How to make a DIY judge's mallet ( gavel )

 

I had a few pieces of firewood in the shop. I think it is from apricot tree. It had really nice grain patterns and I decided to make a mallet with those. I thought a judge’s mallet would be an interesting woodturning project.

I begun with the mallet’s head. I roughly cut a piece on my bandsaw. I then chucked it on the lathe and shaped it with a scraper. I added a couple of decorative elements using the skew chisel.

To kind of flatten the edges, I chucked the piece on a homemade jam chuck and used the scraper for that job.

I then cut another piece of wood on the bandsaw to act as the mallet’s handle.

I used my drill to make a hole that would receive the handle. I measured the depth and the diameter of the hole with my caliper.

Using the parting tool, I created a tenon at the end of the handle to fit snuggly in the mallet’s head hole.

I shaped the handle, with a scraper, a skew chisel and bowl gouge.

I sanded the handle and cut it to size on the bandsaw.

I glued the handle and the head with wood glue and applied to all, a coat of teak oil.

I then cut a piece of wood for the gavel’s base. Because one side was not flat enough. I mount it on my vise and used a hand plane to flatten the base.

I then fasten it on my base plate and rounded it over with the scraper on the lathe.

After turning it to the shape I wanted, I cut it out with a handsaw.

My little judge’s mallet was now ready. It was a fun woodturning project, I hope you like it.