Cribbage Board

While waiting for the glue to dry on my table top, I made a new cribbage board. I wanted to use an inlay in the top, but I'm still learning how to make the inlay. So I made the board from a piece of walnut from the pile. The walnut was sanded and routed along the edge before drilling. After drilling there was too much tearout around the holes so I ran it through the thickness sander a few more times to clean it up. Its not perfect, but better.


I needed new pegs, and since some that I've made in the past have broke, I wanted to use a brass tip to make them less fragile. I started with 5/32" brass rod that I picked up at True Value for less than $2. I pulled my old Enco metal lathe out and turned the first ½" to slightly smaller than the holes in the cribbage board and narrowed the tips for easy insertion. I left a 1/8" center band full width, then turned the top ½" to just under 1/8", matching the drill I was planning to use.

I pulled out some holly and a piece of Myrtle Wood from the wood stash to make the pegs. These were trimed to 1 inch long, drilled out on the Enco lathe and super-glued onto the brass pieces. Because of how close the space was I was unable to use my collet for the wood lathe so I turned them on the metal lathe, a much, much slower operation. I used wire to burn a design in the Holly but left the Myrtle Wood plain since it is already dark. The finish is super glue and BLO.

Enjoy, and be careful of the splinters.