If you’re looking for a fun wooden craft (that’s super easy), these Homemade Wooden Hammers are it. They’re perfect for smash eggs, but you can use them for other reasons.
For more craft ideas, check out all of our DIY posts.
This past Easter, one of my brothers came to visit with his two sons. We were going to visit our cousin, whose sister was visiting, and between them there were four kids. And my other cousin was thinking about passing through with her two kids. So we knew we’d be seeing anywhere between six and eight kids.
I wanted to get them all smash eggs because smash eggs are so much fun. They’re basically piñatas made of chocolate. Hollow chocolate eggs are filled with candy, then sealed. And kids take a wooden dowel, smash the chocolate egg, and reveal the candies.
It’s so much fun.
But the person who was selling them in my town was selling them for $5, plus a dollar if you wanted a hammer. And if you don’t have a hammer, you can’t smash them. But $6 times eight is way more than I wanted to spend for something that’s about 45 seconds of entertainment.
So I decided to make my own smash eggs. And I figured if I was making the smash eggs, Pete could make the wooden hammers. Which were so, so simple to make.
So if you’re making smash eggs, or want to make a wooden hammer for kids to start learning woodworking, or to play with clay, definitely make these.
Homemade Wooden Hammers
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This tutorial makes six wooden hammers. If you needed to make more, you would just need to buy more wooden dowels and then make more.
We found the cheapest wooden dowels in Walmart, but you could also find them in hardware stores like Home Depot for about the same price.
Homemade Wooden Hammers Supplies:
- 5/16-inch wooden dowel (36 inches long)
- 7/8-inch wooden dowel (36 inches long)
- Tape measure
- Pencil
- Miter saw
- Sand paper
- Drill
- 5/16-inch drill bit
- Wood glue
How To Make Homemade Wooden Hammers:
Start with the 5/16-inch wooden dowel. That will be the handle of the hammer.
Using the tape measure, measure it into six inch sections, making them off with a pencil.
Use the miter saw to cut the pieces.
Side note: Because of the width of the miter saw blade, you will lose a little dowel on either side of the cut. So, if you do measure every six inches, your last handle will be a little smaller than the others. We didn’t mind, since one of our recipients was just under 2 years old. But, if you mind, you’ll have to measure the blade and then do a little extra math to assure they’re all the same size.
Measure the 7/8-inch wooden dowel into 2.5-inch sections.
Cut six pieces.
Sand all the edges to assure that they’re smooth.
Measure to find the center (1.25-inches in) on the pieces cut from the 7/8-inch wooden dowel. Mark it with a pencil.
Use the drill, with the 5/16-inch dowel on it, to drill a hole about halfway down.
Add a drop of wood glue in the hole.
Stick a piece of the 5/16-inch dowel into the hole, making sure it’s as far in as it can go.
Let it dry overnight (or as long as needed according to the wood glue’s packaging).
Homemade Wooden Hammers: Frequently Asked Questions
We made these wooden hammers for smash eggs. They can also be used to play with clay or Play-Doh, for kids to learn to hammer nails, just for playtime, and more.
You could also use these as lobster mallets, if you’re throwing a seafood boil. If you do that, though, make sure you are using a wood that is food safe.
You can use a table saw instead of a miter saw, if that’s all you have, but a table saw isn’t as precise as a miter saw is.
For tiny projects like this, where straight lines are pretty important, we feel a miter saw is a much better tool. But, like I said, if all you have is a table saw, you can make it work.
We went through a lot of measurements and decided these size dowels would make the perfect wooden hammers for little hands who didn’t need a lot of force to break chocolate eggs.
You could change the sizes and make larger hammers, if you wanted, but we didn’t feel the need.
What can you use Wooden Hammers for?
We made these homemade wooden mallets for smash eggs, so if you want to make them for that too, check out our Smash Eggs Tutorial.
Those are geared towards Easter, but you can fill them with plastic dinosaurs (wrapped in foil to make them food safe) and drizzle candy melts over the top instead of perfectly painting the lines and make them into dinosaur smash eggs instead.
We also made them to go with our Halloween Breakable Chocolate Mummy recipe as well. Those are a really fun Halloween-themed treat.
Purchase Wooden Hammers Online:
If you need wooden hammers, but you’re not going to make them yourself, you can purchase wooden hammers online via that link. That will bring you to a bunch of sizes, so make sure you’re checking the size before you order it.
More Wooden Toys:
We’re big fans of wooden toys to encourage play. Anything that’s non-electronic that helps kids use their imaginations is okay with us.
If you agree, check out our list of the Top Wooden Toys For Kids Under 6.
More DIY Wooden Crafts:
Since you’ve pulled out all your tools, you should go ahead and make some more wooden crafts. We have a few that you might like below:
- DIY Rustic Scrap Wood Chicken Tutorial
- DIY Wooden Serving Tray
- X-Shaped DIY Wooden Magazine Holder
- DIY Mix And Match Wooden Pumpkin Face Decoration
- DIY Rustic Scrap Wood Snowman
Homemade Wooden Hammer
Materials
- 5/16-inch wooden dowel (36 inches long)
- 7/8-inch wooden dowel (36 inches long)
- Sand paper
- Wood glue
Tools
- Tape measure
- Pencil
- Miter saw
- Drill
- 5/16-inch drill bit
Instructions
Start with the 5/16-inch wooden dowel. That will be the handle of the hammer. Using the tape measure, measure it into six inch sections, making them off with a pencil.- Use the miter saw to cut the pieces.
- Measure the 7/8-inch wooden dowel into 2.5-inch sections. Cut six pieces.
- Sand all the edges to assure that they’re smooth.
- Use the drill, with the 5/16-inch dowel on it, to drill a hole in the center (1.25-inches in) of the pieces cut from the 7/8-inch wooden dowel. Drill it about halfway down.
- Add a drop of wood glue in the hole.
- Stick a piece of the 5/16-inch dowel into the hole, making sure it’s as far in as it can go. Let it dry (as long as needed according to the wood glue’s packaging).
Notes
Because of the width of the miter saw blade, you will lose a little dowel on either side of the cut. So, if you do measure every six inches, your last handle will be a little smaller than the others.
Have you made these Homemade Wooden Hammers? Let us know how it went in the comments.