Making Crokinole Boards

Sunday, February 27, 2022

J and his cousins grew up playing on his grandpa & grandma's handmade crokinole board. The game is a sort of circular curling/shuffleboard on wood, with discs landing in certain regions worth varying points, and lots of knocking opponents' discs off the board, from Canada. When grandpa passed, the two family crokinole boards were given to two of J's aunts, and with social distancing, those boards are rarely seen. With these 5 new boards, J has made one for each of the grandchildren's families to have a board to play at home. They're built to tournament standards, and with some purchased discs, they whizz across the surface even faster than grandpa's boards.

J says he mostly consulted Crokinole World's "Making a Crokinole Board" combined with WoodGears' "Crokinole board plans", while consulting other sites for design and color ideas. He saved himself some effort by purchasing pre-made bumpers and discs (his grandpa's were made from a broom handle!). The boards were cut from sheet plywood and the rails were planed from large lumber. 'Gotta use those woodworking tools for something!

1. Cutting pieces from finish-grade plywood.
   
2. Carving the lines into the plywood.
   
3. Staining the boards & bases.
   
4. In some cases, carving out the lines post-staining, for a contrasted look.
   
5. Planing rails from thicker lumber, then staining and polyurethaning the rails to match or contrast the boards.
   
6. Polyurethane the boards & bases a few times, attach together with wood glue.
   
7. Caribou Wax and buff the boards for added disc-sliding.
   
8. Staple the inner rail to the base.
   
9. Wood glue the outer rail to the inner rail, and clamp like your life depends on it.
   
10. Cut & stain a contrasting slice of dowel for the center, so discs are easier to remove when they land there.
    
11. Drill 8 equidistant holes for the bumper screws.
    
12. Screw in bumpers and it's completed!
    

At time of writing, J is stil working on our board as he wants to put an obscene number of layers of polyurethane on the playing surface. It'll have a blue-stained base, natural board to show off the patterns in the wood, and dark brown contrasting rails.