No, I've never really liked them. I use the #3 Garland,
like this one. A #2 is also a good size. I like a good heavy beater, though.
In pine it is a little overkill. Whatever is comfortable is best. Regarding just picking it up and swinging without thinking about it, many people don't notice that mallets with heads on them always have a oval shaped handle, and carver's mallets are completely round. When you pick up a mallet with a head, or any type of hammer, the oval tells your hand how to grab it, it will be automatic, you won't have to think about it. With a claw hammer, you do have to be aware of the orientation so you don't try to drive a nail with the claw, but with a mallet, both heads are the same. Some people use large homemade carver's mallet turned on a lathe from some really hard wood. Eventually, they will delaminate and fall apart. That is one reason I don't use the round style with TF. You have to strike with them on the right surface just like you do with a wooden baseball bat. I do have some smaller wooden mallets that I use with my carving tools, but those tools wouldn't see one twentieth of the force a framing chisel does. In dry white oak, I was swinging that #3 mallet so hard I broke two handles, wore out three sets of hides and destroyed all of my chisel handles. I hate dry white oak.
Jim, not much new to show, but I do have a lot of pics on the computer. Probably 5,000. One of the hard parts of putting pics up is that unless you know what you are looking at, they just look like a pile of wood pieces. I'll review this thread later to see what I've put up, and maybe add some more. I don't know if I've got any of the Cruck frame stuff on here, or the geometrical design frame.