JIGS AND SUPPLIES:
While cribbage has been around since the early 17th century it remains popular as a simple, easy-to-learn strategy game. By using a simple board, pegs and a deck of cards two or more players use strategy and card counting skills to advance pegs around the board to a win.
And, as a woodworking project, a cribbage board offers woodworkers of all skills a way to be creative and build a fun and useful game (or gift).
In this guide learn how to make your own cribbage board that will last for decades.
Page Contents
Step 1: Choose Your Cribbage Board Size
Before buying wood, its best to decide if you will go with a standard-sized board (~6 x 17 inches) or build a large board or custom shape.
And, for a first-time cribbage board build, sticking with a standard board size will let you learn the process, and from there, you can venture into larger or non-standard dimensions. And, in standard sizes, plenty of drill jigs are available to allow for precision holes.
Step 2: Pick a Wood and Build Style
For many, choosing a wood is the hardest part of any woodworking project.
And with a cribbage board, the decisions can go from a simple oak board to an end-grain exotic wood. With that in mind, your choice will be influenced by budget, tools, and skill. A few popular options are:
- Exotic wood blank using Acacia, Purple Heart, or other sustainable species harvested according to international guidelines.
- Domestic figured woods like curly or Birdseye maple.
- End-grain designs that use an exotic or domestic wood cut to show the end grain in a pattern, like the Purple Heart end-grain board pictured above.
- Or, live edge slabs that highlight the natural look of the board.
Step 3: Glue Your Board (Optional)
As you guessed, if your choice in boards is to glue strips of wood or build an end-grain design, then you’ll need to glue the board using clamps.
Here are a few tips when gluing:
- Layout your grain pattern before gluing. For the best visual appeal, alternate grains and avoid repetition.
- Then, use a wood glue like Titebond II that is formulated for woodworking.
- Lastly, avoid excessive clamp pressure
As the directions aren’t always clear, always let the cribbage board sit overnight before running through a planer or sanding. Doing so allows time for the glue to cure and fully set, which will help prevent joint failure.
Step 4: Rough Sanding
While preferences vary among woodworkers, most like to do rough sanding before cutting any piece of wood to size. Why? Well, this allows for any snipe or other defects to be fixed (or not) and lets the final piece be finished with just hand-sanding.
Here are a few tips when planing or sanding:
- Never plane end-grained wood as it will risk rip-out of grain or SEVERE damage to your planer
- When planing, use light passes and set up your planer to avoid snipe. Most woodworkers make projects an extra 2 or 3 inches long to allow cutting snipe off.
- Start with 60-grit paper, then move to 100, 150 and 220-grits.
- Avoid excessive down pressure when sanding, as it can leave swirl marks
- Lastly, always use high-grade sandpaper for the best wood removal
Step 5: Buy a Cribbage Board Jig
The thought of laying out a cribbage board by hand and precisely drilling holes would be a challenge for even professionals.
So, instead of attempting this by hand, pick up a jig. The standard size is a 1/8-inch kit that makes a compact-sized board. But larger pegs are great for less delicate or older fingers, so some choose 1/4-inch equipment with extra large-sized pegs.
Why do you need this jig now? Well, the jig sets the size of the board:
- A 1/8-inch kit requires a board roughly 5-1/2 by 17-inches
- And a 1/4-inch kit requires a 6-1/2 by 27-inch board
However, these vary by manufacturer (Rockler’s brand is shown above), so having the template first will save you later.
Step 6: Cut Your board to Finish Size
Once your project is sanded to 100 or 150 grit, the next step is to cut the board to the proper width and length.
Following the size chart supplied with your cribbage jig, you can cut your board to the correct width and length. Also, optional at this step, you can use a trim router to provide a slight quarter round (or other style) to the board’s edge. Most woodworkers prefer simple with this type of project.
Step 7: Drill The Peg Holes
With the board cut to size, clamp the jig to the board and drill holes according to the instructions. As you can see by the picture above, a high-quality template set will have indexing pins that will keep the template locked in place.
However, woodworkers prefer using wood clamps to keep the jig locked down. As a tip, this also prevents wood chips from finding their way under the jig, creating issues with the drill bit depth.
Step 8: Finish Sanding
Now that the holes are drilled, the last step before applying a finish is to finish sanding the surface.
A random orbital sander, as shown above, works best in this step. While any sander will work, at this step, it’s best to use a high-quality random orbit sander that will help prevent swirls. Woodworkers will always debate, but using a sander from Festool with proper technique will give you the best chance at a quality finish.
Before calling sanding is done, be sure to hold your workpiece up to the light and look for swirls or imperfections. You may find around the holes that drill bits have left some slight tear-out that should be sanded before moving on to the next step.
Step 9: Apply A Low Build-up Finish
It’s tempting to put polyurethane on a cribbage board.
But rather than clog the holes with a finish like that, woodworkers use a penetrating finish like a mineral or tung oil to protect the wood.
And as a bonus, these types of wood finish are generally toxin-free and food safe, making them a healthy choice for application and use.
Step 10: Let Dry and Use
Most wood finishes will take at least overnight for the finish to dry and be ready to use. By adding a deck of cards and high-quality pre-made metal cribbage pegs, you’ll be prepared to play.
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Last update on 2025-06-25 at 20:33 / Images from Amazon
- About the Author
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Eric has been a professional woodworker for over thirty years and has worked in small cabinet shops making everything from kitchen cabinets to hand-made furniture. Now working from a home woodworking shop Eric is sharing his passion for woodworking, tool advice and how-to knowledge from his Minnesota-based woodshop.
