Wood Handle Mallets

[ultgar]

I received some of these mallets from a supplier (brand name withheld) with splits in the tips of the handle from the assembly process. The manufacturer claims these are from the process of inserting the wedge into the wood (a live material). Is this normal....ie, do any of you see this in similar products that you own (with wood handles...ash, hickory, etc)?

Looks similar to this but it's NOT Facom.

 

[bdbecker]

It would be difficult to not have a ring wedge split the wood. I honestly wouldn't worry about it.

 

[ultgar]

It would be difficult to not have a ring wedge split the wood. I honestly wouldn't worry about it.

Thanks......that's what the manufacturer said........

"In replying to your below e-mail, I confirm that our products are qualified in accordance to our Engineering standard specifications and each batch is checked upon entrance into our warehouse.

Premising that the wood is a live material and that the stockage and usage of XYZ Sledge hammers with wooden handle have to follow the appropriate condition for this kind of products. We inform the customer that the wooden split, visible on the wooden hammer fixing zone to the hammer head, can be considered as normally condition triggered from the operation of inserting the metal wedge into the wood.

We inform the customer that on each batch in entrance, to check the quality and safety of the wooden handles, we do the striking test in conformity with the ISO 15601 + 50 % as per XYZ Eng. spec. => 2 series of strokes (50 strokes each series) are done on hardened metal surface (46 HRC) following the blows setting as per the below specifications from the ISO15601."

 

[jonshonda]

Looks like the grain is running perpendicular to the striking face. It should run parallel.

 

[dutchgray]

Looks like a very low quality handle but that is pretty normal now, hard to find decent handles. The grain is the wrong direction but very few manufacturers even look at that.
Most new hammers with ring wedges I buy have splits like that.
That type of hammer is a Club or Lump hammer where I come from.

 

[Dave455]

That looks unacceptable to me.

Looking at the size of the splits, it looks as though the end of the handle has been splayed out too much, which suggests that the hole in the head is the wrong shape. Ideally, the hole should be almost parallel sided, but I’ve noticed that a lot of the cheaply forged hammer heads have a much larger diameter top and bottom, than in the centre, and you can never fit the handle properly!

I can show you any number of club hammers that do not suffer from this problem!

 

[tym]

When I've had this on hammers, I've filled in those cracks with epoxy.