Mölkky, a Throwing Game (no Power Tools)

In this Instructable we'll be making a backyard throwing game called Mölkky, which originates from Finland. What is special about this method, is that there are absolutely no power tools required. This is to show you that you don't need a whole workshop to make things out of wood. Even if you have power tools at your disposal, I encourage you to try working with hand tools. It is so much more enjoyable (even therapeutic) without the noise, the dust, and the chance of cutting off one (or more) of your fingers. If you haven't worked with hand tools yet, may I suggest watching a couple of videos from Paul Sellers? I owe much of my skills to him.

Supplies

These are all the tools you'll need to make Mölkky (pic 1). Surprisingly few tools, right? And two are even optional: the radio and the wooden tool with a metal plate in it, called a chair devil. So you'll need a clamp, 2 hand planes (1 scrub plane, 1 smoothing plane), 2 hand saws (1 cross cut, 1 rip cut) and some sandpaper. A scrub plane looks like a regular hand plane, but the iron is curved, which allows you to take much thicker shavings (a bit like how a gouge works).

Two items are missing from the photo. Mölkky works with 12 numbered pins. I burned each number into each pin with a pyrography pen. If you don't have a pyrography pen, a soldering iron could also work. Or you could of course just paint the numbers on the pins. The other missing item is a solid workbench with a vice. If you don't have one, you might get away with a portable workbench with clamping options (e.g. a Black & Decker Workmate), but I definitely recommend making your own work bench.

But wait a minute, you'll say. What about a lathe? Surely, you can't make round stuff without it, right? We'll see...

Step 1: Preparing the Wood

In this step we'll be processing the rough lumber into square staves. Traditionally, Mölkky is made from birch wood, which is just the right density (not too heavy, not too light) and doesn't dent too easily (in comparison with pine, for example). I had to call a couple of lumber yards before I found one that had birch wood of sufficient thickness in stock. You'll need a thickness of at least 6.5 cm (2 ⁹/₁₆ inch). The board I bought was 8 cm thick, because this was all they had (pic 1). If you bought a rough board like mine, which is basically a piece of tree trunk, the first step will be to cut it right in half. This is to get rid of the heart of the tree (the very middle), which is very unstable and will cause the wood to twist and cup. To find the heart, you just have to follow the growth rings. I highlighted some with pencil (see pic 2) to illustrate this.

Next, take your rip saw and cut your lumber in half, effectively removing the heart (pic 3). Try to follow the line as best as you can. A good way of keeping to your line is to switch the board (front to back) every 15 (or so) saw strokes. It's difficult to keep sawing all the way down (your saw will bind) so once you're halfway, flip the board end for end and start sawing from the other side. This whole process should take you no more than 10 minutes. If it takes you considerably longer, your rip saw might not be sharp enough. Sharpening takes only about 5 minutes, so it is well worth the extra effort to save time (and muscles) later on.

When you're done sawing, take your scrub plane and flatten one rough sawn face of the board (pic 4). It's important that this reference face is free of twist, so use winding sticks (pic 5) to check. If you're not at all familiar with the process of making lumber square with hand planes, I suggest watching how Paul Sellers does it. In this step, you don't have to get everything perfectly flat and smooth, because we will process the wood further, and will lose those faces anyway. So no need to get your smoothing plane out at this point. When you have your reference face, plane the edge square to that face, using a square to check regularly for squareness (pic 6).

Finally, divide your board into smaller square sections (pic 7) with your rip saw. These square sections should be around 6.2 cm (2 ⁷/₁₆ inch). Plane the sawn faces like you did earlier, to get all the faces nice and square to each other.

Step 2: Making It Round

Now that you have prepared square sections of wood of approximately 6.2 x 6.2 cm, it is time to make the magic happen and transform them into round sections. The official Mölkky dimensions require the pins and throwing stick to be exactly 5.9 cm diameter (2 ⁵/₁₆ inch).

