bamboo mallets

[sossol]

I saw a bamboo rolling pin at TJMaxx and thought it would make for some neat mallets. It was long enough to make four, but I've only done two so far.
The first one is pretty straightforward.

I drilled and chiseled a tapered mortise in the head to accept the tapered end of the handle, which was a Cuisinart bamboo spatula. I left the label there as a lark. The handle is an interference fit - no fasteners. The rounded lip of the mortise was to call attention to itself.

The second one is more complicated and involved math and a bit of experimentation. It was inspired by Art Deco "banjo" style steering wheels.

The rods are 5/16 fiberglass driveway markers. The handle is a stack of pucks cut from a bamboo cutting board and a home drilled for each of the fiberglass rods. It's held together by the tension of the rods being forced into arc. I'm going to cut the end of the handle down to six pucks instead of seven, and wrap the handle as soon as I figure out what I want to use. I was hoping to leave the pucks as is, but the glue holding the plies together failed as I was pushing them onto the fiberglass, so there are a few chunks missing. I could have glued them back in, but then t wouldn't be a glueless assembly.
Here's how I made the handle pucks: I laid out the holes before cutting them apart. Then stacked them together and used my bandsaw and belt sander to round them off.

[kbalch]

Thanks sossol! I've added your Bamboo Mallets to our Hammers and Woodworking categories, as well as to your builder page: sossol's Homemade Tools. Your receipt:

Bamboo Mallets by sossol

tags: hammer, hand tools, mallet

[DIYer]

I wonder what part of the bamboo that is? Because the trunk section of bamboos are a series of hollow spaces, so I guess it would be near the roots? Interesting work on that second mallet handle, by the way.

[Y-Blockhead]

The rolling pin/hammer head is sections of bamboo glues together the similar to the way bamboo flooring is made.