What do you recommend to treat your decks, to keep them fast?

We use a product called, appropriately, Mother's Speed Spray Wax, available at most auto parts stores. Spray it on and buff it off. The result is a fast deck. You can remove your bumpers if you're so inclined, to make it easier to do the buffing. When you reinstall them, use an allen wrench to tighten just enough so that they don't move. And don't forget to wax your pucks once in a while.

Your prices are very high for a mom and pop operation, significantly more expensive than tournament quality boards from [insert here other manufacturer].

Our prices are indeed significantly higher for some boards, that is true. Sometimes more than double what another "tournament" board would cost. Others are comparable in price to offerings from other companies.

We make artisan, heirloom boards designed for families. Each board we make requires at least fourteen hours of shop work. And, although we're using tournament dimensions, we're making them with significantly different components. The decks are solid hardwood, not plywood. The rails are also solid hardwood, and most of our boards have a bent rail that is three-eighths of an inch thick. We can do this because we have a highly customized, proprietary clamping system that bends the triple layer of 1/8" hardwood. Another proprietary system trims the wood to fit. We carefully router our score lines, we don't screen print them. Our bumpers aren't wood screws that screw directly into the deck, we install threaded sockets and use machine screw bumpers. Remove them anytime you wish to polish your board. Furthermore, some of our decks are made from relatively exotic wood species that are expensive (purpleheart or zebrawood, for example).

Every Crokinole board we make is utterly unique, never to be duplicated, not even by us. If you own a Gyroscope board, it's the only Crokinole board like it on the planet and it always will be.

As for our being a "mom and pop" operation, we're not sure how that relegates our prices to any specific dollar limit. Bottom line, those who want a board that is exactly the same as used in a sanctioned tournament can buy a board from the manufacturer who makes the boards for such tournaments; but if you want something truly different, if you want a board that is as much a work of art as it is a Crokinole game, a Gyroscope is worth considering.

Won't the solid hardwood deck warp over time? A laminated or MDF deck won't do that.

There are a couple of things we do to prevent the board from bowing up or down over time. First, we alternate the direction of the grain of the sticks when we prepare the glue-up. You can see the direction of the grain by examing the butt ends of the sticks being glued together. Second, we apply the same amount of spray finish to both sides of the board, not the game side only. Thus, the moisture in the air does not affect the board unevenly. Our earliest boards were prepared in 2021 and they are still flat. If stored properly (not in an attic or shed), we believe they'll stay flat.

How do you attach the rail to the base?

With glue. Our rails are bent prior to mounting, and the bend angle conforms to the shape of the base. We attach with a customized ratcheting nylon strap, leave it for 24 hours, then trim it with a router.

What about shipping? How do you ensure a board arrives safely?

We pack our games with a combination of cardboard, styrofoam insulation panels, and reconfigured pool noodles. We put hours into every board we make, and we consider them to be works of art; therefore, we do not want them damaged.

When we got our board we noticed that the deck moves a little bit laterally, as much as 1/8". Is that by design?

It is most definitely by design. The deck is solid hardwood. As such, it will expand and contract due to changes in humidity. If it were glued to the base - which is manufactured material and not nearly as susceptible to change - the deck would crack and split over time. Therefore, your deck is anchored to the base with six neodymium magnet modules. This allows the deck to move while keeping it secure. Here is a good video about wood movement that illustrates the concept of wood movement and why it must be considered when designing a hardwood piece such as what we are selling.

So magnets, not screws or glue, attach the deck to the base?

There are screws involved, but they are used for the strike plates. There are six steel strike plates screwed and glued to the underside of the deck. We attach the plates with screws that are a full half-inch long. That means that the thickness of the strike plate is all that separates the end of the screw from the top of the deck! But that's necessary for maximum hold. The cyanoacrylate adhesive is applied in the same moment the strike plate is screwed to the deck, so it cures in that context. We have never had a strike plate fail.

There are six holes in the base. The magnet anchor modules pass through, with two-inch plates on the underside holding everything together. Each module consists of not one neodymium magnet but two. Combined, they provide 100 lbs of hold each. Each module has a protective leather pad to prevent any damage to walls or furniture. You can see pics of our magnet modules in the Design section of this site.

What about the wood grain? Doesn't that slow the pucks?

No. If anything, it makes the puck faster. Doesn't affect the direction either.

Do you stain any of your decks or rails?

Never. Natual wood grain only.

Do you do custom builds?

Generally, we do not. But email us if you have any specific ideas, we'll always consider it.

Are you aware that there are other crokinole boards on the internet being sold with solid hardwood decks and magnet mounting systems?

We are aware. We’re also aware that those boards are using a mounting system that directly copies what we do, what we have been doing, and were the first to do. The neodymium mounting system that we use – a system that allows us to manufacture crokinole boards with solid hardwood decks which do not crack or split – is an original innovation by Gyroscope Games. They’ve even copied our nylon rope hanger configuration. How do we feel about that? We believe that there couldn’t be a more obvious validation of the quality of what we do than for the method we use to be so obviously copied and emulated.

However...

There are aspects that, so far anyway, have not been copied and may never be.

• Our decks are designed by a professional artist. The grain and other unique characteristics of the wood strips used in the glue-ups are carefully arranged to be balanced, thoughtful, and pleasing to the eye. Look closely at any of our decks and you’ll see the intentional, thoughtful arrangement of the pieces of wood used.


• Many of our decks are made of hardwood species that are beyond the realm of the usual suspects maple, cherry and walnut. We sell striking crokinole boards with decks made with species such as zebrawood, redheart, yellowheart, tigerwood, spalted maple, purpleheart, red marblewood, padauk, and the rare Honduran rosewood. All of these woods yield spectacular visuals when finished with lacquer. We even sell decks that are a mix of species. Regardless what wood is used, the intelligent, artistic design and thoughtfulness remains evident in the final product.


• But the deck isn’t the only part of a Gyroscope Games crokinole board that is made with solid hardwood. Our rails are solid hardwood as well, and are often with interesting species of hardwood, or mixes of species of wood. There's no plywood or manufactured materials involved. Just solid laminated hardwood. We don't make octagonal games. Our contemporary rails are round and they're 3/8” thick. They feel great under your hand when you are preparing to shoot, and when you’re not shooting, they’re great to look at. How do we do it? With steam? A magic wood-bending force field? It’s a classified, proprietary method and it’s going to stay that way.

We’ve spent a lot of time developing innovative ways to manufacture crokinole boards that are works of art as much as they are games to play. We realize that we've blazed a trail that allowed others to easily follow in our footsteps and thus circumvent the hard work and trial and error that got us to this level. That’s their prerogative. And it’s your prerogative as a consumer to buy from them or any other manufacturer as you see fit. But the bottom line is this: there's only one Gyroscope crokinole brand, and there's only one place to get a game with the Gyroscope build and genuine logo.

A high-end artisan crokinole board is not an inexpensive investment. If you're reading this, we hope you'll choose to buy a geniune Gyroscope crokinole game board.