So I was watching a woodworking video sometime last year with Roy Underhill. He was ranting about the joiners mallets that are available in the stores these days and how inferior they are compared to a homemade one (sort of reminds me of the salad hands that I mentioned in an earlier post). He went on to show how to build one and even talked about good woods to use for a mallet. He mentioned Osage Orange for folks who live in the midwest. It’s also know as Bois d’arc or Hedge Apple. I remembered that I had seen that wood but could not remember where. This last Christmas, we went to my wife’s family farm and I noticed a broken branch that was in the west wind break. I went out to trim it up and it hit me. This was the famed Osage Orange complete with the “apples”. I used part of the branch to make a small Christmas tree and brought the rest home to dry out.

A couple of weeks ago, I needed to chop out some deep mortices for a project. I had been using a round carving mallet but it just did not have enough mass. I needed bigger and better. I needed to hit something hard. So being a person of process, I took a couple of hours to stop the other project and build a proper joiners mallet.

It only took a couple of hours and I only messed up one handle. I repurposed some hickory for the handle that I saved from a cabinet. It ended up being a little small for my hand so I wrapped it with some leather lacing. I used it the next day and loved it. It weighs about 14 ounces after letting it soaked for a week in boiled linseed oil.

Osage Orange is a hard, hard wood even in its green state. But it is a joy to carve and to work with. I have enough left over for a couple of spoons. It’s a great day when I can use something that I made to make something else. Try and build something for yourself. I guarantee you will enjoy it.

Thanks for perusing,

Gary