Well, I finally got tired of using a steel headed hammer with my brass drifts to remove and install pins, sights, etc... so I decided to make a nice small brass headed mallet to use.
I didn't get any pictures of the process, however, the mallet head was made out of just a chunk of brass bar on the lathe, the handle was made out of a nice hunk of maple on the wifes lathe and then fitted to the head with a drawknife and spokeshave and then wedged with a piece of Gabon Ebony. After it was wedged in and the glue dried, it was finished with about 10 coats of boiled linseed oil. Didn't turn out too bad in my mind for my first mallet and more importantly my first handle...I have to say, using a drawknife and spokeshave is definitely an artform that takes a lot of practice to get just right.
I also got two of Shooboys nice steel bodied hammers with interchangeable striking heads. Very well made and definitely worth the money:
The little mallet I made packs quite a wallop and transfers a majority of it's impact into the drift without much bounce. Shooboys hammers have smaller heads and aren't quite as impactful, but they really do work well for setting pins and driving them into slides, receivers, etc...
--Wintermute
I didn't get any pictures of the process, however, the mallet head was made out of just a chunk of brass bar on the lathe, the handle was made out of a nice hunk of maple on the wifes lathe and then fitted to the head with a drawknife and spokeshave and then wedged with a piece of Gabon Ebony. After it was wedged in and the glue dried, it was finished with about 10 coats of boiled linseed oil. Didn't turn out too bad in my mind for my first mallet and more importantly my first handle...I have to say, using a drawknife and spokeshave is definitely an artform that takes a lot of practice to get just right.
I also got two of Shooboys nice steel bodied hammers with interchangeable striking heads. Very well made and definitely worth the money:
The little mallet I made packs quite a wallop and transfers a majority of it's impact into the drift without much bounce. Shooboys hammers have smaller heads and aren't quite as impactful, but they really do work well for setting pins and driving them into slides, receivers, etc...
--Wintermute
