How to mark up Cribbage Board

[Andy Henriksen]

I'm making a cribbage board. I have the holes drilled, and would like to mark the board in a few spots (theres a row of holes for wins, skunks, keeping track of points, etc.). At first I had thought to use the rub-on dry transfer letters, but then I came across this spring loaded letter punch set. It seems like it would be perfect for this. So my questions are: any reason this wouldn't be perfect?

And is there a good way to ensure that the letters and numbers are readable? I seem to recall a trick where you burn the wood black in and around the indented letters, and then lightly sand the surface back to the original wood. If that is a legitamate option, any tips on doing it well? Or is there a better way to darken the letters?

Oh, the board is myrtlewood, supposedly - quite a range of colors from pale yellowish green to chocolate - a neat little board given to me by a friend. Thanks, guys!

Oh, here's the punch set: http://www.woodcraft.com/family.aspx?FamilyID=3595

[jonathan snyder]

Andy,

If you go with the letter punches, how about acrylic paint and a really tiny artists brush, and couple coats of shellac.

Another option is to have the text laser engraved. It's not too expensive, I was quoted $25-30 for 3 lines of text at a local engraver. I 'm getting ready to have a plaque laser engraved. I asked the laser folks downstairs, they suggested, to shellac the piece, have it engraved, fill the letters with acrylic paint, (use a toothbrush -shellac will allow you to wipe off any that gets outside the lettering), shellac again, and then topcoat of your choice.

Maybe someone else will have a better idea.

Jonathan

[Mack Cameron]

I'm making a cribbage board. I have the holes drilled, and would like to mark the board in a few spots (theres a row of holes for wins, skunks, keeping track of points, etc.). At first I had thought to use the rub-on dry transfer letters, but then I came across this spring loaded letter punch set. It seems like it would be perfect for this. So my questions are: any reason this wouldn't be perfect?

And is there a good way to ensure that the letters and numbers are readable? I seem to recall a trick where you burn the wood black in and around the indented letters, and then lightly sand the surface back to the original wood. If that is a legitamate option, any tips on doing it well? Or is there a better way to darken the letters?

Oh, the board is myrtlewood, supposedly - quite a range of colors from pale yellowish green to chocolate - a neat little board given to me by a friend. Thanks, guys!

Oh, here's the punch set: http://www.woodcraft.com/family.aspx?FamilyID=3595

Hi Andy; when you find something that works really well, kindly let me know!
72023
Here's 4 that I have made. Only one has the point markings done with a hand-held labeling tool called the IDPal. It prints on a transparent sticky tape which you adhere to the board. Looking headon you can't distinguish the tape, but from the side there is a slight glare which I'm not fond of. I have been trying to find "Letraset" rub on letters, but they don't seem to be available in Canada any longer.

[Andy Henriksen]

After I posted, I had the same thought as Jonathan - just using a black paint to fill in the letters/numbers - assuming the punch kit works fairly well to define the characters in the first place. I think that's the way I'll go. I'll let you know how it turns out.

[joe greiner]

I have a punch set like that (Actually a Chinese clone). Different letters and numbers punch to different depths, because of different contact areas. Do some experiments on equivalent scrap to establish the adjustments needed for each letter, or group of letters with equal areas. The adjustment barrel seems to have about 1mm thread pitch, so number of turns should be sufficiently precise.

Joe

[Mike Hood]

Lots of us on here that have laser engravers. No real limit to what can be done and takes only a few minutes.

Shoot me an email, I'd be willing to trade some laser time for a nice board. :)

I haven't played cribbage in years. (somesailor@gmail.com)

[Steve Beadle]

Andy, I can think of perhaps a couple of drawbacks to using the punches. One is that the individual characters are perhaps a little large for what you need. You might find it difficult to crowd together the letters if you are forming whole words.
Another drawback might be a lack of uniformity of depth of the punched letters. I realize that the punch is spring loaded and adjustable, but since the surface area of each letter varies a bit, I would think that it would take a variable amount of force to achieve uniform depth--and that might take some experimenting. It depends upon how exacting your requirements may be, I guess.
There might also be some splintering, depending on the wood and how the grain is oriented. With myrtlewood I would not expect that to be much of a problem, though. If you only have one piece of myrtlewood, you won't have much scrap to experiment with.
If you do go ahead with the punch idea, you might consider simply using a fine point Sharpie to ink in the letters, then apply finish over it. I use punches to put a "HANDCRAFTED BY . . . " line on things I make, and it works suitably for my tastes as long as I use a fence to line up the punches. Having the text laser-engraved would be really classy, though.
Good luck, and let us know how it comes out!
Steve

[Andy Henriksen]

Update:

I bought the punches, and frankly I'm disappointed with the results. As I was warned here by Steve and others, they are quite variable, and just don't look that good - either crooked, or too deep or too shallow, and really too small to fill in with paint, I think. Another thing that I thought was ridiculous is that the letters aren't all registered to a flat side of the hex head bit (although most are). So with certain letters, there is no way of knowing that your letters are straight up and down.

