[Oscar36]

John,

You mean finishing up projects from last year's Christmas...right? My friends and family know that I am not that punctual for gifts but they do get them...eventually. lol.

In East Texas its been 98-103 F with a heaping of high humidity. My un-insulated garage shop is an oven ready to cook me so I've stayed far away.

Though I probably do need to start my chess board. The pieces are almost finished 3d printing. Just 5 more to go but they are each 14 to 18 hours to print. I also need to do some leather work at some point. Too many hobbies not enough time.

I was thinking of making some mallets for gifts this year. Quick and easy.

 

[Oscar36]

I haven't made a run to the big box store for some plywood so haven't started my chess board.

Also been recovering from my first time at Covid. Only had fever for 4 days but its been about three weeks and I feel tired all the time and out of wind as soon as I do anything but finally starting to have a little energy.

Got all the lumber ready to make 4 mallets. Did a quick one to see if I remember how to make them. Let's just say a particular old guy can't remember squat. So not perfect but it did let me know where I need to pay more attention for the rest of the mallets. Purple heart and oak handle with lacquer and wax finish. Looks way prettier IRL. (I can use young people lingo every once in a while)

If I remember, someone had asked what purple heart looks like after a while. This is about a year of oxidation in the open. I did not resurface the lumber and only did a light sanding. Also some boards are more purple than others.

 

[Oscar36]

I designed the handle to be able to register the hammer direction without looking at the hammer. It also feels good in the hand (at least to me). You can hold it higher for delicate smashing or lower down the handle for a little more vigorous smashing and you can feel it without looking at the hammer.

This mallet design if for light to medium strike force so it will not hold up for long term heavy smashing use. I believe you need a solid piece of heavy hardwood for a hard smashing force mallet.

I have about 20 chunks of oak, air drying (2 years so far), to make heavy use mallets at some time in the future.

 

[Oscar36]

I read a short article about preserving the color of purple heart just the other day: put it in the oven about 250*f for a few minutes. It might be worth looking into.

John, that is cool. I may or may not have known about that a while ago but if so have long since forgotten that nugget of info.

So of course had to try it. 250F for 15 minutes. A lot more purpliey. It does work.

 

[Oscar36]

Mallet #2 finnished. Still playing with the design and build processes. Love that these are only a couple of hours to build.

Purple heart and oak with an oil based poly. I think I need to build some jigs for speed and standardization. Batching them out would be easier as well. Currently a lot of hand work and sanding to finish that I do not enjoy.

But this design got a 100% positive from the household so may stick to this for this year's go round.

 

[Oscar36]

An idea for a simple gift for your drinking family/buddies. Its also a perfect blank canvass for either cnc carving or laser engraving.

 

[Oscar36]

My sister visited from Houston so of course had to give her all the mallets I had finished (2) so starting the second batch this week.

It will be purple heart with hickory handles. Also, will be cnc'ing a ram skull on them to make it 'em cool. Quick little pattern I made this morning.

What my cnc software says it should look like at 3" x 2" x .2". Used the grey scale height map image for the pattern. The STL kept crashing my cnc software.

 

[Oscar36]

First coat of tung oil. Love the hickory.

 

[Oscar36]

First time in history I have a few wood projects completed before Christmas!!

First shiny one is mine. It had the most errors in it. I used oil based poly on it.

The rest are three coats of tung oil. A few more weeks to fully cure and then off in the mail.

 

[Oscar36]

An interesting failure.

Using the heating technique for purple heart, I wanted to see if the purple heart would get more purpliey if I baked it hotter and longer. I had a test design mallet I was not really happy with. The handle was not as comfortable as my more organic design so I thought I would use it in the experiment.

350F for 20 minutes.

Big fail. The heat released the wood's internal stresses and pulled the pieces apart breaking the glue joints at places. The glue also burned black.

Still functional but not very pretty. I may clean it up and throw a finish on it anyway.