Croquet Mallets

[Guy in Paradise]

My family likes croquet, but doesn't think much of the $100 set we have. We have the perfect yard for it too. I see that professional sets with higher weight mallets, tournament balls, and heavy duty coated wickets, can cost anywhere from $300 to $4000. One rosewood mallet can run $300.

So naturally I began thinking that I could make a nice set. The wood and handles seem easy enough, but am wondering where to get the nice continuous, square brass rings for the mallet heads. Planning on gluing and wedging in the handle to the mallet head rather than threading. Also thought that some NCWWers might have some plans or good advice before I buy wood and get started.

Thank you in advance for your ideas, advice and experience.

 

[FredP]

if the mallet heads are round i would guess you could get brass pipe to make the rings. even if you make the heads octagon shaped you could turn each end round to accept the ring. brass rod could be bent to form the wickets and most any hard wood can be had to turn the heads. :eusa_thin one nice set could be made for a few hundred bucks and a second set could be made at the same time for a friend for a couple cold beers. friend......:gar-Bi:rotflm:

 

[Danagawa]

Post lots of pics when u do it

 

[Bill Clemmons]

Not sure if this will help, but I seem to remember that Norm Abrams (New Yankee Workshop) made a croquet mallet on one of his shows. They always made plans available for each project, so if you could find them online somewhere, that might help.

Also, here are a couple of magazine articles that have featured croquet sets:

American Woodworker, issue 13, p. 52
Fine Woodworking, 58, 46

There are probably more, but these are just a couple I found.

 

[Steve_Honeycutt]

This may be a video of what Bill was referencing above:

https://youtu.be/iQpBrL9flEc

 

[Guy in Paradise]

Well, I have started the croquet set. Like Norm, I began with the mallet heads. Tried to make ten, discovered two bad cracks inside the wood after cutting and preparing. Two are bloodwood and one is redheart. The other five are from some heavy oak I had. The aiming lines are purpleheart, bloodwood and oak. Now to cut them to length, drill the handle hole, and wait for the brass straps to arrive. Start the handles soon.

 

[Danagawa]

Looking sharp! Can't wait to see the finished product. Makes me think about making a set

 

[Guy in Paradise]

I am always cautious when doing a new type of project, so I waited until after lunch and forged out to cut the mallet heads to length and drill the 7/8" hole. Cut two to 9.5" to eliminate cracks and the rest are 10.5". Common lawn sets are 9", whereas, the pros use 10-12". Start the stakes and handles tomorrow.

 

[Guy in Paradise]

Had to get a roughing gouge to do the handles, as the bowl gouge wasn't working very well. The ash handle was hard, so using a roughing gouge then a skewed seemed to work well. Also, cut the groove for brass band and bent/attached the band. So, the first mallet is ready for sanding and finish.

 

[Jeff]

An interesting undertaking. There seems to be considerable flexibility in many of the design aspects (square head, round head, shaft length, total weight, etc).

https://www.croquet.org.uk/shop/choosing-mallets.asp

Just curious. How does your new set compare to the nominal guidelines?

 

[sawman101]

Very interesting thread! I do not have the lawn for the game, but i am thinking it would be as much fun to build a good set, as to play the game with it. Please continue to post progress pictures. :eusa_danc

 

[Guy in Paradise]

So, the handles took longer to make than I figured on. The white ash wood I got was 2S, but after cutting down the 3x3s into rough size, I found that each piece had some tiny twist or bend. Flattening, squaring, and planing to final size took some time. A good experience for me.

One sets of plans showed the handles to be 15/16"x1.25", but I found that size difficult to turn (flexing) and a little small in the hands. I then made the rest 1 x 1 3/8". The handle stock was 36.5" long. I then turned the rectangular sticks into 8-sided ones on the router table. My learning on how to turn spindles greatly improved as each handle was completed.

I had to get the heads and handles finished in time to mail to my overseas military address. Final cutting of the handle tenon for a wedge, and gluing was planned for later, due to the pieces fitting into flat rate box while the final product would not.

Here is a picture of the finished handles, each sized to its correponding mallet head. I feared the handles might be too loose. When I finished the last handle, it had began raining after a couple weeks of dry spell, and I went back to check each one before cutting to final length; ie. cutting off bit marks on each end. Each handle tenon had swelled and would not fit, so some light sanding got each to a good fit. Ends were then cut, and corners rounded on the router table.

Fast forward of two weeks of mailing and travel. The last two days I have cut slots in the tenons, and wedges, and glued it all together. My daughter learned how use a flush trim saw while she cut off the excess wedge, then sanded and varnished the unfinished ends.

Will post pictures of the finished product tomorrow. A rolling stand is in the plan as well.

 

[Guy in Paradise]

Handles.

 

[Guy in Paradise]

I would like to also point out that I couldn't have completed this project without the speedy and timely help of The Hardwood Store in Gibsonville, NC, a sponsor of the NCWW. Also, I had some great assistance from West Penn Hardwoods in Conover, NC. Besides an online order, I had to visit their shop to pick up some pieces ASAP. The warehouse is an experience everyone should enjoy. The warehouse staff were very kind and helpful. Even though the day was warm, humid, and uncomfortable, all the staff were friendly, and humorous.

 

[Jeff]

I had to get the heads and handles finished in time to mail to my overseas military address.

Thank you for your service! You're expecting a deployment somewhere overseas and that destination should remain confidential I guess.

 

[Guy in Paradise]

Jeff,
I retired from the military in 1993, but went back to work as a civilian with the DOD, currently working in Brussels, Belgium. I try to complete a project or woodworking class each summer vacation when back at my cabin in the mountains.
Guy

 

[Guy in Paradise]

Well folks, the Croquet Mallets project is coming to an end. My daughter and I finished cutting the tenons on the handles for the wedge and attached all together. I thought I was going to make more mistakes along the way, and picked up a few extra pieces of exotic wood as well. I felt that not all of the mallet heads needed the brass banding, as the oak had been drying for years. The exotics, however, were still a bit wet and a couple were cracking slightly. All pieces were coated with Sealer Coat (2 coats) and then several coats of polyurethane.

My daughter and I are now working on the wheeled carrier. Here are at the finish mallets. A rewarding projects in which I learned a lot.

The mallet heads are 2.5" square and range in length from 9" to 10.5". Professional wood sets are usually 2.25-2.5" square. Common yard sets are 9" long, but the pros use heads that are 10-12". Professional mallets also weight in at about 3 lbs., which means the head is about 2.25 lbs and the handle is the remainder. I had computed from the wood density tables which woods that had the density to meet these weights. Comparing to wood prices, my budget allowed the blocks listed below. Fortunately, I had some oak that has dried for several years and was very dense, meeting the weight desire as well.

My first attempts at making the brass bands were crude, but by the last one, I had a smooth process that made tightly formed bands around each head.

As for the woods, there are 1-redheart, 2-bloodwood/satine, 2-chechen, 1-chakte viga, 1-ash, 6-oak
The aiming line inlays are a mixture of purple heart, red heart, bloodwood, oak and maple.
My daughter really likes the one oak mallet that had a lot of interesting grain

 

[Frank Berry]

Very nice job and well done!

 

[Guy in Paradise]

The croquet project has come to a conclusion. My daughter helper make the cart.