Updated: June 9, 2003

Making Surdo Mallets

The following procedure is a combination of my own technique and that of Jo Zanders of Al Fanfarrah, who sent me an e-mail with nice instructions that included the balloon (see below), an excellent solution to getting a nice, firm, round head that I hadn't thought of. Jo also included instructions for making aluminum shafts with rubber grips.

My third source was an Olodum mallet that I had broken under use (they use cheap wood). I carefully took the head apart layer-by-layer to see their construction. That is where I developed the idea for the weatherstripping and rolled soft tip.

The materials you will need for each mallet are: wood dowelling, up to 42cm (16") long 2cm (3/4") to 3cm (1 1/8") diameter. For a heavy mallet, use hardwood. For the light staccato mallet in this example, I used a lightweight wooden flag pole. Rattan also makes for a light mallet. You can alternately use aluminum tubing. 3cm (1.25") wide, 1cm (7/8") thick self-stick rubber foam weatherseal, used for sealing home, boat, and auto windows and doors. This has adhesive on one side. a sock in color of your choice. I used a children's stretchy tericloth sock. tericloth is tougher than a simple cotton sock. one or more small, round latex balloons. synthetic batting (used for lining coats or filling quilts). felt dental floss (optional). strong tape (I used both electrician's and duct tape). scissors.
Form a strip of felt, cut to about the diameter of the stick, into a flattened roll.
Place the rolled felt on the tip of the stick and tape down with strong tape (I use duct tape). I criss-cross the first two pieces, then tape down the corners of the crossed tape with two more.
Cut a piece of rubber foam weatherseal about 36cm (14") long. Tape it to the end of the stick, letting the felt/tape ball protrude a little above it. Wrap the foam strip around the stick. How tightly you wrap determines how firm the head will be. My photo example is a very firm mallet.
Cut two strips of synthetic batting about 4cm (1 1/2") wide and four feet long. Tape one end of the batting strip to the rubber foam weatherseal.
Wrap the batting around the foam, building up a cushion around it. The batting stretches. The tighter you wrap it, the firmer the mallet will be. After going around the foam twice, wrap the rest of the batting diagonally around the developing head to form a ball. Some of it should wrap over the felt/tape tip. When finished wrapping, tape the end to secure it.
When finished, you should have a nice, round ball of batting. Push the bottom of the ball upwards at the shaft to form a nice round shape.
Next, cut the mouth piece and some of the neck from a balloon.
Stretch the balloon over the batting ball and pull it tight. Once the balloon has completely encased the batting ball, pull the remaining piece of the neck of the balloon down the shaft of the mallet
I usually put two or more balloons over the ball. The more balloons, the firmer the mallet. You might want to secure the balloons with dental floss.
Secure the last balloon in place with electrician's tape. I wrap it twice around.
Cut the end off one of the socks. It should be a little longer than the batting ball. The material stretches.
Pull the sock over the ball and then downl tightly. Wrap a rubberband around the sock right at the bottom of the ball to secure.
Trim the excess sock material below the rubberband. Leave about 1.5cm (.5").
Wrap electrician's tape around the shaft a few times so that it covers the end of the sock and the rubberband. Wrap it snuggly up against the ball. This produces a rounder head shape.
That's it. At some point, before or after construction, you will want to round off the end of the dowelling a little to make it more comfortable.

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