Do you _want_ a nice smooth transition? Decorative beads can be nice.

If your brass is a basic cylinder with a tapered bore, you want a lip to
butt up against, and you want it fairly substantial -1/8 -1/4". The handle
can be smooth right up to the undercut for the head to butt up against. The
wedge will drive out and down, so it'll snug up with no apparent transition.

Now, if you're talking about a "T" head mallet, which this carver considers
a bad choice, your only hope is to run a taper downward from decoration or
the handle, so the crossed cylinder wedges up tight.

"Hitch" wrote in message
. ..
I am making a brass carving mallet, but as a newbie, I don't know the best
way to match up the diameter of the handle where it joins the head. I
machined up a hammer head and drilled a hole in it for a dowel to join the
handle to it, but how does one get the nice, smooth transition from the
handle to the head?

--
John Snow
"If I knew what I was doing, I wouldn't be here"