Mallet

A wooden hammer, wherewith by the aid of the shooter or shooting-stick the quoins are wedged in or driven up, and the forme is made secure.

In the early days of printing, the head of the mallet was round, but now it is almost square, the lower side, or that into which the handle is fitted, being made smallest. A useful size for a news mallet is five inches in breadth at the top, and four inches in breadth at the bottom, and about three inches thick. The handle, which is best made of beech or ash, should be a little more than an inch in diameter and seven or eight inches long. The hole in the head to receive the handle should be bevelled each way from the centre on two sides, so that the handle is tightly wedged in at the upper end and there is no danger of the head falling off. Mallets for locking-up jobbing matter are made somewhat smaller and lighter.

In conjunction with the planer, the mallet is used to plane down formes. Although this and the operation of locking-up formes appear to be exceedingly simple operations, it may be truly said that not one compositor in a hundred knows how to perform them properly. Mr. J. B. Cursons has pointed out in the Printers’ Register that, “In the first place, they do not trouble themselves to fit the quoins, which should be pushed up tightly with the thumb in such a position that when locked-up tight with the mallet, they should tall about four Picas from the head and foot of the page; instead of which they are frequently rammed up to the top of the sidestick, which causes the pages to go crooked and lift badly. Then in using the shooting-stick, instead of holding it in almost a horizontal position, so as to drive the quoins up easily, many compositors give it but a slight decline from the perpendicular, the consequence being that the shooting-stick (if box) splits, and the printer's joiner is blamed for selling an inferior article, to say nothing of the injury to the stone or bed of the press (if the shooting-stick is iron) by the indentations it makes at every strike of the mallet. Lastly, in planing the forme, instead of gently tapping it—in the centre—with the handle of the mallet, it is customary to strike it heavily with the head—not in the centre, but at one end. The matter, therefore, cannot be fairly planed down, as the pressure of the blow acts similarly to the screws of a platen being loose at one end and tight at the other, giving all the impression on one side. Every printer must have observed a well-used planer, with two indentations on each side of the centre.”