Lighthouse Cribbage Board

The story behind the Lighthouse Cribbage Board...

The Lighthouse Cribbage Board began as a winter project in November 1998. As the New England days grew shorter and the nights grew longer, I realized I needed a project to keep me from spending too much time in front of the TV. Of course, I got together with a friend for a few games of cribbage once a week or so, but what about the other nights?

I walked around my house trying to think of a project. As I went, I kept seeing cribbage boards stored here and there around the house (I had three or four boards at the time). Each board had a different arrangement of peg holes but I liked the up-down-and-back pattern the best. I tried to think what I could do to make my cribbage board unique - perhaps a unique shape. What is long and narrow like a cribbage board with that peg layout? Of course! A lighthouse!

I searched stores, catalogs, and the Internet to see if anyone else had created a lighthouse cribbage board. All I found was a couple rectangular boards with pictures of lighthouses on them and an etched scrimshaw board. I looked at hundreds of pictures of lighthouses at the library, in photo books, and on the Internet to get ideas for the shape.

I made many drawings and a few prototypes before I had a design I really liked. That was mid-summer 1999. Wasn't this supposed to be a winter project? I was happy with the resulting cribbage board shown here. Most people I showed it to encouraged me to make more and sell them. I made a few more samples and continued to get positive feedback. But I didn't have the time, equipment, or space to turn out enough quantity to sell.

Then came the hard part - finding a manufacturer! I spoke to several small-scale manufactures and most of them cringed as soon as I said "cribbage board". The 245 precisely spaced holes drilled in each board was a time-consuming and tedious problem - that's why I didn't want to make large quantities myself. It took a year before I found a manufacturer with a CNC router and experience making cribbage boards. After a little more tweaking of the design, I had the manufacturer produce 100 boards.

Unfortunately, the manufacturer was not able to figure out an efficient way of painting the boards. So, that would be up to me. I set up a spray booth in a friend's garage and went to work. Painting the white was easy. The stripes, windows, and roof was another matter. I experimented with several techniques before admitting the only feasible method was the most time-consuming - laying out the stripes, windows, and roof with masking tape on each board and then spraying making sure to keep the coats light. I hope to find a better method before I order the next batch.

I have enjoyed the process of designing these boards and bringing them to market. I am already working on my next product. Check back from time-to-time to for more information. I hope you enjoy using or displaying these boards as much as I enjoyed creating them.

-John Wills

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