I'm a regular on Lumberjocks.com , a cool - neighborhood-style woodworking forum. There's one guy on the forum, Lee Jeesberger, who makes fine wood-crafted furniture, built-ins, cabinets, hand tools - you name it, this guy will make it out of wood. He's even invented a feeding system for sheet products, the Ezee-Feed Infeed/Outfeed System that you may already know about.

Anyhow, Lee started a post about crafting Dead Blow Mallets that caught my attention. He said "They’re easy to make, and useful around the shop. Not to mention they look great and are a good use for small scraps of exotic woods." I commented on how I would like one to hang on my wall because they really are a beautiful piece of art and he was nice enough to send me one! 

What are dead blow mallets used for, why do they make noise when you shake them and why the leather on the end?
Well, that's what I asked Lee and he responded with "The leather is to protect your head when whacking it. Start off soft until you build up a callous." It was very useful for me on that particular day...
Actually the noise is made by lead pellets on the inside. This gives the mallet extra impact when hitting a joint together with it, or convincing a board it is in the wrong place. The leather protects the wood projects you're hitting, while permitting you to give it a pretty good whack. So there you have it, a beautiful hand tool for making beautiful wood pieces. I still like to keep it on my desk for my knocking my knoggin.

Before Lee sent me the mallet shown in the photo, he adhered leather on each end using contact cement. He uses contact cement as opposed to other adhesives for the following reason:

"The reason to use contact cement for this is the very same reason not to use it on veneers. It remains flexible. Super glue is brittle after hardening and using the mallet will break the rigid glue line, and allow the leather to come off.The first mallet I made, at least ten years ago still has the original leather glue to it, and that was using contact cement. I sent one of the mallets I showed in the pictures to Jude. When I attached the leather to the face a couple weeks ago I used a non water based contact, applied a coat to each surface and allowed it to dry. I then second coated both surfaces and allowed that to dry. With the leather laying on the bench, glue side up i pressed the face of the mallet onto it. Than I whacked it against the bench a couple times. Using my scalpel I cut the leather around the outside edge of the leather. Then using a spinning and rocking motioned I worked the edges tight to the wood. This will never come off!"

Thanks for the fantastic mallet Lee! To read the entire post, click here.