A couple of months ago I made a post about the construction of a simple mace from common plumbing parts as an exploration of an inexpensive yet effective close-quarters weapon. After using that as part of my usual exercise routine for a while, I decided that the added lead in the head made it just a little too heavy for functional use. Removing the lead would have been possible, but was more work than I wanted to fuss with. So on a recent trip to the hardware store, I picked up replacement parts, and swapped them out. That made it much better.

But that also left me with the original head. I figured I’d use it to make a simple two-handed maul:

It’s basically the same materials as the one-handed mace, except with a length of oak dowel for the haft. Here they are together:

I used just a 6″ length of pipe at the top, into which I inserted the oak dowel (then wedged it at the top to secure it). I covered over the joint/threads with a strip of leather:

At the bottom, I used a pipe cap as a pommel, secured with a 3″ lag screw and some epoxy. Then I added a strip of leather there for grip:

Like the mace, it’s simple and inexpensive (materials were less than $20). I can’t imagine when I would ever actually need such a thing outside of some post-apocalyptic nightmare, but it was a fun bit of experimenting.

Jim Downey