For Christmas for 2023 Molly and I decided that for a couple of our friends I should build some cribbage boards for them. I had previously built one and it turned out really well, so I tackled it again.
Of course, I forgot to take pictures during the construction. So this is mostly an after-the-fact documentation.
The first one I made during the summer mostly as an experiment for myself. It turned out well, with a light blue epoxy piece that was nicely translucent. For a finish I used a light beeswax style finish that allowed the wood grain to show through but wasn’t a high gloss.
For the two boards for Christmas, I decided to try a different finish, a high gloss polyurethane (I was going to varnish them but decided to try something I’d never used before).
Sanded, ready for another coat
Another coat applied
As it happens, I learned that applying high gloss polyurethane well is quite difficult to get right and not leave streaks. In fact the finishing process was taking so long that in order to get one of the boards into the mail and shipped across country in time for Christmas we shipped the one I built during the summer, allowing me to work on the remaining two right up until the day before Christmas.
I was aiming for roughly about 5 coats, but found that I couldn’t apply an overall coat at one time - putting the board down on paint triangles wound up leaving a mark at the points where the triangles held the piece up, marks that were very visible with high gloss. So that meant I needed to put five coats on the bottom, and then flip it over and apply five coats to the top and sides - double the amount of time to apply.
And then, of course, I found that applying an even coat with no runs was very difficult. Most of the stuff online implied I should apply polyurethane with a high quality bristle brush, which is what I did, but I could not get this to dry smoothly. The bristle brush applied a decent amount of product, but that caused drips. If I cut down the amount applied, it would leave streaks. The answer? Apply the last coat or two with foam brushes, and it finally (finally!) turned out.
(Almost) finished product
After applying the finish the holes needed to be drilled. Even with applying a layer of masking tape directly to the surface to help with tear out I noticed what looked like tear out in some of the holes though…
Is that tear out?
As it turns out, it wasn’t tear out - it was able to be picked off carefully with a fingernail. Rather then tear out, it looked like the top layer wasn’t completely detached from the drill hole, which is what you see left behind. Some was able to be carefully picked off, the rest I’m pretty sure will simply fall off as the cribbage board gets used.
Final one, finished post Christmas
I do like how they turned out. I have a better idea of how to apply the polyurethane finish, and while I think I like the high gloss a little better, it’s much more work to apply, so all in all a wash between the two.