Making a Croquet Set

Colwin Way makes the kite for this traditional summer game

Table of Contents

Before we start looking at the project we’re about to embark on, I’m going to hold up my hands and admit that I’m no authority on the rules or history behind the game of croquet. What I do know is that it’s great fun on a lazy sunny afternoon to be enjoyed with the family while the barbecue is cooking. Let’s look at the rules briefly first though, this will give us an idea of the parts required. We are going to make a full set for four players so this means four mallets, four balls, six hoops and two scoring pegs. Each player has one mallet and one ball. Alternatively, you can have two players with two balls as you make your way through six sequenced hoops and finally to the scoring stick. That’s a lot of kit to make! This is a great little project and much easier than it first looks.

Things you will need

Tools

  • 24mm Forstner bit
  • Sanding disc
  • Pull saw
  • Fluchcut pull saw
  • Hammer
  • 19mm roughing gourge
  • 3mm & 6mm parting tool
  • 25mm skew
  • 25mm gouge
  • 6mm bowl gouge
  • Abrasives (100, 150, 240, 400 grit)

Materials

  • 6 x 24mm diameter broom handles
  • Card for template making
  • Finishing oil
  • Wood glue
  • Wood stain
  • Brush for stain
  • Coloured tape (red, blue, yellow and green)
  • Exterior varnish
  • Small piece of router matting
  • 4 x 300mm beech blanks
  • 4 pieces of 75 x 75 x 85mm beech
  • Thick gauge garden wire

Making the mallets

1. Probably a good place to start would be with the timber we’re going to use. It’s good to use something strong and hard when thinking about the mallet heads and the balls. It’s also important to pick timber with the same density, so I’ve decided to use beech for both and opted for pre-cut blanks for ease. I’m going to use two of the pieces for the mallet heads and the other for the balls
2. I thought about turning the handles for the mallets but looking at the length of them, I would have to put the bed extension on the lathe and add a steady. This would start to make the project a much harder task than it needs to be, so for this reason I decided to use broom handles instead. The handles are 24mm in diameter plus they are fairly cheap – mine cost me just a couple of pounds each

