Is It Time For Pizza?

A Template for a pizza peel

  A couple different times this past summer there were hints made to me as to what I could make for Christmas presents this year for the daughter-in-laws.    It was interesting that none of these hints actually came from the daughter-in-laws themselves, but from other members of the family.      When the first hint came I just kind of blew it off, but when the second hint came I began to think that maybe it wouldn't be such a bad project.     The hint given to me was that I should make pizza peels for each of the families.

A pile of 1/2 inch thick hardwood lumber

      Normally I start making Christmas projects by the end of October and then I have to wait until January to blog about them.  That way I do not give away any inkling as to what everyone could be getting for Christmas.     This year - due to scheduling differences - when we held our Thanksgiving family gathering we also celebrated Christmas at the same time.    Which meant that I had to spent a little more dedicated time in the shop to have everyone's gift ready, but also I can blog about these projects a little sooner then wait for January.     

Clamp and Glue

One down and two more to go

     At the start I was thinking about just how difficult could this be.   After all it's like making a bigger size cutting board only with a handle in the middle.    The first step was to find a comfortable chair, hold the remote control in my right hand, cover myself up with my favorite blankie and search the You Tube channels to find someone who is making pizza peels.   There are a lot of them out there.





     Next I dug into the old wood scrap pile (which lately has been shrinking slightly  -- which was my ultimate goal for 2017 --- which there is not a whole lot of 2017 left) and gathered any hard maple, cherry wood, walnut, and what ever else that was there and plane it all down to a half an inch thick.   Have I ever stated before that my favorite thing to do is glue - glue -and glue.  (Have I ever stated that my least favorite thing to do is sand  -  sand - sand?)

Oh!  My back!   My Back!

       Something that I have never done before and I'm not sure why, but was to use a wood rasp.   I've had one laying around the shop for years and just never thought about using it.    I think I purchased one years ago thinking it would be cool to have one of these in the shop, but I just never used it.    Well, I put it to use on this trip.   I took the rasp to the front edge of each pizza peel and filed down the lip so there would be an angled edge to scoop up the pizza.    It worked great. 

These would make excellent spanking sticks. 

  The handle is doubled up but formed to easily hold in your hand.    I used a food grade mineral oil product to hand rub on the boards.   That always makes the grain pop out.   I will have to check out this project after it has had a chance to work in their  kitchens for awhile.   I'm not concerned that they won't hold up - I think they are very solid.   But for one thing, they seem a little heavy.  If I were to do this project again I might plane the wood down a little more.    Maybe 3/8's of an inch thick.   Oh well.  This way it will hold a deep dish pizza with out any problems.
   

Three of my best friends
Cari Jack - Vanessa Goetz - Danae Goetz