What you’re building
The head is three pieces of 2x4 glued face to face: a center piece that continues down to become the handle, and a cheek on each side. That gives a head 4½ inches thick, 3½ inches tall, and 6 inches long, with the striking faces on the end grain of the board, which takes hits better than the face. The handle is the bottom 9 inches of the center piece, narrowed to 1¾ inches so it fits a hand.
It weighs around a pound and a half in dry SPF. That’s right for driving chisels and knocking joints together. If you want a heavier mallet for assembly work, use the same plan and make the head pieces 7 or 8 inches long.
Pick the board
This project uses the best 27 inches of a board, so it’s a good use of the clean end of a 2x4 you bought for something else. Avoid knots in the head pieces; a knot on a striking face will split out. The handle piece should have straight grain running the full 15 inches.
Cut
Cut the 15-inch center piece first, then the two 6-inch cheeks. Cut the cheeks one after the other and check them against each other; if their lengths match exactly, the head will be flush without much sanding.
Shape the handle
Mark a line across the center piece 6 inches from one end. That end stays full width and becomes the head core. Below the line, draw the handle: 1¾ inches wide, centered on the board, running to the other end. Cut along those lines with a jigsaw or a hand saw. If your cuts wander, that’s fine; the handle gets rounded anyway. Rasp or sand the four long edges of the handle until it’s comfortable in your hand. An octagon is enough; a full round is nicer.
Glue up the head
Dry-fit the cheeks against the head core and check the ends are flush. Spread glue on both faces of the core’s head section, press the cheeks on, and clamp across the thickness with two clamps, one near each end. Wipe the squeeze-out. If you’re worried about the glue joint, drive two 2½-inch screws through each cheek into the core, countersunk and staggered so they don’t hit each other. Leave it clamped overnight.
Finish
Sand the striking faces flat and the head edges lightly round; a sharp corner will chip on the first miss. Sand the handle to 220. Two coats of boiled linseed oil, wiped on and wiped off, is the traditional finish and the right one here. Nothing slippery.
If something goes wrong
- Cheeks slid during clamping. Common. Sand or plane the ends flush once dry; a little misalignment doesn’t affect the mallet.
- Handle feels too thick. Keep going with the rasp. 1½ inches is fine for most hands.
- A striking face dents. Normal. It’s a mallet.