Expert to Beginner

Mystery Mallet With Roy Underhill

What? Its the end of November already! Okay, okay, heres the Mystery Mallet post that was supposed to be up about three weeks ago! Sheesh!

In an effort to actually post this tonight, Im going to keep the text to a minimum. This class was the Saturday after the Friday dovetail class. It was quite a bit smaller, and more relaxed, for me anyway. It was awesome!

The Mystery Mallet - of myth and legend - dovetailed in all directions, guaranteed to never come apart - or go together...


The beginnings of mine. Roy provided the stock, with the hickory (or was it ash?) handle already turned.


The first through mortise:


The double rising dovetails:


Jonathan, wielding his fantastic Wenzloff tenon saw:


The completed mallet head - bottom view:


And top view:


The Master, fine tuning a handle:


Due to the crazy stresses involved in assembly, clamping the handle to reduce the chance of epic failure is advised:




Layout complete - starting on my handle:


And the handle complete:


Roy, and Scott driving Scotts handle home with his "Osage Commander". His survived and gave hope to all still laboring in fear of heading home with jagged shards in a box as the days final outcome.


My handle and head ready to go!


Roy giving my work the once over:


A very trusting Woodwright and El Kabong!


Success! Yeah baby!


Mugging in triumph!


The best day in a long, long time!

Oh, and one more shot of the mallet after cleaning it up a bit: