My son’s troop needed a way to display the ranks for all the
boys and what rank they were at. The plans I found online were nice, but the room we had at our church would not accommodate the hook and eyelet designs I found.

Then I had an idea for clothes pins, but they are too small. So I decided to go with tongue depressors I found at the craft store which are about the right size.

Originally, I was going to write the boy’s name in sharpie. My wife had the idea to burn the names into the wood. She said it would look “scouty-er”. I have to agree it looks way better than sharpie.

I wanted a position for boys who cross over from cubs but have not earned the Scout badge. This gave me eight rows for ranks including the crossover.

This design works for me for the ease of updating the ranks for the boys. I hope to have them do it themselves at Court of Honors. It will also be easy to add and remove scouts.

Obviously, you can reverse this or mount it upside down. This just worked best for my troop and we can put it out on a table for Court of Honors.

Materials:

4 x 3’ ¼” dowels

1 x 4’x ½” x 3” Oak moulding

Pack of wooden alligator style clothes pins

Pack of tongue depressors

1 troop patch

1 patch for each scout rank

Wood glue

Wood burning iron

Step 1: Glue

Glue a clothes pin to a tongue depressor for each scout in the troop. Leave a ¼ of an inch from the ‘jaws’ of the clothes pin and the edge of the tongue depressor. Use spare pins as clamps.

Step 2: Cut & Drill

The dowels will be to the left, so the pins will attach to the left. Measure 1 inch in from the left side and drill the first hole for the dowels. Then measure six inches from each hole until all eight holes are in the center top of the board.

Step 3: Trace & Burn

Write each scouts name on the tongue depressors with a pencil. One so you can correct mistakes and second it slightly scores the wood to give a guide for the wood burning iron.