# My Gavel Making Endevour



## JTM (Aug 28, 2011)

Which one is the best?

Don't look at the color.  These are made from cheap home depot whitewood, which is terrible for lathing and staining.

http://imgur.com/a/oOKn8#jA6Qp

Just the style.

I didn't do the 2 piece type, either, as I thought this would be an easier way to start.

edit:  The one with the flat face on the handle is by far the hardest one to make.


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## Ed Nelson (Aug 28, 2011)

I'm partial to this one...looks great!


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## JTM (Aug 28, 2011)

Any modifications to that one?  Please feel free to leave "this is what would make it better?"

or if you'd like to suggest that I try my hand at these:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/b2/CourtGavel.JPG/300px-CourtGavel.JPG

Let me know.  The more feedback the better.


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## JJones (Aug 28, 2011)

Neat, I've never seen gavels like that in any of the lodges I've visited.  Are they used commonly?


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## chancerobinson (Aug 28, 2011)

James, The gavels look great, but I am partial to number two, that may be because it looks the most like the gavel I am accustomed to.  I also like the smaller handle on it.



JJones said:


> Neat, I've never seen gavels like that in any of the lodges I've visited.  Are they used commonly?



In Tejas I believe you have to request dispensation from Grand Lodge to use any gavel other than the "T-type gavel" such as the setting maul gavels that JTM made.  At Sul Ross Lodge in College Station the three stations have setting maul type gavels that were presented the lodge by two of our Past Masters in the early 1990s.  I am not sure how many lodges in Texas use these.


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## Ed Nelson (Aug 28, 2011)

There is a wood lathe on my local Craigslist for $100 and it's killing me not to get it. I have nowhere to use or even store it.

I haven't used a wood lathe in 25 years (4 years of wood shop in High School), but as soon as I saw the listing, I really, really, had the urge. I was also thinking about making gavels after reading how custom ones are commonly used as gifts in the masonic community.

The hand gavel (maul, or palm gavel) you are making are the type my lodge uses (as a new Mason, I haven't been to other lodges to see theirs).

Here are some examples of similar designs:


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## JTM (Aug 28, 2011)

chancerobinson said:


> James, The gavels look great, but I am partial to number two, that may be because it looks the most like the gavel I am accustomed to.  I also like the smaller handle on it.
> 
> 
> 
> In Tejas I believe you have to request dispensation from Grand Lodge to use any gavel other than the "T-type gavel" such as the setting maul gavels that JTM made.  At Sul Ross Lodge in College Station the three stations have setting maul type gavels that were presented the lodge by two of our Past Masters in the early 1990s.  I am not sure how many lodges in Texas use these.



I had no idea that we had to have special dispensation.  That's kind of silly.

Definitely something I'm going to have to look into now.  Anyone have the law on that?  

(<--- bad JW, going to have to read up, I suppose)


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## Bill Lins (Aug 28, 2011)

JJones said:


> Neat, I've never seen gavels like that in any of the lodges I've visited.  Are they used commonly?



The gavels at Holland #1 are of that style. That's the only Lodge in which I've seen them.


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## Bill Lins (Aug 28, 2011)

chancerobinson said:


> In Tejas I believe you have to request dispensation from Grand Lodge to use any gavel other than the "T-type gavel" such as the setting maul gavels that JTM made.



The only mention of gavels I've been able to find in the Grand Lodge Law is in Art. 223 & it only requires that a Lodge have 3 of them- nothing about style.

"*NECESSARY PARAPHERNALIA FOR LODGES IN TEXAS*
<snip>
5. Three gavels."


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## JTM (Aug 29, 2011)

Bill_Lins77488 said:


> The only mention of gavels I've been able to find in the Grand Lodge Law is in Art. 223 & it only requires that a Lodge have 3 of them- nothing about style.
> 
> "*NECESSARY PARAPHERNALIA FOR LODGES IN TEXAS*
> <snip>
> 5. Three gavels."



is it of bill lins' opinion that gavels can be made of whatever style, then?


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## Beathard (Aug 29, 2011)

There is nothing in Masonic law in Texas that defines a gavel or describes it's style.


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## Bill Lins (Aug 29, 2011)

JTM said:


> is it of bill lins' opinion that gavels can be made of whatever style, then?



It is.


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## chancerobinson (Aug 30, 2011)

chancerobinson said:


> In Tejas I believe you have to request dispensation from Grand Lodge to use any gavel other than the "T-type gavel" such as the setting maul gavels that JTM made.



After posting that the other night I read Article 223, and I was  awaiting the approaching correction.  I started to edit my post, but I also wanted to see if anyone  found anything else in the law referring to gavels.

That portion of Article 223 however does read as follows: "5. Three gavels. *(Revised 1996)*" does anyone who wasn't still in diapers in 1996 recall any specific requirements for the three gavels prior to that time?

Sorry for the confusion on this, and thanks for the clarification brethren.


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## Ashton Lawson (Aug 30, 2011)

I was at the lodge at the Lee Lockwood Scottish Rite Center on Friday, and they had that style of gavel in the lodge.


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## Dow Mathis (Aug 30, 2011)

Counting from left to right, I think that I like #2 and #4, with #2 being my preference.  Of the ones posted so far in this thread, I like the ones in Br. Ed's first picture the best.  Kind of looks like what your #2 could eventually become.  Ain't wood turning fun?


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## Huw (Aug 30, 2011)

Hi JTM.

Of your original four samples, I like the one on the right, it looks very smart.  If you really want to get fancy, how about brass inlay filling the grooves?

However, for actual use, I prefer the long-handled courtroom-type linked from your second post, because they're easy to reach when I need to use it.  But obviously that depends on what type of Chair you have, and my experience in England may differ from what you usually have in Texas!

In England, by the way, both of these types occur by neither is common.  Our usual style is long-handled T, but with a wedge-shaped head (flat at one end to bang on the block, edged at the other end) rather than a cylindrical head ... because that's the traditional shape of the working stonemason's gavel.

T & F,

Huw


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