Deadwood mallet - yes it’s for bonsai
Hey folks,
Just a quick post about some mallets I built for working on deadwood.
I have seen many other enthusiasts and pros using these to hand-carve deadwood on trees. Since it was a super nasty winter I thought why not go out and make something in that enjoyable weather….. Seems right… riiiiight?
Well, I'm a glutton for punishment. So here we go.
I used hard maple for the striking face, Idaho black walnut for the exterior beauty plates, and knotty alder for the handle.
This is a relatively simple project, to create. I started by measuring out the striking face width and paired it with the beauty panels of walnut. I wanted a wide striking surface, but not too wide to where getting the mallet into or under a tree would be difficult. I also want to make sure the weight is manageable so it can be focused on the chisel it’s hitting. The move here is controlled finesse strikes, after all, we are using this on a living tree - not beating a stake into the ground.
As stated above, mating the striking face, width, weight, and handle was the toughest part of the project. I used the lathe to turn the handles and get the fit just right.
Here are some construction photos.
I built two of these, one for myself and another for a friend of mine. They both turned out very well and I feel more complete as a bonsai practitioner having this tool in my arsenal. Well, that may be a stretch, but at least I can say I have one and not feel left out of the "cool kids' club of bonsai professionals. Mainly bragging right I guess.
I get asked a lot about how long these projects take to complete, So I am going to work on detailing these pieces going forward. This project took about two hours to complete.
Thanks for hanging in there with me and until next time!
Cheers,
Jon