Maillet

Maillet is a term used in French and, less commonly, in English to describe a hammer with a soft or non-marring head, typically equivalent to the English word mallet. In practice, maillet denotes tools whose heads are made of wood, rubber, or rawhide rather than metal, allowing impact without damaging surfaces.

Common head materials include wood, rubber, and rawhide, each chosen for specific tasks. Wooden maillets have dense heads and are used to strike chisels, assemble joints, or guide pieces without denting or marring them. Rubber maillets absorb shock and provide controlled force, making them widely used in woodworking, carpentry, and stone carving. Rawhide maillets offer firmness with surface protection and are favored in metalworking, leatherworking, and instrument setup.

Compared with metal hammers, maillets deliver impact with less rebound and deform the workpiece less, reducing the risk of marring delicate edges or assembled parts. In English-language contexts, maillet is most often encountered in technical or historical usage, with mallet serving as the more common term.

Origin and usage: The term maillet is derived from French, meaning a small hammer. In English, mallet is the standard term for the tool, while maillet appears mainly in French texts or historical references.

See also: Mallet.