Anyway, I think I'll be returning it, and doing the rub-on dry transfer letters. I've used those on wood before, with polyurethene over them and it worked, from what I remember.

I'm tempted by the lazer option, but I guess I want to do this project entirely myself. Mike - as much as I'd love to get you a cribbage board, 500+ holes at the drill press is not something I'm excited to do again anytime soon.

[Don Hein]

Sometimes Less is More. In many years of cribbage-playing, I've used boards both with and without identifying words or letters on the hole sections for Wins and Skunks. Neither type of board improved my play.

Instead of marking the board, maybe painted pegs? Black-and-white for the Skunks, maybe Green for the Wins?

[Andy Henriksen]

...Neither type of board improved my play...
:cool:

I'm fairly set on marking the board. I like the idea of keeping a running tab (number of wins, total points, etc.) of how badly my wife has beaten me over the course of a year, or whatever. Without the markings, it would be tough to indicate, say, that she's gotten 1200 points in 10 games, and I've gotten 200, or whatever.

[Mike Hood]

I'm tempted by the lazer option, but I guess I want to do this project entirely myself. Mike - as much as I'd love to get you a cribbage board, 500+ holes at the drill press is not something I'm excited to do again anytime soon.

No worries... Send me an email with what you'd like it to say and I can engrave onto some scrap to let you see what it looks like.

[Dave Dionne]

Mark

What did you use for a template for your boards? Is it the one from Rockler? I like the design very nice.

Thanks Dave

[Mack Cameron]

Hello to everyone; here is the LV cribbage template.
http://www.leevalley.com/wood/page.aspx?c=2&p=32777&cat=1,250,43313
72185
This is the the template I used for my boards. 4 1/2" W X 14 1/4" L. Would anyone be willing to supply me with rub-on numbers and letters for my boards. I just can't find them anywhere in Canada. At my expense, of course.

[joe greiner]

In lieu of rub-on letters, you can prepare your text on the computer, and print reverse-reading on a laser printer. MSPaint seems to have the easiest facility for flipping the image. Attach the printout face down on the wood, with tape well beyond the printed area. Go over the back with a clothes iron on its highest setting (usually Linen). The toner is transferred to the wood by the iron's heat. For best results, the wood should be as smooth as possible; scraping can produce almost a mirror finish. Also, best to do this while SWMBO is away for a while; a friend of mine gets unlimited grief when he washes car parts in the kitchen sink.

Joe

[Mike Null]

Would a laser cut stencil work?

[Andy Henriksen]

In lieu of rub-on letters, you can prepare your text on the computer, and print reverse-reading on a laser printer. MSPaint seems to have the easiest facility for flipping the image. Attach the printout face down on the wood, with tape well beyond the printed area. Go over the back with a clothes iron on its highest setting (usually Linen). The toner is transferred to the wood by the iron's heat. For best results, the wood should be as smooth as possible; scraping can produce almost a mirror finish. Also, best to do this while SWMBO is away for a while; a friend of mine gets unlimited grief when he washes car parts in the kitchen sink.

Joe

I am TOTALLY going to try this. If it works, Joe, you will be my hero. :D I will probably sand down to a super fine grit rather than scrape, though, as I've had trouble with scraping in the past - tearing and gouging, and I don't want to wreck my only piece of this wood - my trouble was admittedly just from inexperience/dull scrapers, though.

To Mack: This is the place I found online, but I thought their prices were a bit high. A few are also available on ebay, but pretty limited in font styles.
http://www.emsdiasum.com/microscopy/products/photographic/graphics.aspx
here's another:
http://www.minute-man.com/acatalog/Numerals__Letters___Alphabets.html

I have yet to find them in person. I'm thinking maybe an art supply store or a craft store (Michaels). The local hobby shop did not have them, which surprised me.

[joe greiner]

I am TOTALLY going to try this.

Andy, definitely try it on some scrap first. Consider both sanding and scraping in two separate places. I prefer a hand-held bare utility knife blade for scraping - almost a mirror finish on PT pine. Use a light touch, with the grain or at a slight bias for a slicing component.

Joe