Croquet
Posted by Nathaniel.
I had a lot of fun playing croquet a few weeks ago and I’ve become sort of fixated on building a set of croquet mallets to play with. I did a bit of research, and it turns out that a competition-quality mallet is going to cost you at least $150 and likely a lot more.
The best folks even put the dimensions of their mallets online.
So I figure that I can build my own set of mallets. I’m going to use maple for the heads, probably ash for the handles, and I’m considering a bamboo or ironwood striking surface. Everything is right angles (although I need to figure out how I’m going to join the handles to the heads since I don’t have a lathe.) so it should be easy.
The first step? Find some wood. It turns out that it’s not that easy to find maple boards that are around 2.5 inches thick. In fact, it’s nearly impossible unless you go to specialty lumber stores. And specialty stores usually have really really really nice products.
So now I’m thinking that I need to use curly maple for the heads just because it would be so stunningly pretty. Check out this link to see what I’m talking about. It’s stunning. (Note, I’m not going to get that particular board… too rich for my blood.)
Of course, if I do find THE ONE piece of wood that’s perfect for the heads, I’m going to have to find some perfect pieces to make the handles too. Troubles abound.
August 2nd, 2005 at 12:06 am Using
you probably want ash (blue or northern white), maple, or even a nice big of straight-grain hickory for the handle. joining to the head won’t be too bad, but i’m not sure how you’ll make the striking surface without a lathe (I like the ironwood idea).
and yeah, quality wood is really nice. mmmm.
August 2nd, 2005 at 12:32 am Using
“Real” croquet mallet heads are just rectangular blocks so I was just going to sandwich the maple body with two ~1/2 inch pieces of the striking material. That part’s going to get roughed up by use, so I was thinking that the end pieces are sacrificial… if they get too dinged up I can just cut them off and replace them.
I think it’s going to either be bamboo, purpleheart, or teak. I was initially thinking bamboo, but I’d have to buy a bunch of cutting boards and then saw them up to get what I need. Now I’m leaning more towards teak since it’s so rugged.
I’ve firmly decided that the handle is going to be hickory.
The other question is finish… the two options are a dye stain followed by a wipe-on poly or just a few coats of tung oil and wax.
The trick is that the handles are going to be octagonal, but I need to make the bottom 2 inches (at least) round so that it can go into a hole in the head. Anyone want to go get certified at the Dartmouth wood shop with me? (or does anyone know a good woodworker that I could hire to do that one step for me? for cheap?)
August 2nd, 2005 at 10:43 am Using
i’ve been meaning to get certified for a while now, when are you going?
octagonal handles strike me as a pain in the butt, unless that’s how they come? why not round? also, you might want to make the last bit that goes in to the head square instead of round so as to prevent rotation/slippage if it gets loose?
August 2nd, 2005 at 11:43 am Using
I’m not sure. I’ll have to look up when there are certification times.
Octagons shouldn’t be that hard to make, you just use the table saw to make a rectangle and then hand-plane down the corners.
The problem with shapes in general is the fact that it’s really hard to drill a square hole. I just don’t have the chisel mortising expertise. I was thinking about just getting some dowels to use as the handles but the wood choices are kind of limited (oak, walnut, cherry, mahogany, and maple) and I have no idea how straight they’ll be.
Actually I just checked and maybe mahogany wouldn’t be such a bad idea.
I’m going to use a pin through the head to permanently join the handle.
August 2nd, 2005 at 12:14 pm Using
Count me in for the woodshop certification; I definitely want to spend some time down there after this qualifying mess is out of the way. Hmmmm… sawdust…
Mahogany would probably be a poor choice for handle, as it yields more under cantilever force than you might expect for a hardwood with such dense grain; hickory or ash are far better choices for taking the sorts of shear stresses handles inevitably suffer. This is why bats, axe handles, spear poles, sledgehammer handles, etc. are usually made from hickory or ash.
The octagonal handles will look very distinctive; obtaining a round end for inserting into the mallet head shouldn’t be too hard. The old-timers used to have a handtool that did something a lot like this. It looked like a sort of spoke shave, with two handles at 180-degrees, with a circular aperture lined with a couple of cutting/planing edges that could work to turn down a square (or, presumably, octagonal) cross-section to a circular one. There are still devices like this used to cut threads into round wooden things; maybe something like that could be modified?
I like the idea of teak for the striking surfaces; it’s absurdly tough, by virtue of it’s tropical origins and the sand drawn up into its tissues. (Fair warning: the grit in teak reaks havoc on saw blades!) Another similar wood that is lesser known is apitong (a.k.a. keruing or kanyin), which is used to line the floors of flatbed 18-wheeler trailers. It’s very similar to teak in terms of sustainability of harvest and physical specifications. Google it up to find out more; I can testify to it’s distinctive coloration: many boards have a nice salmon-pinkish hue to them, which develops very richly when finished. My dad and I worked on a house when I was in high school that had lots of wood flooring, all of which was apitong.
Also, about the striking surfaces: you could conceivably use a similar pinning method (as for the handle) to join them to the mallet body. On second thought, if I were you, I’d just stick with the maple mallet heads and leave the end grain as the striking surface. The old farmhouse where I live in Lyme has maple floors that are well over 150 years old and have worn very well. You’re gonna want an end grain for your striking surface anyways, since end grain compresses way less than the side of a board, and end grains tend to have some self-healing ability (think about butcher blocks, which are almost always end-grain maple).
Okay, that’s my two cents’ worth for now. My years of working with pops and reading his woodworking magazines have become more than apparent.
August 2nd, 2005 at 12:18 pm Using
Tim, this is actually the exact reason why I posted this.
