.

That said, you have locust. If your chisels will tolerate locust, build with locust. See what you like. Pay attention to proportion and weight, and if you have to build another one down the road with something else, you'll know 90% of what makes a perfect mallet by the second one.

Re: must be your construction

Barry Irby

It was my construction. I made it with fairly slender arms that were sculpted for comfort and box jointed into up-rights off the seat. The seat was also sculpted with a butt print into it. The point on the seat between the legs took a beating and so did the arms. The arms shattered.

Not a lot of wood or construction will stand up to a "mean little kid" and a brick floor. I repaired it and it's as good as new. Until the next kid with a brick floor comes along.