Mallet

I had a little free time recently, so went into my shop to tidy it up. As I did so, I picked up a Mallet that I purchased a few years ago from Lee Valley. I have always liked the shape and feel of this mallet and thought as I held it yesterday that it would make a nice model for one turned in wood.

Ironbark / Huon Pine Mallet

So distracted from the task at hand, I scrounged through my scrap-bin and found some appropriate wood for the task. Two hours latter, I came up with this. It’s well balanced with a heavy head making the mallet feel good in the hand. I applied a coat of Tung Oil, but I don’t intend to add any finish beyond that.

The head is from Red Ironbark a heavy dense wood; Eucalyptus fibrosa ( F. Muell. ), Red Ironbark or Broad-leaved Red Ironbark, is a type of Ironbark tree found in Australia, mainly in Queensland and New South Wales. This plant is in family Myrtaceae.

The tree has deeply furrowed dark gray bark. It grows to a height of about 30 meters.

Another View

Flowers are creamy white. Leaves are dark green and broader than other ironbarks. The dense, strong wood is valued for lumber. The sap, locally called “kino,” was used by natives to keep fish lines from fraying and by the early settlers for ink.

The handle is Huon Pine, or species Lagarostrobos franklinii which is a species of conifer native to the wet southwestern corner of Tasmania, Australia.

Jean-Michel Huon de Kermadec was an 18th century French navigator. It is a slow growing, but long-lived tree; some living specimens of this tree are in excess of 2000 years in age. One particular stand of trees reputed to be in excess of 10,500 years in age was recently found in North Western Tasmania on Mount Read.

The wood was highly prized for its golden yellow colour, fine grain and natural oils that resisted rotting. It is now available in small quantities from reclaimed lumber that was logged prior to the middle of the last century, or trees that have fallen naturally.

Oh, I still have a shop to clean up.