--- title: See John Boehner's Giant Gavel description: Speaker John Boehner took control of the House of Representatives for his third term today, and as before, he went for an attention-getting gavel. canonical: https://time.com/3656361/john-boehner-giant-gavel/ author: TIME article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-01-06T19:54:52.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T03:20:21.469Z article:section: Politics og:title: See John Boehner's Giant Gavel og:description: It's like the legislative equivalent of Thor's hammer. og:url: https://time.com/3656361/john-boehner-giant-gavel/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2c63b20f49260eb7/698778688e060169254598f0/pelosi-boehner-congress.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: John Boehner, Nancy Pelosi og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: See John Boehner's Giant Gavel twitter:description: It's like the legislative equivalent of Thor's hammer. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2c63b20f49260eb7/698778688e060169254598f0/pelosi-boehner-congress.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # See John Boehner's Giant Gavel by [Ryan Teague Beckwith](https://time.com/author/ryan-teague-beckwith/) ## Ryan Teague Beckwith Jan 6, 2015 7:54 PM UTC  House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio, kisses House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi of Calif. after being re-elected to a third term during the opening session of the 114th Congress on Capitol Hill in Washington on Jan. 6, 2015. House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio, kisses House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi of Calif. after being re-elected to a third term during the opening session of the 114th Congress on Capitol Hill in Washington on Jan. 6, 2015.Pablo Martinez Monsivais—AP by [Ryan Teague Beckwith](https://time.com/author/ryan-teague-beckwith/) ## Ryan Teague Beckwith Jan 6, 2015 7:54 PM UTC John Boehner took control of the House of Representatives for his third term as Speaker on Tuesday, and as before, he went for an attention-grabbing gavel. The gavel, which seems to be the legislative equivalent of Thor’s hammer Mjölnir, was made by hand by one of Boehner’s Ohio constituents just after the November 2010 elections that first propelled Republicans into the majority, according to [the New York _Times_](http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/06/us/politics/06scene.html). As part of a longstanding tradition, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi presented Boehner with the gavel and the two shared an awkward hug. As TIME [previously noted](http://content.time.com/time/politics/article/0,8599,2041119,00.html), the gavel is not the one he uses every day. Those smaller gavels come from the House Carpentry Shop, which makes them on site from maple wood. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3656361/john-boehner-giant-gavel/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3656361/john-boehner-giant-gavel/"},"headline":"See John Boehner's Giant Gavel","datePublished":"2015-01-06T19:54:52.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T03:20:21.469Z","description":"Speaker John Boehner took control of the House of Representatives for his third term today, and as before, he went for an attention-getting gavel.","url":"https://time.com/3656361/john-boehner-giant-gavel/","keywords":["Congress","Washington","John Boehner","democrat","nancy pelosi","Republican"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2c63b20f49260eb7/698778688e060169254598f0/pelosi-boehner-congress.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Ryan Teague Beckwith","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/ryan-teague-beckwith/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2c63b20f49260eb7/698778688e060169254598f0/pelosi-boehner-congress.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"John Boehner, Nancy Pelosi","caption":"John Boehner, Nancy Pelosi","creditText":"Pablo Martinez Monsivais—AP","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/congress/","name":"Congress"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3656361/john-boehner-giant-gavel/","name":"See John Boehner's Giant Gavel"}}]}] ```