Originally Posted by
dweenk
Here are two mallets. The crude green painted one was my grandfather's; he used a lot of pegs in his woodwork and I think he made it. The damage to the faces was most likely my doing as a kid. The other is an artist's mallet for sculpting and woodcut carving when using wooden handled chisels.
the lower example is called (by most) a "Maul" and has differences to most other mallets in the shape of the striking surface (curved wood in this case but can be plastic or hide) plus how you use it:
"
Rocking vs. Hitting- Mauls are used with a rocking motion of the wrist, as opposed to the hammer-like hitting motion of a mallet. While it takes some getting used to, using a maul over a long work session takes less energy and puts less stress on the body."
YMMV