My Cribbage Board - Part III - Complete with Glamour Shots

Some people have commented privately to me that they don't know how to play cribbage. I think it is a fantastic game. A good way to learn it nowadays is to download an app. Many of the cribbage apps out there include a tutorial. After reading the rules, I suggest just jumping in and playing. One great thing about the game is there is a good bit of strategy and different ways to play that make it fun.

I learned cribbage and pinnochle (another card game) as a kid, and spent many hours playing with my parents, relatives and friends when I grew up. Card games like these have a social aspect to them that you can't really get with an app or a computer game. However, my guess is that these kinds of games are going the way of the dodo.

Let's get back to the build:

You'll remember that I left off at having marked out the points at where the holes are drilled. It is then just a matter of putting the brad from the drill bit in each of those holes and drilling them to depth.

Drilling lots of holes. The blue tape tells me how deep to drill the holes.

I forgot to mention so far that there are many different patterns you can use to make a cribbage board, such as traditional, racetrack, 29, etc., but the cribbage board is just a score keeping tool that keeps track of the points of each player where the winner is the first to score 121 points. Look around on the internet, and you'll see. This particular board is a traditional design, that has 30 holes up one side, and 30 down the other. Two laps on this board and you are done.

I bought pegs for this board from Lee Valley. It might be fun to someday make my own. The Lee Valley ones are really good, and come in metal or wood. They require a 1/8" hole. I don't have a 1/8" drill bit, so I used a 3mm drill bit instead, and it seems to work fine.

After all the holes were drilled out, I went to work on hollowing out the cavity on the underside of the board in which to store nine pegs. Nine pegs because each of the three players need two for playing the game, and this board has some holes in which to keep track of how many games each player has one, so another for each player for that.

Starting a cavity to store the pegs.

I carved out the cavity much the same way as I did as making the recess discussed in the last post, with the exception of skipping using the router plane because it just wasn't small enough. I used a bench chisel instead.

Cavity for storage of the pegs complete.

Now the pegs can be safely stored and the leather clasp snapped and the board can be stored anywhere.

Planing out the layout marks.

Next is planing everything smooth. I suppose you don't have to, but I think most people expect not to see them. This board is plenty thick enough that I could plane a lot of wood away, and it still will look good and work well.

After that, it is time to finish. I wanted some way of marking the board with colors that show which pegs go where on the board. This is totally aesthetic, as once your pegs are in your lane, everyone will know that that's your lane. I just wanted to see how this would work.

First I put a deep groove in the center of each track with my marking gauge, and then I deepened it and widened it with my shop knife. I taped off the whole board, except for the part as close to one of the marks as I could, and sprayed with black spray paint.

Each track I did this way, except for the gold and silver tracks, I used fingernail polish.

Here's the fingernail polish and spray paint.

The idea was to plane the board clean once everything was cured, so all that was left was a narrow strip down the middle of each track to show the color of the peg that should be used there.

The fingernail polish was a little tricky to work with, and tended not to plane so well. The spray paint I had tried once before this way, and it worked great. I had to do this three times before I was satisfied with the result, but it finally worked OK. We'll have to see how it holds up to years of abuse.

Paint and fingernail polish applied, ready to be planed down.

Finally, I coated the board with my home-made linseed oil and called it done. Here's some glamour shots:

Finished cribbage board, ready for a game.

Folded up and ready for storage.

Detail of the added color.

Stored pegs.

My version of artistic photography.

Three handed crib, anyone?

Another art photo.

Overall, I am happy with how it turned out. The wood is beautiful, and we'll see over time if I like the fingernail polish or not.

What do you think?

Check out the first two posts for this build: Part I and Part II.

My Cribbage Board - Part II

If you are wondering why this post is called My Cribbage Board, it is because although I've made several cribbage boards, I actually don't have one of my own. The Frau hates playing cards with me because she always loses, so she has no interest in learning cribbage. Unfortunately, hardly anyone in Europe plays cribbage, so I haven't really needed one.

I figure I ought to have one, though, just in case. I usually make these as gifts. This one will be mine.

At least for now.

The two pieces, as we've seen in the last post, now fit together.

It just happens this opening is sized perfect for my hinge.

I had a nice, Spanish made brass butt hinge laying around, so I decided to use that. It was a coincidence that my cut was just the right depth for this hinge. I think I may have used it as a guide for the width, but I don't really remember.

Just a little of the one side needs to be removed to fit the hinge.

