Joiners mallet

Got this big hunk of mangled maple burl from the bulk bin at the local woodstore to turn into a joiners mallet.

First cut it down to size.

Then lots of planing and shaping to get the sides flat and good looking.

Start working on the handle. Angled cut from a piece of oak.
Test fit looks good. Just a bit more sanding.

Whoops! I sanded the whole handle but the fit was perfect. Now the handle fell through. Well time to split the end and drive a wedge in to get the width back.

I felt like I really turned a corner on my plane setup and sharpening and this end grain and bevel finish all done with the hand plane really shows that off.

Just a bunch of pictures of various angles after applying a few coats of danish oil. The large cavity was filled with epoxy which resulted in a milky appearance due to bubbles forming. I think I had two things working against me for a clear finish on that large epoxy blob. First I used a quicker setting epox that gives you less leeway in making corrections. Second, I did not know to apply heat to pop bubbles. Oh I also filled the void in one pass, something this large probably warranted a few fillings. The other small hole formed a bubble and prevented further epoxy penetration; again this is a result of not using a longer setting epoxy.