I just got a portable pizza oven and wanted a wooden launching pizza peel. Instead of buying one in these strange times, I decided to make one. This project was fairly simple and only took three days to complete. Hope you enjoy. Happy pizza making!

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Note: Redwood may not be 100% food safe. Please do your own research to make sure the wood and finish you are using is food safe. Lastly, all wood dust is bad for your lungs and this project produces a lot of dust, so please take the appropriate protections - such as wearing mask or type of respirator.

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Supplies

A wide, thin piece of wood (I used a piece 11.25" x 26" x .75")

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Tools:
Jigsaw or Band Saw

Orbital Sander

Drill and Drill Bits

Wood Butter

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Optional:

Planer

Disc Sander

Step 1: Cuting the Board to Size

After some rough calculation on the size of the pizza peel, I decide to cut the board 26 inches long. This length gave me two extra inches on each side of the design to work with. I used my miter saw to cut this board, but could have also been done with a circular saw. I had to flip the board over to cut it due to it being too wide for my miter saw.

Step 2: Planing the Wood

A good pizza peel is fairly thin and flat. To get to the right thickness, and remove the cupping of the original board, I ran it through my planer. There is a problem with my planer that makes the top of the board chattery. Knowing this I did not run the board down to it's final thickness, and instead used a sander to reach the final thickness.

Step 3: Marking the Design

I sketched out my design using referencing the template I found HERE. I made the front less rounded and the handle a bit wider. In addition, I marked my lines about 1/4 inch-1/2 inch wider than my final shape. It is easier to take material away, but it is very hard (impossible) to add more.

Step 4: Cuting Out the Design

I cut out the pizza peel using a jig saw. I cut the peel out in 3 sections, the front, left side of the handle, and right side of the handle. This step could also have been done on a band saw, which would have been cleaner and easier to control.

Step 5: Sanding

This is the largest and probably most time consuming step of the whole build. First, I used a disc sander to sand into the lines I drew and remove the rough edge left from the jig saw. This could have also been done easily with a orbital sander. Next, using the orbital sander with 80 grit sand paper, I removed the chatter from the planer and thinned the board. After lots of sanding, I switched to a 220 grit sanding disc and made the peel smooth. Over time I refined the shape and angles of the peel, to make it comfortable and elegant.

Step 6: Beveling

I added a bevel to the the front of the pizza peel using the orbital sander. Using a 80 grit sanding disc, I slowly sanded away a bevel. To make the bevel consistent, I found that it was best to move my entire body with the sander instead of just my arms. After many, many passes, I had a nice bevel for launching pizzas.

Step 7: Adding a Hole

For aesthetics and the ability to hang the peel, I wanted to add a hole to the handle. I first started by marking the place I would like the hole. I then used a small drill bit to pre-drill the hole. Next, I used a larger drill bit to add the hole. Unfortunately, when drilling this larger hole the wood split a small bit. It is not noticeable but is probably not as strong now. Lastly, I used a triangle grinding bit to remove some of the burs - this could have also been easily done with some sand paper.

Step 8: Finshing

To finish the board I decide to use wood butter. Wood butter is a mix of beeswax and mineral oil. If I am remembering correctly, I used a 50% beeswax and 50% mineral oil mixture. However, when I looked online there are many different proportions and mixtures. Basically, you just melt down the beeswax and mix in with the mineral oil. There are tutorials available online.

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I decided to re-melt the wood butter before letting it soak into the wood. I used a paper towel to wipe the oil into the wood. Evenly coating the peel leaves it with a nice sooth finish when complete. After the top was dry, I flipped the peel over and coated the bottom. When the wood butter on the bottom of the peel was soaked in, I added a second coat on the entire peel. Once this is accomplished the Pizza Peel is done!