From Rick Campbell:

Your recent posts and follow-up discussion from your readers reminded me of my own sacred hammer story, or mallet, actually. About 11 years ago Roy Underhill (you may know him as the Woodwright from the long running PBS television series “The Woodwright’s Shop”) invited me down to North Carolina to visit his woodworking school. I spent a couple of enjoyable days with some of his students building what Roy called the Mystery Mallet. The mallet gets its name by the seemingly impossible joinery used in the construction. At the end of my time with Roy, I asked if I could get a photo for my workshop wall. Roy’s flair for the unusual led to the attached photo suggesting that I stole the mallet from his shop…..causing Roy to chase me down the street on the end of a broom.  The mallet and photo have hung on the wall of my shop for the past 11 years. From time to time the display case catches my eye and I fondly remember Roy’s sense of humour and love for working with wood.

Has anyone else made a Mystery Mallet?

Roy had a lot of fun while filming his shows and I’m not surprised his witty sense of humour came up with the idea for the photo of him and Rick. Speaking of filming, from what I can gather, the shows were originally shot with very few takes, then edited, but eventually the show was shot in real time, with Roy moving quickly around the shop to the appropriate wooden props to move the build along as quickly as possible so it could be wrapped up within the allotted time. This approach even left Roy having to catch his breath from time to time, especially near the end of each episode. I’ve made many videos and know how incredibly hard this is. Roy was a natural talker and teacher, which was part of the reason he was so well liked.

The mallet is made with two tapered dovetail tenons on either face and a central mortise and tenon joint. At first glance it looks like this joint isn’t actually possible, but there’s a trick. The two outer tapering dovetail tenons are reduced fairly heavily in width at their centre on their inner faces, making both of them flex while being assembled. The area where the wood’s been removed is not visible in the finished mallet. This is a lot clearer to view than it is to read about, so check out this video by “Third Coast Craftsman.”