The first step is therefore to make a cardboard template of 5.9 cm diameter. Find the center of your timber by drawing the diagonals (pic 1). Place your cardboard template, pin it down with a nail through both centers (pic 2) and draw your circle, preferably with a soft pencil to give a clear line (pic 3). Now put the timber in a clamp, and put that clamp in your vice (pic 4) and you're ready to knock off the corners with your scrub plane (pic 5). If you haven't done so already, it's best to sharpen up again after all the previous planing. Don't hesitate to set the scrub plane to a thick shaving (about half a mm) and you'll have turned that corner into a flat face in no time (pic 6). Do this for all 4 corners. Be mindful of the grain orientation. Not all corners will plane in the same direction. You'll notice this immediately, because planing against the grain will leave a ragged surface (pic 7). It's a good idea to put arrows on the newly created flat faces after planing, so you know which direction to plain in later steps. With all 4 corners removed, you should end up with an octagon (pic 8).

You'll notice that the corners of the octagon fall outside of your pencil line. Eliminate those 8 corners, still using your scrub plane, but at a less aggressive setting (pic 9). At this stage, try to plane as close to your pencil line as possible without removing it. This should give you a fairly decent circle already (pic 10). Now it's finally time to get out the smoothing plane (pic 11). Set your plane to take a very thin shaving, and start creeping up on your pencil line, being mindful of grain direction (using the arrows you put on earlier). You should end up with a round section (pic 12), that can be left like this (has a crafty feel to it), or it can be further refined. You can do this with either a home made chair devil (pic 13), or with some sand paper (pic 14). The goal is to remove all the ridges (facets) left behind by the smoothing plane.

Step 3: Cut to Length

I'm not going to lie to you, this step took me longer than anticipated. It involves planing a lot of end grain, and regularly checking for squareness/45° bevel. It will take you around 15 min. per pin to get it to the right dimensions. When you have sufficient round stock, it's time to cut it to length. What is sufficient? One pin measures 15 cm in length (5 ¹⁵/₁₆ inch), including a 45° bevel. And there are 12 pins, plus one throwing stick measuring 22.5 cmin length (8 ⁷/₈ inch) so you'll need about 2 m of round stock. In fact, you could get away with a little less, because the bevels allow you to get more pins out of your stock. But I must admit I sawed 2 pins too short, so you might want to account for some failure.

Also, my lumber was split at 1 end, so I had to saw away a bad part first (pic 1). All cross cutting is done with a crosscut handsaw. For the 45° bevel, I used a sliding bevel as my guide (pic 2). It's difficult to saw the 45° exactly right (pic 3), but by planing the end grain, you can correct for this. But first, use a file to round over the edges (pic 4), so you don't break out any fibers while planing end grain. If you have a lot of corrections to do, a scrub plane works wonderfully for heavy removal (pic 5). Follow up with a smoothing plane (pic 6 and 7), but do make sure the blade is sharp. The sliding bevel helps to regularly check for the 45° angle (pic 8).

When all your hard end grain planing is done, you should have a set that looks like picture 9. Good work! Go on and enjoy a drink!

Step 4: Pyrography and Oiling

In this last step we will burn the numbers into the pins, using a pyrography pen. Mine is adjustable for temperature, but a fixed temperature pen would also work because this isn't intricate work. Print all the numbers on paper, using a font you like, and attach them to the pin with some tape (pic 1). You can burn right through the paper to transfer the outline (pic 2). It's best to do this outside, because I suspect burned printer toner is not so healthy to breathe in. Next, you can define the outline further with your pyrography pen (pic 3), followed by filling the number in (pic 4). Do this for all 12 pins, of course.

Once you've done that, give all pins and throwing stick a coat of tung oil (pic 5). Other wood oils like boiled linseed oil might also work, but I would definitely stay away from varnishes. They will make the wood feel like plastic, and so you will lose the tactile feeling of wood.

Step 5: Bonus Step

Remember I bought 8 cm (3 ⁵/₃₂ inch) thick wood? Well, the off cuts didn't go to waste. I made a nice little crate to hold the Mölkky set (pic 1). Everything is just nailed together, using 4 support columns on the outside of the crate. I used some slats with bark still on there, because it has a rustic look to it (and it's efficient use of material). Notice how the pins fit together, by putting one pin bevel up, and one pin bevel down each time. Inside dimensions are 24.2 cm (lengthwise) by 24.7 cm (width). That's 95 ⁹/₃₂ x 97 ¹/₄ inch. But it's best to measure your Mölkky set and make the crate to fit those measurements.

That's it! I hope you enjoy making this, but even more importantly: enjoy the game!