Chisel mallet

[Philip1231]

Looking for a good source for a Chisel mallet for dovetails

Thanks

You cant go too far wrong with the Blue Spruce Mallet:

[AHill]

There are all kinds of mallets that work for chisels. Flat faced ones, round ones, polyurethane ones, brass ones, etc. There are also hammers that can be used as chisel mallets. Japanese chisels are conventionally used with a Japanese chisel hammer. I personally prefer a round one made of wood (beech or maple) as it gives me more feedback than the others. I like Blue Spruce, but they are pricey, but you may not want to spend that kind of money on one. I've made my own out of lignum vitae (excellent hard wood). You may also want to check out Lee Valley, Woodcraft, Tools for Working Wood, and Rockler to see their offerings.

[museumguy]

How about going on the Woodturning forum and asking if someone would be interested in making you one. Maybe you could glue up a blank for them. Just a thought

[wing nut]

Looking for a good source for a Chisel mallet for dovetails

Thanks

This is my preferred mallet when I do dovetails
https://www.amazon.com/Vaughan-12-Ounce-...B0002IGHDE

I made a couple of mallets but I like the smaller head, I like to see my hand on the chisel when I'm hammering.
I'm on my 3rd one in over 30 yrs of ww, I originally got one for automotive repair but I like it so much I use it when I do chisel work.
And they aren't to expensive, you can spend a lot of money on mallets unless you make your own, and they get beat up anyways.

[wood-chips]

I made these with the table saw and router.
Purple heart and walnut.

   

[Derek Cohen]

My view is that round carver's mallets are not a good design for bench chisels. It is not just the desire to avoid a glancing blow, but a flat face also concentrates the impact, and a hard hammer head maximises the force. Rubber or silicon wrapped carver's mallets are self-defeating, absorbing much of the energy and causing one to strike harder than necessary.

For hooped Japanese chisels, the gennou is a small hammer, concentrating the force, preferably 225 gms for oire nomi when chopping dovetails or detail work, and 375 gms when mortising. For oire nomi a gennou are a symbiotic team. Oire nomi are struck for precision. Position the chisel and use the gennou to create just enough force for the task. 

Two of my gennous below, Tenryu Tsuchime Shikaku 225/325 gm.



There is something positive to be said for the urethane-clad mallets - they are quiet, which is useful when thumping and not wishing to disturb others. 

I also have a few mallets for non-hooped chisels. These are faced with UHMW, which has the advantage of absorbing the noise and non-marring, but still being hard enough to provide feedback (let you know how much energy has been dispatched).

The big mallet is infilled with brass. It's heavy and for mortise chisels and hard wood. The middle one is a modified Veritas cabinetmaker's mallet, and the small one is for lighter work and as a plane hammer.

In building these handles, attention was given to the hand grip.




Regards from Perth

Derek


[url=https://www.finewoodworking.com/app/uploads/2024/12/4517_1735661269_IMG_0842-700x292.jpeg][/url]