How to Make a Wooden Mallet or Maul With Just an Axe

So you’re out in the boonies toting only the basics, and you need a hammer or mallet for driving tent stakes, shelter posts, splitting firewood, or whatever. What to do? Well, that’s what these folks want to show you. Specifically, this video is about making a nice robust wooden mallet or maul using only a light axe.

Begin by hunting for a tree with dense wood, such as oak, hickory, or ash. Ideally, a knotty place in the grain will make a good mallet head, so look for a place where several small limbs emerge from the tree’s trunk.

By the way, don’t tote your wood and axe the way he did when he gathered up the hunks of tree to carry them back to camp… if he stumbles, he could fall on that blade and lay himself wide open.

From there, you need to pare down most of its length so you end up with a handle that’s easy to hold onto as well as a nice bulky head that can hit stuff with authority.

Russ Chastain

Editor & Contributing Writer Russ Chastain is a lifelong hunter and shooter who has spent his life learning about hunting, shooting, guns, ammunition, gunsmithing, reloading, and bullet casting. He started toting his own gun in the woods at age nine and he's pursued deer with rifles since 1982, so his hunting knowledge has been growing for more than three and a half decades. His desire and ability to share this knowledge with others has also grown, and Russ has been professionally writing and editing original hunting & shooting content since 1998. Russ Chastain has a passion for sharing accurate, honest, interesting hunting & shooting knowledge and stories with people of all skill levels.