I’d been using a rawhide mallet for those times when joinery and glue-ups were being uncooperative, but it was fairly light and beat up, so I thought it would be a good time to do a quick, fun project and build a mallet. I won’t go through the build process since you can find lots of information online on various mallet-building techniques and it’s fairly simple to do. I used walnut for the main body and handle, with a layer of maple outlined with roasted red oak (the black layer). The finish is a few coats of Mahoney’s Utility Finish (walnut oil, mostly).

It has a nice weight to it, feels nice in my hand, is plenty durable, and looks nice! It’s a big improvement over the rawhide mallet.