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Joe,

I use both. I tend to prefer rattan for two-mallet work, and for four-mallet work, I'll use birch with Stevens grip, and rattan with cross-sticked grips, although there are always exceptions. That's just what I settled into back when I was in college, and it still works for me.

Try them both, and go with whichever one feels better to you. (This is one big benefit to being in school - you've got lots of drummers/percussionists, each with their own gear, so it's a great opportunity to check out different mallets, sticks, drums, cymbals, etc., first-hand.) Just like one's choice of four-mallet grip(s), there are no hard and fast rules, and the individual comfort factor of each player is paramount.

The tendency I've seen (YMMV) is usually along these lines, although obviously there are many exceptions:

Two-mallet playing: more often rattan

Four-mallet playing: Stevens/Musser grip players tend to favor birch, cross-stick grip players (Burton, traditional, Stout) tend to favor rattan.

In terms of the four-mallet grips, I took part in a masterclass with Leigh Stevens back when I was in college, and I used rattan mallets in combination with "his" grip. He suggested the use of birch. His reasoning was that the grip was inherently very flexible, and he didn't like the added flexibility of the rattan shafts on top of that - the birch helped with accuracy. Then again, there are other players who use that grip with rattan mallets, including Julie Spencer.

Most cross-stick grip players I run across (Burton grip, Stout grip, etc.) tend to use rattan, but here again, there are always exceptions. Last I checked, Bill Molenhof and Ed Saindon, two fine jazz mallet players who employ the Burton grip, both use mallets with birch shafts.

Again, the bottom line is, try both, and see which feels more comfortable for you.

In terms of durability, I've got rattan-handle mallets that are almost 30 years old, and they're holding up just fine. Any serious warpage can be countered by gently (GENTLY!) bending the handle back slightly in the opposite direction; FWIW, I don't seem to notice any minor warpage when I'm playing. The quality of rattan that I see in mallets nowadays is - generally speaking - decidedly better than the rattan I saw in mallets back when I was in college, back in the 1980s.

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