Coquet set plans

3. Let’s start by cutting the mallet head timber to size. The blanks are already 300mm, so all we need to do is cut them exactly in half. Measure accurately with a rule and make a shallow cut with the bandsaw, then flip the timber over and use the cut line as a sight line to cut along
4. Now we have our four pieces of beech cut to length, you will need to drill your hole ready to accept the broom handles. The plan is that the handle goes all the way through and is held in place with a wedge. It’s obviously important that the holes are drilled in the very centre of the blocks, so take some time marking out
5. On to the pillar drill. Because we’re drilling a fairly large hole it’s important that we clamp the piece to be drilled down to the table. Just holding this piece by hand won’t do as we are likely to get a grab if there is any movement at all, and this can result in serious injury. I’ve used a simple F-clamp for hands-free drilling
6. Set your drill up for the operation first by making sure you have the depth to drill all the way through your blank, you have enough drill exposed and the blank can fit under the drill bit. Not all pillar drills have enough capacity, so you may be forced to stop the drill halfway through the cut to adjust the drill
7. Now that you have your hole all the way through the blank it can be mounted to the lathe, taking as much care to centre between centres as you did to drill the hole centrally. We’ve drilled first as it’s much easier to drill while the blank is square than if we waited until turned and had to contend with a holding issue and potential for drill breakout
8. Now you can take your blank down to a cylinder ready for shaping – this is a fairly straightforward procedure using the spindle roughing gouge. Take gentle cuts with a slow feed rate to keep the cut clean but don’t be tempted to check for round with your hand while the piece is moving as we must not forget it has a hole through the centre which could catch your fingers
9. Before we start doing any real shaping it’s good to trim each end to length and make clean from marks and saw cuts. Stop the lathe and measure exactly halfway with your rule and mark with a pencil, now mark the two further lines 72mm out either side of the centre line, turn the lathe on and use a parting tool to clean unto your marks. I also like to add a decorative V cut dead in the centre of the mallet head, but this is optional
10. Now all the critical bits of turning are done you can finish the shaping by tapering to each end of the mallet head. Again, this is optional and the overall shape is entirely a personal choice. Once again slow, light cuts from the spindle roughing gouge are all that’s needed to give a good finish
11. You’re going to have to sand the mallet head on both the side grain and the ends, but just remember that you have the hole running through the centre. Make sure you sand from underneath the workpiece with the timber running away from you to avoid catching the hole. Take care not to sand the ends too hot as well as this will cause cracking to the end grain
12. After sanding through the grades and you’re happy with the finish, take the mallet head off the lathe and repeat on the other three. Once all the heads are complete mount your sanding disc ready to take off the nibs where the drive and tailstock centre were. The one I’m using is fixed to my chuck using a faceplate ring
13. Sanding the waste areas away is a fairly simple process. Start with 100 grit to take away the bulk of the waste before swapping the sanding disc for a power sanding pad and working through to a fine 400 grit abrasive. Inspect the end grain and don’t be scared to sand further out from the centre point if you think it needs it
14. Let’s move on to the handles for our mallets, for which we bought softwood broom handles. We will also use one of the handles cut into two for the scoring sticks in the next issue. To prepare the handles, cut a 50mm-deep central slot in the end with a pull saw on all four
15. The broom handles are a very quick-grown softwood and incredibly pale, so I’ve decided to stain them dark stain. In this case I had some old rosewood stain lying around since about 1985, so decided to put it to good use. I find using a foam brush to apply the stain saves an awful lot of mess and keeps the stain where you want it. Try to avoid staining the area to be inserted into the mallet head
16. Once the stain has dried you can glue the heads to the handles, but in preparation for this you will need to cut yourself some wedges. I chose to show the wedges as a feature and a contrasting timber, in this case sapele. However, if you want to hide your wedges choose the same timber as the handle
17. To fix everything together, tap the handle into the mallet head until it just pokes through and the cut slot is running in line with the turned V-cut you made in the mallet head. Then add some glue to the slot and the wedge before tapping the wedge down until it will not travel any further. Set aside and leave until the glue has completely cured
18. Here’s what the mallet should look like once the glue has completely dried. Although the handles have had a coat of stain there is no actual finish on either handle or mallet head. We still need to finish the join and do some sanding before that stage
19. The glue is now dry and we can cut the waste away from the wedges. Again, it’s important not to mark the mallet heads and my preferred tool for this is the Japanese flush-cut pull saw. This is a very flexible saw, but because it has no set can be used right up against the timber without marking it
20. This is the join so far, and even though the flush-cut saw has left quite a good finish we still need to give the mallet heads a sand. It is as easy as taking a sanding block to them, however I opted for my power sander for speed and working through the grades to 400 grit
21. This is what the heads look like with the contrasting wedges in and everything sanded. The next stage is to consider the type of finish you want to use and to consider the conditions you will be playing in. This is a summer game, but grass can be wet and I would always go for a weather-resistant finish
22. I’m using an exterior gloss boat varnish to make sure the playing pieces are fully protected if left out overnight or someone accidentally spills their Pimm’s on them. It’s wise to add a couple of coats and sand lightly between to give the best finish. I would also varnish the heads first then wait for them to dry before doing the handles, so you’re not juggling with wet varnish
23. Once everything has had a good couple of coats of varnish you can add the colours. I’m using tape to distinguish the individual teams and am going to stick with the primary colours – red, blue, green and yellow. Each mallet should have one colour with one matching ball, while the scoring sticks have all four colours