After marking where the hinge goes, I sawed to the line and split the wood to depth.

Just like splitting a tenon.

In short order, it fit.

Looks good from here...

and here...

but not so good here.

To get the hinge to close perfectly, I had to plug the screw holes with bamboo skewers, re-drill and try again.

Three times.

I finally got everything to fit and close nicely, and made a leather snap to keep the game closed.

The ugly screw is temporary.

Now that the mechanics of the cribbage board work, I turn my attention to laying out the holes. I don't like to use templates for this, as I make every cribbage board one at a time, and they are all unique. More often than not, I choose how the holes go in to fit the piece of scrap wood rather than trying to cut a piece of wood to fit a template.

To do this, I mark out the rows with a marking gauge, and step off the holes with two sets of dividers: one for the distance of the groups of five, and the other for the distance between individual holes. After the holes are drilled out, I plane the marks away.

I made six lines for the rows. It will be a three-handed board.

Next I step off the holes, and use a knife to mark all of the other points.

It took a lot of trial and error to get the steps to line up so the holes worked with the break in the board where the hinge is. It just happens to break in the middle of a group of five, but I didn't have to adjust the holes so it would look weird. I'll just have to be careful to drill the holes straight to avoid a blowout.

After the cross marks are made with a knife, I used an awl to dimple the point where the brad on my drill bit will start the hole. If I was careful with the layout, it will look very uniform.

The finished layout.

The next and final post for this project will show me drilling holes - nearly 200 on this board - and finishing. You'll be intrigued that I used spray paint and nail polish.

Really!

Stay tuned!

Check out the first post in this series HERE.

My Cribbage Board - Part I

I just went through my "Gallery" tab (found at the top of the page), and updated it. It has been a few months since I put any new pictures up. While I was there, I decided to embed links in the descriptions of each photo to the original post for each project. You know, just in case you have nothing better to do. If you have any interest, you can look at that post to see one photo of each of the pieces I've finished since I started this blog.

I realized while doing this that I finished another cribbage board, and only the folks on Instagram have seen it. I forgot to post about it's build.

Finished cribbage board.

If you have seen some of my posts on IG, you might be familiar with my magic dumpster. My magic dumpster is a garbage container near my house that over the last year I have rescued around 50 board/feet of stair material. Here in Spain, the species for stairs isn't oak, it is a reddish exotic that I think is some kind of mahogany, or more likely, sapele. Beautiful stuff that I probably couldn't afford in Munich.

I cut off a short length of stair rail for this.

I started by planing the edges off. There was a wide groove down the middle for the wooden handrail to secure to the metal handrail.

My plan was to make a four-square board, then cut it in half and install a hinge. After flattening everything, and squaring it up, I marked out a centerline and crosscut the board as accurately as I could. I left a litte of the roundover from the original handrail, with the thought that it would get planed away with a chamfer at some point.

Surprisingly, I did a fairly decent job on the crosscut.

There is some pretty grain to this wood, and my plan was that it would continue from one end to the other when the hinge was open.

Next was to make a rabbet around one side, and hollow out the other so they fit together.

I planed and chiseled a rabbet all around one piece.

For the hollow, I marked out the line of where I wanted the cuts, and started with a stopped cut on one side.

Stopped cut.

With the lines cut nearly to depth, it was just a matter of routing out the waste to depth. To start, I roughed the waste out with a gouge.

Roughing the hollow with a gouge.

This actually left an interesting and pretty surface. I'll have to explore this technique later. Notice I gouged perpendicular to the grain.

I tried to do it relatively even, so I could keep track of my progress.

Nearly at depth.

Now it's time to move to my new router. This could be done with a chisel if you don't have a router, but the router makes this job quick, easy, and accurate.

Getting to know my new vintage router.

As you can see, it's a matter of cutting a little at a time until the surface is even, then increase the depth of cut just a bit and do it again, until reaching the desired depth.

Now they fit together.

In the next post, I will install the hinge and layout the holes for the cribbage board.

Would you have done this process the same way?

Stay tuned!

Cribbage Board

It's been three years since my last cribbage board. Time flies.

I finished something!

In an effort to keep from overloading this post with photos (again), I have combined a bunch of photos of this build into a little animation for your viewing pleasure.

I hope you don't get a seizure.

Cribbage is a really fun card game. I like it best for two people, but three-handed cribbage is also a hoot. Sadly, my wife hates cards, and I don't know anyone else nearby who plays. It sucks to be them, because I'll be on a crusade to teach people this fun game, and those people are all going to soon hate me.

