Two weeks ago I completed a class on carving at MASW. The course was taught by Mary May, a world-class carver and a great teacher. The course focused on carving shells and fans, the traditional designs seen in early American woodworking. Mary brought some very nice carving mallets with her made of brass and wood, and nicely weighted. I took measurements from her mallets and a sketch of the planned mallet is shown below.
A scrap of wood sufficiently large for the handle was located. The type of wood is not clear, but it is dark and can be sanded glass smooth. The scrap was cut to 2" X 2" X 7 1/4" on the table saw in two passes for each cut. The block of wood was mounted in the four jaw chuck in the South Bend lathe. A dead center was pressed into the end and 2" of the end were reduced to 0.754" as shown below.
I am not yet sure of the correct order of construction. My initial thoughts are to drill the brass blank 3/4" and cut the outside to the approximate angle. It can then be affixed to the tang with crossed wedges. The same angle can then be cut on the bottom part of the handle followed by completing the shaping of the rest of the handle. The angle of the side relative to the base of the brass end is 12.1°. The brass blank is 2" long providing sufficient material for holding during the the angle cutting. With the brass secured on the slightly long tang the whole can be held between centers for turning the wood to shape.
The 2" length of 2" brass round was centered in the four jaw chuck on the South Bend lathe. The end was faced and a through hole was drilled progressively up to 3/4". The tang did not quite fit, so an additional 5 thou or so was removed with the boring bar. The fit was near perfect with no play, but a smooth slide into the hole. The photo below shows the brass sitting on the wood.
The brass tube was set up in the South Bend lathe in the four jaw chuck, using an indicator to align the part both near the jaws and at its end. The compound was set at 12° and the taper was cut in very small increments, 0.005", as only 1/4" of the part was held in the chuck jaws. After about 1 1/4" of length had been tapered the resulting narrow end was measured at 1.5", much smaller than planned! The angle should have been 6°! The first photo shows the lathe setup with the compound slide set at the incorrect 12°, while the second shows the part after cutting stopped to measure.
The handle design will be changed to fit the new brass angle. The next step is fixing the brass to the wood. The tang was cut across its end twice to a depth of 1" with the cuts perpendicular to one another. Wedges were made from a thin strip of scrap hard maple by sanding. The wedges were cut to size and first a full width, 3/4", wedge was pounded into one slot followed by two narrower wedges pounded into the second slot. The photo below shows the brass now tightly bound to the wooden tang.
The straight part of the brass end was held in the chuck. The square wooden handle was first turned round and then reduced to almost 1.5", just larger than the smallest brass diameter. The general shape of the handle was cut with a 1/8" grooving tool as seen in the photo below.
A more refined shape was then made with aid of rasps. Two grooves were cut with a 60° lathe tool. the rasp marks were removed with a file and then the handle was sanded with 220 and 320 grit sandpaper. The end was cut off with a hacksaw and was rounded over, filed and sanded.
The brass face was sanded on the belt sander and then prolonged sanding with 220 grit sandpaper removed the belt sander marks. The face was further sanded with 320 grit sandpaper as well as the straight sides, though these were left a little rough as they are the working part of the head. A final sanding of the wood with 400 grit sandpaper was followed with two coats of shellac with a bit of sanding between.
