Record Carving Mallet

[Willum]

My standard mallet I have used for many years is home turned from half a croquet mallet head , boxwood with an ash handle , had the advantage of giving me two for the price of one as it were so I have a spare I always wonder what to do with, these weigh about 14 ounces each . I also turned from a lump of Lignum Vitae a small mallet of about 10 ounces which is quite handy.
Now as part of a package some 5 years or so ago I bought a Record carving vice , and it came with a Neoprene faced mallet , weighs about a pound so not unreasonable , but today for the first time I have tried to use it and find that it tends to bounce off the tool handle , this I find a bit peculiar and do not think it is anything to do with the weight. Does anyone else have an opinion and experience of this tool ?.

 

[Mike.S]

No experience/knowledge of the tool but just looking up Neoprene's typical uses (on Wiki) , it does seem an odd material to use on a carving mallet facing. Perhaps it might be better used as a non-marking assembly mallet for thiose glued up joints that aren't quite right - like the ones I specialise in