Hand Carved Mancala Game Board

BORED

I can't afford

A skateboard.

I can't afford

An outboard.

I can't afford

A surfboard.

All I can afford

Is a board.

Shel Silverstein

This board is a for a game called Mancala. It's one of the oldest games known to humanity. The board is 21" long. It's played with stones. The history and rules of the game can be found here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mancala

The wood is a piece of 2x6 construction lumber. It's not a perfect piece of wood. It has nail holes and shows the patina of over half a century of service as part of someone's home. I try to find lumber like this and give it a new life. And why would you play the oldest game in the world on a board made by a machine?

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Supplies

Finding a piece of wood

I was cutting thru a lot where another home had recently been demolished and I saw one piece of wood sticking up out of the ground. It was busted on both ends and dirty. So I grabbed it and brought it to my shop.

The wood is Dade County Pine. It's very hard and resiny and nearly extinct. I call it South Florida Rosewood because of the price, if you can find it.

Gathering Tools and Courage

I don't really have any in progress photos of this and I did it about 5 years ago. But there's not much to it anyway.

The only tools I used were an angle grinder for shaping the outside and bottom. And a wood gouge about 3/4 of an inch wide and believe it is a #7 sweep.

Removing Everything That Doesn't Look Like a Mancala Board

I don't have any kind of plan or pattern except that there is 1 Long depression at each end of the board and 2 rows of 6 smaller depressions running between.

I sketched out the locations and used the gouge to carve them out. You can use a mallet here or, like I did, Just use a bit of elbow grease to push the tool into the wood. I left the texture of carving in all the depressions. I sanded the rest til smooth using several grits of sandpaper.

Let's Finish This

I used an Oil/Wax finish to preserve the feel of the wood. That's about it. Now just find someone that's not doing anything and see if they would like to play the oldest game in the world. If they give you a sly smile, you may want to let them know it's not that, It's Mancala.

Thanks for taking a look. Cheers.