June 29, 2010

Last night I put together a serving mallet and tried it out. It went together just as I had envisioned it, only took about an hour, and cost me almost nothing. It was built almost entirely from scrap lying around the shop, with the exception of a cheap paintbrush I had to buy only because I didn't have an old one I could scavenge. The paintbrush handle became the serving mallet handle, and the concave base was cut out of a scrap of 2" PVC pipe. A couple of wood screws countersunk from inside the base and screwed into the handle held it together. I cut the reel ends out of some left-over 1/8" plywood using a 3" hole saw. The axle for it was just a 1/4" bolt with the necessary nuts and washers to make it work. The hole in the paintbrush handle was just the right size for the bolt, so mounting the reel to the handle was a snap.While my humble tool was unquestionably crude compared to some of the elegant traditional serving mallets made by the old time sailors, I'd be happy if it simply did the job. So I gave it a try. Although initially in my first attempt I made the classic mistake of serving with the lay of the rope rather than against it ("Worm and parcel with the lay, then turn and serve the other way."), my serving tool was working. I tuned it a bit by filing a a round notch in the edge of the lower lip to guide the line , and I still need to perfect the line tension by adjusting the turns around the handle and base. Nonetheless, it worked; it was easy and almost fun. In terms of technique, I need to improve the way I finish the ends to make them a bit cleaner; the bulk of it between those pesky ends takes care of itself almost automagically. Pretty neat! I was unsure if the little reel would hold enough line to serve the length I needed, but there was plenty. Although I used non-traditional materials, I'm generally happy with the result and I think it will do the job.

Here's a drawing illustrating traditional worming, parceling and serving:

A couple of things to note in this picture: There is no reel on the mallet handle for storing the serving twine and automatically swinging it around the main line with the mallet handle, so a second person would be needed to bring the ball of twine around as the first person rotates the mallet. To serve against the lay of the main rope, the mallet handle would rotate around toward the viewer from its current position.