Making the balls

24. Like the mallets, the best place to start when making the balls is deciding on the timber to be used. And again, it’s best to stick with the same timber as the mallet heads to match density, so I’ve cut our pieces of beech into 85 x 75 x 75mm blanks
25. Turning a ball is much easier than you would assume. Start by holding your blank between centres using a regular drive centre, such as a pro drive or small four-prong drive, and a ring centre in the tailstock. I’ve chosen to leave the corners of the blank on here, but if you choose you could take them off on the bandsaw first
26. The ball size is going to be 70mm in diameter so start by roughing the blank down to 70mm using a set of callipers to measure. Once to the correct diameter, set the width to the same measurement with a pair of dividers and scribe the 70mm. You can now make your first cuts to remove the waste timber, leaving about a 10mm waste spigot where the tailstock centre is and as close as you can get to the headstock centre
27. Now you should have a blank measuring 70 x 70mm. Divide this in half by marking a line 35mm from one end with your pencil. This line is going to be your focal point and a marker for when we turn the ball on its side in a few steps’ time. You can now start shaping to a rough ball by removing the corners of the blank before letting the bowl gouge bevel rub the timber and arcing the handle around. Try to keep the flute facing either 2 o’clock when cutting at the tailstock side or 10 o’clock at the headstock side, so you are always cutting in the direction you’re travelling
28. To help you keep on track, make a template with card or thin plywood, by using a compass or set of dividers to draw a circle the diameter you want and cut it in half. These templates can be used over and over again
29. Once the ball has been cut, repeat the operation on the remaining three blanks. To finish the balls you will need to make a cupped drive from a scrap piece of timber. Start with a blank measuring 50 x 75mm and rough it down to a cylinder between centres. Create a hold point and hold in your chuck
30. To shape the drive use a 6mm bowl gouge to create a dished recess, then taper toward this cup as in the picture. To make sure you don’t get any burn or burnish marks from the timber, glue on a small amount of router non-slip matting
31. You will need a similar centre in the tailstock. You can buy centres but alternatively you can turn a wooden sleeve to fit over your regular tailstock centre to the shape you need
32.The ball is now being held at 90° to its original position and the original centre points at the top and bottom are ready to be turned away. Make small cuts to slowly remove the waste and periodically stop the lathe and rotate the ball to turn another section. This will make the ball completely spherical
33. Once the balls are completely round you can start to sand them, making sure every part is sanded with each grade of abrasive. I’ve chosen to sand from 100 grit to 150, 240 and 400 grit
34. The balls are now finished and ready for decorating, so here are a few ideas. In this picture I’m giving them a simple coat of finishing oil, however you could varnish them as we did the mallet heads. Alternatively, you could paint them to match the individual colours of the mallets. Finally, you could put a series of turned rings in them, different to each ball to identify a different team
35. Let’s turn our attention to the scoring sticks. These are the sticks to be struck to signify the winner of the game and are very simple to make. Once again, I’ve used one of the broom handles for this part, simply cutting one in half at 500mm long
36. Centre the blank as best as you can but don’t worry too much if it isn’t exactly central. Hold the blank between centres using two ring centres, one live in the tailstock, the other fixed in the head. Don’t worry that this is quite long as you will only be turning each end and not the centre
37. Start by cleaning the end nearer the tailstock, I find this best with a skew chisel to slice the grain and give a clean finish. Avoid a parting tool as this will tear the grain badly. Also make sure you leave enough spigot supporting the centre, otherwise it could break prematurely
38. The business end on the scoring stick is a gentle taper – imagine the shape of a cricket stump and you’re on the right track. The skew really is the right tool for this, making planing cuts to create the timber. Once again, make sure you leave enough to give strength while sanding
39. Here you can see the amount of timber left to support. You can now start to sand through the grades, stopping the lathe on every grade to hand sand with the grain. To tidy the waste areas up, simply add
40. When the sticks are fully sanded, stain, then once dry add the tape in the same way you did on the individual mallets, I’m using insulating tape in primary colours, but unlike the mallet you need to add all colours to the scoring sticks as in this picture. Alternatively, you could paint the colours on and varnish over the top of the stick

Making the hoops

41. So, on to the final part, the hoops. You could turn a set of three sticks and rest one on top of the other two, again like cricket stumps. You could buy some plumbing pipe and 90° angles to create the hoop or, like me, buy some thick gauge garden wire and bend it around a plant pot
42. There we are all the hoops bent and ready to be pushed into the ground for the game. I do hope you’ve enjoyed this project as much as I have and that you get hours of fun playing the game. All you need now is a little sunshine!

Further reading

How to Make Table Skittles


PHOTOGRAPHS BY COLWIN WAY

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