Turning a Carving Mallet

I want to share my process more here on the blog, so here is how I made a carving mallet on Sunday.

I made this mallet so that I can use it to strike gouges for bowl carving, which I want to experiment with. This style of mallet is easier to use for striking gouges than the larger joiner’s mallets I made. This one is pretty similar to the kitchen mallet/ice crusher I made for my friend a couple years ago.

I started with a piece of the cherry limb that came down back in August.

Using a large gouge, I roughed it out to make it a cylinder.

Next, I used a bedan to remove a lot of material to rough out the handle.

Then I used three different sized gouges and a skew to shape it the rest of the way.

For the final step on the lathe, I sanded it. First with 80 grit on a few rough spots, then 120 grit all over and then 220 grit all over.

Off the lathe, I applied a 2:1 mixture of jojoba oil and beeswax to the outside, first rubbing it in with my hands, then heating it up over an open flame on the stove burner and buffing it with a cloth.

I chose to leave the tool marks on each end:

This is just for me and I kind of like being able to see the tool marks.

Making a piece without the tool marks involves a longer piece of wood and more steps.

If I ever mess up the mallet and need to resurface it, since the tool marks are still in place I’ll be able to throw it back on the lathe and sand it down easily.

It is drying in the house for a couple days, then I’ll start using it for bowl carving!