My neighbor cut down a white oak on the border of our property.
I’d like to make a few mallets.
I intend to use a one-piece mallet head and angle the mortise by about 3 degrees on each side.
=>I’ve seen some folks use 5 degrees, that seems a bit much – Comments?
I intend to line up the grain direction between the mallet head and the handle.
The handle and the mallet head would come from the same log – I’ll rive the handle.
My question is if I can safely make this from green wood, or what considerations I may want to make since it’s green wood (not wanting to let it dry for a few years).
The pieces are small – maybe rough mill and dry them in the kitchen oven (what temp and how long?) or microwave (how long?) – is that a good idea or is it even needed?
Rough dimensions: mallet head about 3 x 3 x 5 inches and handle about 1 x 1.25 inches (wider at the top).
Thanks in advance – Mark
Replies
I'd go for it. If I remember my timber framing articles your mortise will shrink causing the joint with the handle to tighten. Your mallet head should be small enough to not be affected that much by drying. In the end, it's a mallet. You beat on things for a while and if it breaks you make another.
@jfsksa
Thanks for reminding me to be practical.
It's a mallet, not fine furniture.
Since all the grain is in the same direction, and from the same log, it should all shrink at about the same rate.
And with the angled mortise, if the handle shrunk a bit faster it would just mean the head would move up the handle a bit.
I have a tendancy to overthink things. Better than underthinking, just slows me down a bit on getting going :)
Thanks again.
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