We just had a little talk in the office and have now officially voted you “King of Materials”.
We’ll work on a little badge or something.
August 2nd, 2005 at 12:57 pm Using
I think you should just make him a thing that fits on his cowboy hat. A little band with the medal on it.
August 2nd, 2005 at 2:15 pm Using
I second that opinion on teak, it’s wonderfully tough but brutal to work, and will cause much sadness to any sharp tool you have – if you’re using maple as the mallet head that should be good enough. kanyin is nice enough stuff, but sticking with maple would help keep the overall cost down.
my dad had a pretty cool mount for a his draw-knive (a one-edged spoke-shave, if you prefer) that allowed for precise and repeatable angles, but octagonal still seemed a bit tricky – then again, i was assuming exact symmetry. regarding the mortising it’s honestly that tricky, i’d be happy to show you how to do it (and maybe practice on pine.) it requires a bit more skill than just drilling a hole, but you’ll find that most old wood-wood joints used square mortices for stability (plus I think it looks nicer.)
a badge sounds nice, or maybe a belt buckle? up to you, tim, of course.
anyway, i was away from the blog this morning – but you most def don’t want mahogany for a handle – it’s a lot like walnut in terms of being dense but not-so-hard. hickory is fine for something like this (it’s sometimes a little more brittle than ash or maple and thus not as good for a baseball bat).
this is much awesomer than working, keep it up. i’ll happily contribute to any discussion involving woodworking.
August 2nd, 2005 at 2:16 pm Using
Woohoo! I just found some 1 1/4 inch by 48 inch hickory dowels for around $7 each. It looks like I’m going to be going the dowel route for handles.
I checked out bamboo cutting boards at the kitchen shop and I can get all the end-grain bamboo I’d need for about $20. I need to get one and hit it with a hammer a few times to make sure that it won’t come apart.
August 2nd, 2005 at 2:20 pm Using
p.s. if you want to see some pretty wood, here’s the place where I used to work. their master carver, Kevin, does amazing stuff. must be nice to drop $60k on a piece of furniture.
August 2nd, 2005 at 2:23 pm Using
next i’m thinking about moisture – i know bamboo is tough stuff, but i wonder if there would be a problem with different coefficients of expansion at the joint between the maple and bamboo. how thick are the cutting boards?
the hickory dowels sound good.
mmmmm, sawdust.
August 2nd, 2005 at 2:28 pm Using
That table top is something else.
Bamboo seems good, it’s hard and the dimensional stability is pretty good. It expands and contracts less than the maple will. Everything seems to be relative to red oak… maple is 15% more stable, bamboo is 50% more stable. The boards are only about half an inch thick so I don’t think they’d be able to fuck up the maple… at worst they’d just pop off.
Which brings up the question of glues… I was going to use Tightbond III to hook the handles to the heads although I might use Gorilla Glue instead. But how to hook the striking faces to the heads… just regular wood glue or contact cement?
August 2nd, 2005 at 2:36 pm Using
Oh yeah, another two cents’ worth, this time about finishing. I’d be inclined to go with the oil/wax option. Such traditional finishes tend to age to a much richer patina and have the added bonus of being very easy to touch up and re-apply as they wear down through the years of exciting lawn-games use.
Affixing handles to heads is a whole ‘nother question altogether.
My first impulse would be something like Gorilla Glue, but maybe an epoxy of some sort would be better.
My dad’s been on a pretty good adhesives kick for a while; he’ll probably have a great suggestion. Let me run it past him and get back to you.
Just so he has a good idea, we’re talking about maple mallet heads, hickory handles, and bamboo stirking surfaces?
August 2nd, 2005 at 2:39 pm Using
Yeah, we’re not completley sure if the striking surfaces are going to be bamboo or teak. It’s going to be one of the two.
Bamboo has the advantage of being easily available with a quick walk into Hanover, but it has to pass the hammer test.
Lunchtime fun tomorrow?
I’m kind of leaning towards a stain to pop out the grain of the curly maple and then tung oil. Teak doesn’t stay stained anyway, so doing something fancier would just undo itself.
August 2nd, 2005 at 2:41 pm Using
yeah, they have a bunch of tables that are pretty much an excuse to say “look at this awesome burl”.
but ok, if the bamboo is only 1/2 inch, that’s cool, just wanted to make sure. and yes, definitely and oil finish, both b/c of personal bias and the simplicity of re-application as opposed to stripping/prep/reapply. (and it looks nicer)
the maple/bamboo joint could be interesting, since end-grain glue joins are inherently weaker. I’m thinking an epoxy mix with less hardener than normal. hopefully tim’s dad will know.
i still say that relying on glue for the handle/head joint is a bad plan, but i’ll hush.
August 2nd, 2005 at 2:46 pm Using
The head/handle joint is going to be glued and I’m going to run some dowels through the side of the head… so yeah, both an adhesive and a mechanical joining.
I was thinking about using some cherry or walnut dowels for that, just so they’d be pretty.
August 2nd, 2005 at 2:56 pm Using
um, yeah. all i can think of to contribute to this is:
teak was used for all the beautiful woodwork on the grand staircase on the Titanic. when they found the wreck and sent a camera down into the staircase, almost all of the woodwork was gone. so, don’t drop your mallets into the deep ocean, because underwater critters love the teak.
August 2nd, 2005 at 2:57 pm Using
cherry would match better with the maple, i think.
and yeah, the dowel isn’t a bad idea, i was just trying to limit the weakening of the head (probably not a problem, i just don’t know the shear strength, etc..)
August 3rd, 2005 at 2:19 pm Using
i thought today was bamboo test day? where you at, g-man?