Pizza Peel

[Bill Arnold]

Bobbie and I have pizza about every two weeks. We prefer Digiorno frozen pizza rather than taking a chance on delivery stuff. We generally add a little to it to suit us. One item I've wanted to make for several years is a pizza peel, so I browsed my back issue libraries to find some examples. The one we liked best is from Woodsmith #191.



To get it started, I took the specifications from the article and created VCarve drawings for the flat and handle, then ran them on my CNC. The woods I used are redheart and hard maple.



After cleaning up the edges, I used my router to run a tongue on the handle and groove in the flat.



The next step was to taper the flat from a thickness of about 5/8" down to 1/8" at the end. That was done with a sled that fit my planer.



Once the taper was created, I sanded all surfaces and made the leading edge a little thinner. Then, I swabbed it with Watco Butcher Block Oil & Finish.



I applied a second coat of Watco after letting it sit overnight. Then, it sat in my shop from Saturday morning until Monday morning when I did some final sanding to smooth the finish. We'll give it a couple more days to cure, then give it a try!



Thanks for viewing!

 

[Ted Calver]

Top notch, Bill! Very classy.

 

[Brent Dowell]

Very cool!

Did you think about doing the rabbet on the CNC instead of the router table?

 

[Bill Arnold]

Very cool!

Did you think about doing the rabbet on the CNC instead of the router table?

Thanks, Brent.

Yes, I considered doing one side of the tongue on the CNC. Since I needed to setup my router table for the groove in the flat, I decided it best to use the same groove bit to do the handle as well. I ran the groove in the center of the flat, then lowered it to do one side of the tongue, flipped the handle and ran the other side. That way, the tongue would be centered and I could sneak up on the fit.

 

[Brent Dowell]

Ahh, I must have missed the groove, I thought it was a simple rabbet on the handle and the peal that joined them. Excellent work.

 

[Vaughn McMillan]

That looks great, Bill!

 

[Deleted at User's Request]

Those edges are so smooth.

 

[Ryan Mooney]

That's a good looking peel! I like the way you did the handle, looks really good.

 

[Chuck Ellis]

What no pizza, how do we know it works if there's no pizza??

We have a Papa Murphys take and bake pizza every so often... used to have one every Saturday as I could stop on the way home from my market to pick it up.... not allowed at the market this year because of the Covid-19.... we also always added to it for our tastes.

 

[David Johnson]

Very pretty peel. We have one similar but not as nice but it works. We enjoy homemade pizza quite frequently. About one inch thick with all the toppings. Yum yum!! Wife just discovered a neat trick. In the past she has always used corn meal on pizza stone and peel to make everything slide easier.
Found that using parchment paper works just fine without the corn meal mess. Also clean up is much simpler. Just build pizza on the paper and slide paper and all off the pizza peel onto the stone. Works great.
David

 

[Bill Arnold]

... Found that using parchment paper works just fine without the corn meal mess. Also clean up is much simpler. ...

Being devout Southerners, we always have cornmeal in the pantry! We also have parchment paper, so I'll definitely give that a go!!!

 

[Robert Horky]

Great looking and should work well. Enjoy!