In this tutorial, I show you how to make a DIY Pizza Peel with a long handle using mahogany and walnut wood.
Pizza is a beloved food all around the world, with its crispy crust, delicious toppings, and gooey melted cheese. While many of us enjoy ordering pizza from our favorite restaurants, there’s something special about making it at home.
But to make the perfect pizza, you need the right tools, and a pizza peel is one of the most important.
A pizza peel is a large flat board with a long handle, used to slide the pizza into the oven and remove it once it’s cooked.
While you can buy a pizza peel at many kitchen supply stores, it can be fun and satisfying to make your own.
Plus, making your own pizza peel means you can customize it to the exact size and shape you need.
In this blog post, I’ll show you how to make a pizza peel with a long handle.
Also, I’ll guide you through the process, step by step, and provide you with all the materials and tools you need.
By the end of this post, you’ll have a beautiful and functional pizza peel that you can use to make delicious homemade pizza in your own kitchen.
Tools I Used
a href=”http://amzn.to/2qT7v0c” target=”_blank” rel=”noopener noreferrer”>Table SawMiter Saw
Clamps for Table Saw Jig
Band Saw
Glue Dispenser
Wood Glue
Orbital Sander
Mineral Oil
Linseed Oil and Beeswax
Wood Species
First, it is important to choose a suitable hardwood for a DIY pizza peel. Also, a wood pizza peel will come into contact with food and it will be exposed to excessive heat.
Mahogany and Walnut seemed like a great choice for this DIY pizza peel. Essentially, they are both hardwoods and I had excess in my workshop.
Furthermore, I wanted the pizza peel to have a long handle and be about 14″ wide.
The dimensions I used originated from the look and feel, not from exact dimensions.
Mill Wood
First, I resawed the 8×4 (2″ thick) piece of mahogany on my Grizzly table saw
Next, I cut 2 pieces of 4×4 (1″) walnut to 14″ on my Bosch Miter Saw
Straight Sides
Also, a nice jointer is on my tool wish list.
For the interim, I use my homemade jointer sled with 2 grooves I cut with a dovetail 14 degree router bit
Essentially, my dovetail clamps
Then, I used my table saw to straighten the other side. I repeated this procedure for all 3 boards.
Plane Wood
Next, I ran them through my dewalt planer
The boards were already fairly flat, so a few passes achieved the desired result.
Glue Up
First, I placed the boards in their appropriate position to make sure they were flush. I placed the boards on 2 bar clamps and flipped the pieces of walnut upwards.
Then, I used a glue dispenser
Next, I used a rockler silicon glue applicator set to cover the entire area. I slowly applied pressure with my bar clamps until glue seeped out evenly.
The picture shows 2 bar clamps, but I used 4 bar clamps in total.
Draw Template
As I mentioned previously, I didn’t use a template for the wood pizza peel. Instead, I used a pizza stone from my smoker.
Next, I traced it with a double sided pencil.
I free-handed the neck of the wood pizza peel while ensuring it was even on both sides. Ultimately, it was important to me to have a long handle.
Spray paint cans are very handy for drawing perfect circles. So, I decided to use one to form the knob.
Finally, I cut out the lines using my bandsaw.
Rough Sanding
Sanding is an essential part of how to make a pizza peel.
First, I used my spindle sander with the wide spindle to knock down the rough spots on the wood pizza peel.
Next, I used my small spindle on my spindle sander to sand the pizza peel long handle and knob.
Then, I used my disc sander remove the marks caused by the spindle sander.
Finally, I finished off with my orbital sander.
Pizza Peel Long Handle Width
In order for this to be an authentic wood pizza peel, I needed to thicken the handle.
First, I resawed another piece of mahogany on my bandsaw to roughly 5/8″.
Next, I ran it through the planer
Then, I put the piece of mahogany under my pizza peel and traced the shape of the long handle and knob. I used my bandsaw to cut slightly outside the line.
Once the mahogany was cut out, I placed it on top of the pizza peel and sketched the half moon the same circumference as the circle. I cut this out on the bandsaw.
Next, I used wood glue
Finally, I used my belt sander
Pizza Peel Lip
Another essential wood pizza peel quality is a indented lip. This helps the pizza peel slide under the pizza when removing it from the pizza oven or grill.
First, I used my trim router
I used my pencil to draw a horizontal line across the middle of the pizza peel.
Next, I used one finger as a guide and traced a line about 1″ from the edge of the pizza peel.
This line will start the downward slant to the end of the pizza peel.
I used my belt sander to sand from the line to the edge of the pizza peel.
Pizza Peel Knob
In order for the pizza peel to hang from the wall, I drilled a hole in the knob. I used my drill press
Apply Finish
Before I applied the finish, I used a tack cloth to remove the loose dust.
Next, I used mineral oil as my finish. I applied the 3 coats and lightly sanded with 220grit in between coats.
Finally, used a combination of beeswax and boiled linseed oil on the final coat. I wiped it down with a lint free cloth and I was done.
Conclusion
In conclusion, I hope you learned how to make a DIY Pizza Peel.
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