The Making of a Cribbage Board

 

The Inspiration

My cousin Chip  married this spring and I wanted to give him a small token of the ranch my grandfather (Chip’s great uncle Bud) and his grandmother Gertrude grew up on. Chip came and visited us several times on the family ranch and eventually worked a couple summers with us.

Our great grandparents planted a tree in front of the old ranch house and I’m sure one of the many chores our grandparents had to do was take care of that tree. It couldn’t have been easy to take care of  on the dry, windy, high Montana prairie. It grew well for a number of years until a couple of years ago when the tree died. I decided to make a cribbage board from one of the branches keeping with the idea of giving him a token of the ranch and because he learned to play cribbage while in Montana.

The Process

These are the found materials I started with the tree branch from the Siberian Elm and some copper that was found on the ranch.  I only used the flat copper for this project.

To make the board I screwed a 2″x4″ to the log. I then put the 2″x4″ along the rip fence of my band saw and cut a straight edge.  I rotated the log and cut off all of the rounded edges. At the time of doing this I did not know about adjusting for the drifting caused by the band saw.  As a result my board had one side that was straight and the other side that was crooked. I then had to put the board through the planer so it came out to equal thickness.  This was what the board looked like after I completed all the tasks. (I apologize for not having more photos I hope to get better about taking them with each step with other projects.)

I then set up my lovely homemade router table my boyfriend made me and routed out the notches for the copper inlay that will become the pegging holes. To insure that it was symmetrical I measured the distance from the edge of the board to where I wanted the copper inlay and routed out the right edge and then turned the board around to the left edge and then repeated it for the inside notches.

The copper I used for the pegging holes was found in the pasture east of the original ranch house. I’m not sure if was from an old generator, motor or battery but I know I will be using it in many more projects to come. I cut the copper extra long to make sure I had enough to wrap around the ends of the board.  I then straightened the copper using the vice. I put it so the narrow side was up squeezed it and then took it out and turned it so the wide side was showing. It straightened out nicely.

To clean the copper in the first container I put in enough vinegar to cover up the copper strips and stirred in as much salt as the vinegar would dissolve. In the second container I put in enough water to cover up the copper strips and then stirred in enough baking soda to make the water cloudy. I put the copper in the first container and stirred them around to speed up the process. It takes a couple of minutes in the solution for the copper to become shiny. I ended up using an old terry cloth towel to clean off the really stubborn spots. Once I was pleased with how clean the copper was I put the copper in the second bath to neutralize the corrosive property of the vinegar.  It only took a few seconds in the second solution.

I placed the copper in the notches and then wrapped it so the copper went around the edge of the board. I marked the copper where it over hung on the bottom and then cut the ends of the copper off with a hack saw.

I should’ve made the peg holder before cutting the copper to size. I was procrastinating for fear I would screw this part up. To make sure that I wouldn’t screw this up I put my cribbage board on my bench and created a frame work around it and screwed the frame work to the bench. I then figured out where the hole was going and put up stops on the side and end of board then screwed it to the frame. (See picture in upper left corner.)  The first part of the peg hole I routed out went all the way to the end of the board so I could put the cover in. I then attached a collar and a saw blade to my dremel to put a groove in for the cover to slide into. It took a couple passes at different depths to accommodate the thickness of the cover. After the notch for the cover was complete I put the cribbage board back in the frame work I had on my bench and put a stop at the end so the bottom of the peg holder wouldn’t go all the way to the end. This completed the holder for the pegs. I was extremely pleased I did not screw this part up.

To glue in the copper inlay I decided to use 2 ton epoxy for a couple of reasons. The first reason was because it’s a really strong glue and the main reason was that it’s heat resistant. Since I was planning on sanding the copper it gets really hot and I wanted the glue to hold up.  I decided that to get the copper clamped in to the grooves that I would use two boards the same length as the cribbage board.  To keep the boards from getting glued together I used a layer of tin foil. However if I had to do it over again I would glue and clamp each of the pieces of copper separately. I had one of the pieces come off because it wasn’t clamped down good enough. I had to make a new piece for it.  After the epoxy dried I sanded some of the epoxy off.

I wanted to make each player separate and distinct runs. For the one player I chose to use crushed turquoise for the other I used crushed lapis. (Luckily I had some left from a previous project.)  I wanted the stone inlay to be centered to the copper inlay. I found the center and set the table saw to 1/8″ depth and cut a line. Then I turned the board around and made another groove for the other player. I filled the grooves with crushed stone and then put in super thin super glue.

I know at this point it is really ugly but please don’t loose faith. I marked where I wanted all the pegging holes to go. At the one end I put a run of six holes so there was a place to start and end. After marking where the holes went I used a center punch at each of the holes. I then took it to the drill press and drilled all of the holes.  After I drilled the holes I  filled every sixth hole with stone inlay to match the players run.  I put tin foil in the peg holder to keep the stone inlay going all the way through the board. I then sanded the crap off.When I finished sanding I had a few blemishes. In the lines where I had holes in the stone I went back with finer stone and filled them in. On the back there was a blemish where there was some soft wood. I chipped the soft wood out and replaced it with crushed stone. I figured it would add character.

The cover for the peg holder was also made from copper. This was a chunk of copper I received when I purchased the contents of a small workshop as was the copper rivets.  I measured the width of the slot for the cover and made it slightly smaller than the width. I used the sander to round and smooth the edges. I decided that it needed a grip to open and since I had some copper grommets I opted to use one for the grip. It worked really well.

The copper pegs were made from 1/4″ copper rod. My boyfriend shaped them for me. I then used 2 ton epoxy to glue the crushed stone to the pegs. To polish and touch up the pegs I put them in my power drill like I would a drill bit. I put the end with the rock end in the chuck first then I laid a piece of  sand paper on the bench turned on the drill and rested it on the sand paper. I then took them out and turned them so the rock was sticking out and ran it across the sand paper.  I repaired the rock or replaced any missing rock using the super glue I used for the inlay on the board and repeated the process of polishing the stone.After I finished the pegs I put on eight layer of poly urethane and sanded each layer with steel wool. I then went through re-drilled each hole then tested each hole with the pegs to make sure they fit well. I re-drilled the holes that didn’t fit the pegs.

The final step was to make sure the cover on peg holder fit snuggly. It was a little lose so to remedy this I bent the rounded edge up very slightly and it worked like a charm. I hope they enjoy many games of cribbage for years to come.