Mallets for wood sculpting

With gouges, v-parting tools or chisels you can carve directly without a striking tool. However, for larger material removal as well as for fine, detailed work, hollows and curved surfaces, it is often advisable to work with a mallet. The mallet basically serves to make your work easier: you have more power. With the mallet, you can steer the carving tool very precisely in a wide variety of directions. And you can reach places where you might otherwise not be able to carve at all.

Carver's mallet, hornbeam, synthetic mallet & metal mallet for woodcarving

The KAPRA carver's mallet, hornbeam are made of hornbeam, a very strong and hard wood, and have a classic, rather short handle. They are versatile and have a long service life.

The PFEIL carver's mallet, hornbeam are also made of hornbeam, but have a smaller head and a longer handle. The longer handle gives you more striking power with less weight. The mallet handle can of course also be held just behind the head of the mallet for very measured striking.

The brass and bronze mallets are very small and manoeuvrable overall, but have a good weight. They can be used to strike with great precision and precision, making them ideal for detailed work.

Which mallet is suitable for which carving work?

The basic rule is: let the mallet do the work! Use its weight – this is the main source of the force used when striking. Be economical with the muscle power of your arm and protect your joints by not hitting from the wrist, for example.

Of course, you can combine any carving iron with any mallet, but: Many things are easier if the carving iron and mallet are well matched.

The advantage of gouges is that the cutting ends, the "corners", cannot tilt so easily in the wood, as the chip removal takes place mainly in the centre of the gouge. If the pointed "corners" of the gouge penetrate too deeply into the wood, it can easily happen that it is not you who steers the carving iron, but the carving wood or the mallet that sets the direction.

So if you are working with a rather narrow carving iron and a heavy mallet, it can happen that the iron mallet drives the iron far into the wood if you do not work very carefully and carefully. A lighter mallet is therefore recommended.

If you are working with wider carving irons, a heavy mallet is advantageous if you want to use as much of the width of your gouge as possible – this allows you to remove a lot of material quickly, for example. If you use a lighter mallet for a large or wide iron, the wood removal is more selective. Of course, this also means that you will need significantly more time if you have a lot of material to remove.

With metal mallets with a small head, you can also carve small details out of the wood very well, as they are very manoeuvrable and can be used precisely.