These are 15 mallets I made today for my son's birthday party; it has a construction theme. The mallet heads are made from basswood which is pretty soft and the handles are 5/8 poplar rods. I tried to keep them small, about 3" long by 1 1/4" square, yet sufficiently hefty to drive golf pegs into cardboard boxes. I drilled a hole through the heads and simply glued in the handles.