Quick and Dirty Gift Project - Cribbage Board

Pear and maple scraps

This time of year is stressful for me because I am probably the world's worst procrastinator when it comes to holiday gift giving.  This year I intended for things to be different, and instead of me shopping on Amazon on December 23rd, I wanted to send out some wooden stuff I made.

Great in theory, but now things need to get in the mail if they are to have any hope of getting to the intended recipients on time.  A project that can be finished in one session is called for.

I came up with a brilliant concept to help me out with this - a cribbage board.

What could be simpler?  It's just a board with a bunch of holes drilled in it.

I found a clever design while googling for ideas.  I wish I could take credit for it, as it is a neat little cribbage board.  It is intended to be a travelling board, as it it easily transported.  OK, a regular cribbage board is easily transported, too, but this one has a more unique look.

I started by looking in my scrap bin for a nice hunk of something, and came up with an offcut of pear.

Don't ask me for measurements on this piece, I don't know.  It's about "yea" long because that's how long my scrap was.  It is "yea" thick because that is the biggest this stick would be after planing everything flat.

I know, it doesn't look like much.

Projects like this are a great opportunity to practice hand tool fundamentals.  There is no reason this project needs a board that is perfectly square, but I marked it out and planed it down to perfection just because I can.

That, and I think the more one practices this skill the more accurate and faster one becomes.

After that, I marked a line on two faces, and planed down to the line to establish the big chamfer which will become the bottom.  It only takes a minute with a course plane.

With small pieces I sometimes clamp the plane up and push the stock over the blade.

 With that done, it is time to mark out lines for the holes.  I didn't bother finding the center.  I layed it flat on my bench, pushed a piece of particle board next to it that looked about half as thick and drew a line.  It looked good, so I took a thin piece of plywood and set it on top of the particle board to draw the outside lines.

No need to make this rocket-surgery.

I used dividers for the layout.  I eyeballed about how far I wanted the first hole to be, and marked that off of each end.  I transferred those marks to a story stick, and stepped off six equal measurements.  From here, I stepped off a distance that I thought would look good for the holes to be apart, leaving some space traditionally used to make counting easier.

An easier way would be to buy a store bought template.

All in all, accurately marking off the holes wasn't too bad.  It took only a little less time that actually drilling them out.

I used my eggbeater Miller's Falls #5 to drill the holes.  A drill press might be nice for this, but I don't have one.  I don't think it would have been any faster, as I am only drilling 1/8" holes about half an inch deep or so.

If I didn't have an eggbeater, I would probably use a cordless drill.  Just be carefull not to go too far.  I used masking tape here for a depth stop.

Do yourself a favor and buy some of those nice drill bits from Lee Valley.  They made this job a snap.

 After all the holes are drilled, I cleaned up the faces with a fine set plane.

I have to say, these are really cool shavings.

The only thing left is a space to store the pegs while not in use.  I used a 5/16" bit in a breast drill to make a cavity in one end.  Turns out it isn't centered too good, but that adds to the "hand-made" charm.  I made a plug for it out of a scrap of maple.

Hopefully, someone doesn't bang it in too hard and split the pear wood.

This tool is great for bits that are too big for the MF#5.

That's it!  All that is left is a nice finish that I'll blog about in a separate post.

And a deck of cards.

In case you are wondering, I am using store bought pegs from Lee Valley.