Shopsmith Forums

I seem to remember the heat of the hand makes a difference with pure Tung oil.

BuckeyeDennis wrote:Only if it's a female mallet.

Ha, nope. My son said it looks like Thor's hammer so Mjolnir shall be it's name.

JPG wrote:Usually I drizzle s sparing amount on the the workpiece. Then both distribute it and work it in with finger pressure. For larger surfaces my palm works.

It is oil! It will wash off.

Now there are 'finishes' with tung oil and varnish or whatever. Same method, but usually requires wiping off excess after several minutes. Same procedure(by me) but cleaning hands becomes more problematic. I like that finish when sealing is desirable. I use minwax brand.




For shame Dennis!!!!

Interesting, I'll have to try that soon.

jsburger wrote:I seem to remember the heat of the hand makes a difference with pure Tung oil.

I was wondering about this. Too late now! Tung oil applied.

jsburger wrote:I seem to remember the heat of the hand makes a difference with pure Tung oil.

Linssed oil too(where I got into the habit).

B4 you finish it, just a thought, I have made many, same design basically, but I go to my local shoe repair/Cobbler and get a piece of Sole Leather, which is pretty hard, and is about 3/16" thick and Epoxy a piece on the other face, for softer tapping.

ERLover wrote:B4 you finish it, just a thought, I have made many, same design basically, but I go to my local shoe repair/Cobbler and get a piece of Sole Leather, which is pretty hard, and is about 3/16" thick and Epoxy a piece on the other face, for softer tapping.

Ahh, nice idea.

I have a mallet that looks pretty much just like yours that I purchased many many years ago in my hand tool phase. The beech held up really really well and I's sure the mallet will be handed down to the next generation at least, maybe more.

It came unfinished and the instructions were to leave it that way. I have no idea why any more but it must have made since at the time because that is what I did.

I have a second mallet that is a different design and materials and it came with a mineral oil finish and instructions to to wipe it down from time to time. I have long since given up on doing that and it is still working fine as well.

I don't think you can go wrong with an oil finish, just about any oil finish.

Ed

I keep a bottle of Howard Feed N Wax in the shop for small projects. Comes in handy.

http://www.howardproducts.com/prod-feed-n-wax.php