I have kind of a weird philosophy when it comes to cribbage boards. I don't think one should find the perfect piece of wood for a cribbage board, I think you should make the cribbage board fit the piece of wood you have.

I happened to have an offcut of a piece of American birch laying around. It was small enough that it would make a handy size for a travel board for two-handed cribbage. However, it was a bit too long. I thought it would be a shame to cut it down, so I decided to make it double-length: a traditional layout requires that you move the pegs up one side and down the other twice. This board will allow you to go up and back for the required winning score of 121 points.

I learned a while back it is much easier to lay out a cribbage board with dividers than it is to do with a paper template. I feel the template constricts the design, whereas laying out your own pattern allows you to use the wood as you have it. This way I feel like I am not searching for the perfect piece of wood, I can use whatever wood I have.

In the past, the holes haven't all lined up exactly perfectly. I decided this time to start by using the brad point drill bit in my fingers as an awl to start the hole exactly where it needs to be. This improved the quality of how the holes lined up immensely.

I first did this to improve accuracy.

Also, I've really come to like using an eggbeater drill for this job. A drill press doesn't make these holes any faster, and I can do it at my desk during breaks at work. Just frequently keep dusting the sawdust away.

The perfect tool for the job.

One problem I came upon after I drilled out 244 holes on this board, was that they were too close together. When my pegs (purchased from Lee Valley) were in adjacent holes (something that happens frequently in cribbage), they bump against each other in a way that prevents them from seating fully.

To remedy this, I put away the metal pegs I had, and got out the wooden ones that are shaped just the same. I spray painted the heads red or blue, and then made a jig to plane them into a hexagonal shape. This actually lets them get closer together. It's not perfect, but the pegs seat well enough to prevent disaster from happening while playing the game.

My peg-shaving jig made from an old drawer front found in a dumpster.

I kind of eyeballed the angles for the hexagon. I'm pleased with how they look.

An interesting look.

I thought it might be fun to add some more Hillbilly Inlay. This time with spray paint. I ran a marking gauge up the center line of each track, and then widened the mark with a shop knife. I taped it off and sprayed it with two coats of each color.

Right after removing the masking tape.

A few strokes with a plane and there was some nice colored kohlrosing to match the color of the pegs for each player.

Almost done, don't screw it up!

Lastly, I wanted to add a decorative profile to the edges. I've done this profile before with great success, and this example isn't such a great success. I wish I would have just chamfered it. I'll decide in a few days if I want to mess with it any more.

Finished piece.

Overall, I'm generally very pleased with this cribbage board. If I make another one, I'll probably space the holes a little farther apart, and avoid the decorative profile unless I have the proper tools. On the plus side, I'm tickled with the accuracy of the holes, and the effect of the colored stripes.

Stay tuned, as I predict I'll make more of these, as they are a lot of fun to make.

Cribbage Board Fixed

I tried to talk myself into the crack, but it just didn't work for me. 

I couldn't live with the crack.

I sawed a kerf along the big ones, and inserted some maple.

fixing some cracks.

When I cut the maple off, and cleaned it up with a plane, I noticed one side of the maple didn't seat fully.  This little gap under the maple strip resulted in a hole that wouldn't allow the maple strip to be planed even no matter how much I planed.  I fixed this bit by flooding with epoxy, and then planing it flat.

There was one other problem, too.  When I tried to re-drill the holes, I wound up with massive tear out theat resulted in a big hole on the face of the board.

Unacceptable tear out.

This one-hour project has just landed itself in the multiple week category.  I had plenty of time to get this gift ready, but today is probably my last day in the shop before I need to give it away.


Time for the big guns - ebony inlay.

Waiting for the glue to dry.

There was also a tiny crack in the spot where the tear out was.  I found a nice little ebony scrap from a previous project, and decided it would be perfect here.  I wanted originally to keep all of the woods domestic in this project, but what are you going to do.  I think it looks nice.

Interesting feature.

And as a bonus, I made a new plug.  Remember, the last one I made blew off the balcony and was lost.  I decided to make this one from cherry.  I planed a stick a little smaller than the diameter I needed, and made it octagonal.  The threads on the octagonal part don't look as nice as they did on the dowel, but it turns smoothly and the octagonal plug is easier to grip.

Enjoy the glamour shots:

Ebony is cool.

This is a neat shaving.

I was super careful not to let the plug blow away in the wind this time.