Mölkky is a Finnish game that’s a bit like bowling or bocce, but with sticks. You throw a stick at some other numbered sticks. If you knock over one stick, you get the number of points written on the stick. If you knock over more than one stick, you get points equivalent to the number of sticks you knocked over. The sticks get stood back up where they fell, so they spread out as the game progresses. First person to exactly 50 points wins, but if you go over 50 points, your score drops back to 25.
It’s quite simple, quite fun, and quite easy to make as a woodworking project.
Alright, I’ll admit it. I have been keeping some things from you, dear blog readers. Specifically, the atrocious failure that was my first attempt to make a living room table.
Table #1, so much went wrong.
I mis-measured the top so the legs grip it by the outside instead of seamlessly disappearing into it. I also forgot that the leg orientation mattered so I laboriously cut mortises half way into them, only to realise that they were on the wrong side of two of the legs and then had to instead cut them all the way through (that’s those ugly gashed you can see midway down the legs).
Anyway, it’s not pretty but it holds up weight and we’ve been using it for several months now, so that’s something at least.
Last week I decided we needed a second one, and this one I’d do right!
I did all my measurements and cuts right, and joined three thick planks into a solid, flat top. The fit was so good it almost didn’t need glue, but I glued it anyway.
Next up, four legs cut perfectly to size so they’d grip the top without any need for nails or fancy joints.
A bit of glue, a bit of plywood cut to fit exactly on the deliberately overhanging support rails and BAM! One very stable, fully functional table I don’t need to be ashamed of:
