Cherry kitchen mallet

Last week we got invited to a last-minute birthday party the night before. I wanted to turn something on the late that night anyway, so I decided to make a kitchen mallet for a gift. Sometime to crush ice, make cutlets, smash cucumbers, crack peppercorns, etc.

I turned it out of a cherry limb that fell out of the tree in our yard earlier this year.

Unfortunately no in-progress photos, but here is what I did:

Cut a section of the cherry limb to length

Chuck it with the spur drive and rough it out. It was off-balance so a bit precarious at the beginning. Thankfully it was still pretty green, so it was easy to rough with a roughing gouge.

Once round, I removed most of the waste material around the handle first

Shaped the head of the mallet and the handle transition with a large gouge

Shaped the handles with a medium gouge

Sanded (80 / 120 / 220 / 400)

Cut the grooves with a skew, then burned them in with guitar string

Buffed with 0000 steel wool

Cut off the lathe with a parting tool

Coated with Tried and True original

Buffed with 0000 steel wool again

I expected it to crack because it was turned green and it still had the pith in it. That is part of the charm as it ages and you use it. I heated some beeswax/oil blend and poured it in there to seal it up a bit. If it becomes unusable I’ll make them another one.

I’ve made a couple other mallets in this style before. I’ll probably make more in the future. I like this style and they are fun and easy to turn!

Making kitchen tools from a log – Chuck Grimmett

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Turning a Carving Mallet – Chuck Grimmett

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