I am making a brass carving mallet, but as a newbie, I don't know the best way to match up the diameter of the handle where it joins the head. I machined up a hammer head and drilled a hole in it for a dowel to join the handle to it, but how does one get the nice, smooth transition from the handle to the head?
Making a brass carving mallet
Oct 11, 2004
2 Replies
Rather than uing a dowel, turn a tenon on the handle stock. Then you can either mount up the head and toss the whole assembly back in the lathe to turn the handle with the head in place, or do a bunch of checking with calipers and a parting tool to get the diameter just so and mount the head after turning the handle.
Do you _want_ a nice smooth transition? Decorative beads can be nice.
If your brass is a basic cylinder with a tapered bore, you want a lip to butt up against, and you want it fairly substantial -1/8 -1/4". The handle can be smooth right up to the undercut for the head to butt up against. The wedge will drive out and down, so it'll snug up with no apparent transition.
Now, if you're talking about a "T" head mallet, which this carver considers a bad choice, your only hope is to run a taper downward from decoration or the handle, so the crossed cylinder wedges up tight.
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