Free wood mallet

Here's a truly useful tip for woodworkers. I sent it into The Family Handyman and last month they published it - with their own photo and text, but nevertheless here's what I told them when I was pitching the idea:

Among my best mallets is this nice little whacker I found in my pile of firewood. With an 8-inch handle and a 4 X 1 1/2-inch head, the tool weighs 6 ounces - and that's just right for light tapping jobs, including driving dowels and bumping boards into line for gluing.

This wood is from an ailanthus tree, a hardy tree which is easily grown in cities because it is resistant to pollution and is a prolific seed-producer. The book "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn" is based on the ailanthus. Its common name is Tree of Heaven, but because it easily overcomes forest land, it is also known by rural folks in my area as the "stink tree" for its distinctive aroma and because it's considered a nuisance. (See "Least Wanted" at http://www.nps.gov/plants/alien/fact/aial1.htm)

Any hardwood "T" branch will do - oak, hard maple, locust, elm - and you could choose bigger limbs for bigger tasks. Of course your mallet head could be shaped to a cone or a square or whatever helps. No forest handy where you live? Contact a firewood supplier; chances are his brush pile runneth over with great mallets.

Just be certain the mallet wood you select is cured and that there are no splits, serious chips, signs of rot, or other interior defects.