Shopsmith Forums

Made a correction to the original post. The angled face is 10° not 15°.

I made a prototype with a 15° face and it did not look right.
Yes, same handle.

Great job. Its very rewarding to start with the raw wood as it comes from the tree as you did and turn it into such a fine tool.

Just for reference the several mallets I have are in the 5 to 7 degree range. While 10 might work I know my favorite is the one that is 7 degrees over the 5 degree one for a lot of tasks. If you are using it for say chisels then the even shorter 5 degrees seems better to me but the 7 degrees for persuading things....

Ed

Thor would be pleased!

reible wrote:Just for reference the several mallets I have are in the 5 to 7 degree range. While 10 might work I know my favorite is the one that is 7 degrees over the 5 degree one for a lot of tasks. If you are using it for say chisels then the even shorter 5 degrees seems better to me but the 7 degrees for persuading things....

Ed

Thank You for that insight. I considered the motion from both a elbow swing and a wrist swing. Also the angle spanned by wrist motion.(the source of 15°)

I think realistically a shorter range when 'tapping'.


One thing about it, I can take off the excess, but not the reverse.

ChrisNeilan wrote:Thor would be pleased!

And I ain't Norwegian!

I have 3 that style, plans from a WWorking mag, I cant remember 5 or 7* 2 for me, one bigger head and long handle and one smaller head and shorter handle and the small size for my nephew, the smaller size is for chisel work, the bigger one is for wacking. I also on all of them on one face glued on about 1/4" shoe sole leather for a softer touch, but with a good wack on hard ash it can dent it.
I posted them here for a search if you want to look up. I also did not do round handles, the 2 small ones have rectangular handles with cuts in them for your fingers, like a pistol grip on a pistol, the larger one has a rectangular handle, they will not roll in your hand.

Here is a pic of the big wacker.
cant do it here is a link.
Page 7
http://shopsmith.com/ss_forum/viewtopic ... ts#p205401

Good to see that old chunk of firewood turned into something useful!

Osage is as tough as nails -- it's almost impossible for me to split it by hand with a maul. I have no problem splitting ash, locust, etc. But the mightiest whack I can muster will usually bounce back from an osage log on the first several blows. And that's with a sharp edge on the maul. When I finally do get it to split, long stringy fibers still connect the two halves. I could never pull them apart by hand -- had to use more maul persuasion just for those little fibers.

As for rot resistance, that very piece of firewood lived in a stack outdoors in the woods for over 20 years, with no shelter whatsoever. Now I feel guilty for burning so much of it. Back when I was clearing trees for our house, and generally de-scrubbing our woods, I had no idea that the wood had any value.

That blind-wedged handle joint is very interesting. I gather that you used no glue at all?

Fine job and tutorial.

Why not use epoxy vice CA for filling the cracks?

Steve, the old Florida gator

I just love it when she says I can go make sawdust.