Bushcraft Challenge - The wooden mallet

[Kadnine]

Use the tool you have to make the tool you need, I always say. Needed a baton/striking mallet for driving a firewood splitting wedge this weekend, camping with friends, (including a couple of KAC forum guys, "fromkentucky" and "hermes418")

Ended up with sore hands and many splinters just banging away using one quarter of a log against another.

So yesterday I hacked a leftover chunk of red oak into a rough mallet so I'll have one for next time. The wood was super dry, and again, I used my old $10 meat cleaver to rough out the shape after cutting the shoulders of the mallet head with a simple cross-cut saw. I really need me a good hatchet. My old Coleman isn't really worth anything, but I was impressed with fromkentucky's Fiskar's 14" camp axe w/ composite handle. It worked surprisingly well.

Didn't bother to do much finishing work on the handle, chose instead to leave it rough and then wrap the grip with 550 cord in a half hitch pattern.

So, this week's Challenge, is "Improvise a tool you need, using the tools you have." The choice is up to you, I needed a splitting mallet, but you might need a fire drill (that Challenge is coming up in the next few weeks) or maybe an arrow shaft, tent stake, vampire stake, etc. You get the idea.

- Keith

[nemo]

I was wondering what I was going to do with this, I think it's ash or birch.

ImageUploadedByTapatalk1370957657.105750.jpg (103.93 KiB) Viewed 1933 times

[fromkentucky]

Nice work sir!

And Nemo, that looks like Ash.

[Kadnine]

From the tight bark it looks to be ash to me, too. Tho I'm not an expert. Once split, might yield some nice spoons. My spoon carving project v2.0 is in the works... I'm gunnin' for ya nemo! But it's not a competition, but it is... sorta... nemo's stuff may be better than mine, but I'm secure in my manhood... Mostly

I still need a proper ax, as my trusty ten dollar cleaver finally gave up it's handle!

{General question: Is this red oak, or some variant of cedar? It doesn't smell all resin-like the way ornamental cedar wood does, and I know tall cedar has open grain similar to oak, but again, I'm no expert.}

Saturday's project is to buy a Fiskars and a hook knife and see if I can't un-stuck this stucked-up situation. Had I realized the tang on this cheap, yet surprisingly strong, ten year old cleaver was only a half-inch? Never would I have wailed on it so hard for so many years! I'm lucky not to have lost an eye when it finally snapped on me today!

- Keith

[Kadnine]

This is why why I never EVER throw anything away!

Old chuck of firewood, two scrap pieces of 1x3, a few deck screws...

... screw to attach....

... equals sweet, sweet spoon making bench that won't scuff up the back deck! (Loving my new Fiskars BTW, hope to have spoon 2.0 completed by the end of the weekend.)

- Keith