With the free woodworking plan that you can download on this page you can make a wooden mallet (or carpenter's mallet).

The wooden mallet is one of the easiest tools to make, and is essential for all joinery and furniture making. The wooden mallet might be described as a hammer with a wooden head.

 

Wooden mallet plan
Project type
Project difficulty
Simple, requires precision
Skill level
for school classes and beginners
Level of workshop equipment
Hobby - Hand tools and power tools
Applied woodworking joints
Through mortise and tenon joint
Dimensions

w 60mm (2.36'') x L 129mm (5.07'') x H 350mm (13.78'')

 

The mallet is a useful tool in every workshop, and we recommend that you create at least one since you will surely need it.

Usage

  • where a steel hammer can damage the workpiece
  • to strike the wooden tool handles (chisels…)
  • when needed to deliver a blow which shall be less concentrated than that of the steel hammer.
  • knocking parts of a woodworking project together.

Mallets are of different dimensions, and the one in our plan is medium-sized.

Woodworkers rule: a mallet should never be used against steel, or a steel hammer against wood.

 

Exploded view and parts list
Wooden mallet - Parts list
Assembly drawing
Wooden mallet - Assembly drawing

 

The head is tapered toward the workman so that it will strike the work squarely. The eye of the head and handle are tapered so that the action of swinging the mallet automatically tightens the head on the handle.

Assemblage of the wooden mallet: Push the bottom of the handle through the top of the head and tap it down on a piece of wood.

 

Wooden mallet - Assemblage

 

The mallet in our plan is made of wood. In order to make it as durable as possible, use hardwood, and for the head use the hardest available type of hardwood. If it is a problem to find a piece the right thickness, glue two ot three pieces together.  Nowadays you can purchase mallets at reasonable, even low prices, and most of them have a rubber head. The making of this mallet is not complicated, and we recommend it as a nice gift for yourselves or for your fellow woodworkers. The tapered eye on the mallet head is quite difficult to make, especially when the head is created from one piece of wood, so we recommend that, for the head, you use multiple parts that are glued together instead.

 

Wooden mallet - Assemblage
Download project in PDF file format
Download project (high resolution images)

Submitted by Ceh Jan