Next project, Need help & advice

[Woods Dweller]

I'm looking to make a wood mallet to drive tent stakes into the ground. I made one using a small log cut into a section about 7” or 8” long and about 12” round. Drilled a hole through it and put a handle in it. It worked for a few times then the log split. So! Any ideas or help. Thanks.

 

[longshot47]

Get hold of a piece of hornbeam, or something suitably hard and dense, about 12 to 14" in length and 4 to 5" thick [size it to your need]. Shape out a comfortable handle using a drawknife, hatchet or whatever and remove any prominent irregularities from the strike face. If you start with a fairly dry piece you'll never split it on tent pegs.

 

[Linc]

Hickory would be a good wood. Really tough stuff. Hickory is used for handles for axes, hammers, broom, etc.

 

[Woods Dweller]

Thanks guys, I might find hickory at a lumber store. I had to look up “hornbeam” wood, It is in birth subfamily. Maybe an old baseball bat could serve as a Mallat head. The one I made was from an old pice of oak firewood. Again, thanks.

 

[Coot]

Many woods will do, among the best are bubinga, lignam vitae,
persimmon, burl maple, beech and locust. Many woods (oak for example) are strong for framing purposes but split too easily to make a good maul. Many heavy duty mauls have iron rings set tightly around the head just back from the faces to help resist splitting. I assume that you are using wood tent stakes as wood mauls won't last if used to drive iron.

 

[lonehunter]

Baseball bats are made from Ash, Thats the first thing came to mind when I read your post. :v

 

[crockett]

In some instances the exterior bark reflects the grain, remember today's bark ends up being tomorrow's wood as the tree grows. You want a twisted grain that won't split easily. Elm, Ash, Beech- I think those were all common mallet woods. Iron hoops on the end?

 

[Woods Dweller]

Yes, the Maul is used for wood tent stakes only. I had cut Iron rings from a iron pipe but they did not stay on the maul head even after I mashed the head so that the wood would hang over the iron rings and lock the ring on the wood.

I'll look for a hard wood with twisted grain, and I'll drill hols in the iron ring to nail the ring to the maul. Thanks guys. I'll post photo after I make it.

 

[boar]

I would use Gum tree. Its what they used for wagon wheels back in the day. Hard to split even with a log splitter. Dilly

 

[LRB]

Something wrong with using a steel head hammer?

 

[Coot]

Something wrong with using a steel head hammer?

He is planning to use the maul on wood tent stakes.

 

[Birdman]

Woods ya may think of makeing the mallet more club like then hammer like, instead of drilling through the wood across the diameter n hitting the pegs with the end grain, maybe mount your handle lengthwise from the end, that way your not impacting on an end that can crack so easy. You can flatten the sides(square up the round) a bit to give ya a more squareface to hit with if ya want--just some thoughts YMHS Birdman

 

[Woods Dweller]

Birdman in my searching for how to make a Mallet, I found that a tree branch would have been cut out of the tree taking the knot of the tree where the branch went into the tree. Making mallet more club like with the handle and the [shaped] knot all one pice of wood.

 

[Woods Dweller]

something wrong with using a steel head hammer?

Nothing wrong with a steel head hammer. Many folk in history would have used a wood mallet.

 

[crockett]

I'm interested in the mountain men and I am trying to remember what they used to stake horses. I think the stake had an iron ring at the top so the stake would not split. The maul might have been more like a baseball bat.

 

[atki]

in this book:

Life in the Rocky Mountains 1830-1835
by W. A. Ferris
Rocky Mountain Fur Company

Ferris describes staking out his horsing using the iron topped stake. Google the book and you can download a pdf of it. The description is somewhere in the top half of the book.

wb

 

[Pigman]

I'm interested in the mountain men and I am trying to remember what they used to stake horses. I think the stake had an iron ring at the top so the stake would not split. The maul might have been more like a baseball bat.

Didn't they call it a picket pin?

Foster From Flint

 

[atki]

Here is a quote from Farris' book:

“The intervening spaces between the tents were barricaded by a breast-work formed of our baggage and horse furniture. The space within the square, was dotted with the iron heads of nearly two hundred hard wood pins, each one foot in length, and one and three quarters inches in diameter, drove into the ground, to which our horses and mules were fastened. Each man was provided with a wooden mallet to drive the pins with”¦.”

Sounds like to me the entire head of the pin was iron, not just a ring around the outside.

WB

 

[Hawken12]

how bout wrapping the ends with snare wire ,drill a small hole at each end for fastening ,it ties like rope....also rawhide would work .Get a large bone for dogs ,soak it ,flatten then cut cordage from it.paint mallet with shellac after ,so rawhide doesn't get wet.

 

[gearheart]

Another suggestion for twisty wood that is hard to split either apple or pear have grain that is wavy and makes good mallets. Baseball bats are ash and ash is highly prone to splitting. Ash splits :thumbsup: were used to weave chair seats and baskets.