Crokinole General Care and Instructions and Repair Tips (2026 Boards)

Introduction

Our boards are sold with the tag line of "80% as good at 1/3 the price" for our standard boards and we would say our ELITE boarrds would be "90% as good at 1/2 the price" of heirloom quality boards.  This means that while our boards aren't perfect, they should be perfectly functional.  Every board is handmade and very rarely will our boards be 100% perfect.  Small imperfections are to be expected, and we hope our customers appreciate the value proposition of our boards and forgive us when our boards aren't 100% perfect.

While we hope every board arrives to every customer perfectly, with more than 15,000 boards sold in the past 10+ years,  we know all to well that this just isn't going to be the case.  Around 1.5% of customers over the past 10 years have had some sort of issue with their board.  That doesn't sound like a lot but if you are in that roughly 225 total customers, it isn't very helpful. We want all of you to be happy with your boards and hope this page will help you understand better our boards, how to care and maintain them, and of course how to DIY any small fixes that might be necessary.  

Care & Maintenance

We have put together a nice one-page document about care and maintenance that comes with every one of our Standard boards, but it is equally applicable to our ELITE boards.   You can download this document in PDF form HERE.

The entire document is also posted below in text form:

Intro -Mayday is a small US company that is passionate about Crokinole. When Seth from Mayday looked for a crokinole board for a family gift all the way back in 2011 he found there were only $250-$400 custom boards available on the internet, sometimes with wait times of over a year! Thus began Mayday’s quest to make a value board that would allow this amazing game to get into more homes than ever before. We have hosted the GenCon Crokinole tournament for the last several years and are so happy to get this game into the homes of many people who just wouldn’t take a chance on this game were a discount option not available. We have had many happy customers go on to buy more expensive heirloom-quality boards from true craftsman, but still use our board for more casual games. We are delighted by this! Our boards aren’t perfect, but they should be perfectly functional and give owners a sense of enjoyment for years to come.  We think it is a testament to the quality of the game that so many customers go on to buy a true artisan board after giving our board a go. Please accept that almost all of our boards have some small imperfections. Consider adding a carrying case or rubber/screw set of pegs should you prefer a more unique look. Both are available at maydaygames.com.

Surface Care -The most important feature of crokinole is the interaction of the discs and the hardwood. 90% of that interaction is dependent upon the wax on both the discs and the board. In fact, boards can be made of hardwood, painted plywood, metal or even glass! If the top surface is properly waxed, then the discs will behave the same on every surface.  You may meet Crokinole Snobs telling you the surface of their board is “faster” for one reason or another.  Don’t believe them, it all comes down to how they are WAXED! Your board will function best with a proper top coat or 2. We recommend carnauba wax (2024 Update: We now recommend our own wax in 3-ounce or 11-ounce versions HERE) but be sure to get a wax that is 100% wax and has no “cleaners” so as not to damage the wood on the board. If you can run your fingernails across the board and feel a “grainy” feel or your nails snag somewhere then you need to apply another coat of wax.

One of our kind backers from our 2024 Kickstarter had this to say about waxing the board: 

I can't stress this enough BUFF BUFF BUFF & BUFF. The Mayday wax is pretty thick and will need a thorough buffing. One thing I did is put a candle under it for a bit to melt the wax and ran a couple of coats with it liquidy. It made it much easier to spread around. Also I buff in between each coat of wax. I followed it up with 3 coats of Mothers California Gold Spray Wax and my board is like ice.

Discs -Your board includes tournament sized discs of the proper size & are intended for play on regulation tournament-sized boards only, like this one. You should take care to wax both the board AND the discs for best results. Consistency of force applied should result in consistent results if both the board and the discs are waxed.

Please note that very occassionally some discs may have some defects, like in the image above.  This unlucky customer opened up their storage box and found that one of their black discs was obviously defective.  Please note that we include 14 discs of each color in every set of discs while the game only calls for 12 discs.  This is in case you misplace one or one get somehow damaged or lost.  We realize accidents happen and want you to be able to play even if your dog eats one of your discs.  

If you get a damaged/defective disc or two please consider just playing with the other 12 discs you have and don't worry about it.  If you really want to ensure you have all 14 discs in good shape feel free to drop us a line at support@maydaygames.com and we will be happy to send out a replacement for you.

Appearance -Note that our boards are made of MDF and finished on both sides so that any wetness should not absorb into the board. Any water that gets into MDF can cause the wood to bloat and warp, so wipe any spills off immediately and don’t take your board swimming. It might float but it will look quite bad when it comes out of the pool! The top layer of wood on this board is made of a hardwood veneer (meaning the very top layer only is hardwood, the rest of the wood is MDF). This veneer is made from thin sheets of the wood from real hardwood trees. These sheets of hardwood vary in length, most being narrower than a crokinole board’s surface. This means that most boards will be made up of 1-3 different trees’ wood. It is all hardwood but the variations in color from one tree to the next account for the differences in color on the board. This is a natural feature of all veneers and is not a defect of the board. Some small glue marks or chipping along the rim/ditch of the board is also quite common, touching up these small areas with a black or brown “sharpie” permanent marker should make any areas where the wood is chipped all but invisible. For larger chips consider filling with wood putty and gently sanding with a very fine sandpaper before staining or using a “sharpie”.

Pegs -Note that the wooden pegs for the game may fit a bit loosely in the holes on the board. We have had problems with prior production runs with the pegs being much too large for the holes, so we have intentionally designed these to be just a bit loose. The pegs won’t fly off while playing the game, but some pegs may be just a bit “wobbly”. If this isn’t to your preference, we recommend a drop of wood glue to attach the pegs permanently, or to simply wrap a small piece of masking tape around the bottom of the peg for a snugger fit. Alternatively, you might consider a rubber/screw replacement set of pegs for a “bouncy” game of Crokinole. We offer these sets on our website as we mentioned earlier.

Storage -Store your board in a cool, dry area and if possible, store it completely vertically or horizontally. Storing it at an angle could warp your board. Storing your board in a very humid area could allow moisture to penetrate the board and cause warping as well. Exposing your board to extreme temperature shifts frequently can also cause damage to your board. Careful care and handling should be taken when transporting your board and we recommend one of our Mayday Crokinole Carrying Cases both for storing and transportation.

Disc Storage -Note that your discs should fit nicely into the wooden box with score track built into the top of it, but that the green felt on the inside is not attached to the inside of the box.  If you want that to permanently stay in place you can easily apply some hot glue or other adhesive to the felt to affix it to the inside of the wooden box. 

Middle Hole -Note the middle hole on the ELITE board was made "flat" so the discs can be a bit hard to pull out if you aren't used to that.  You can push down on one side of any disc that goes into the middle hole and pull up on the opposite side or consider putting a small button in the middle hole to give it just a little more lift when you are pushing down on one side.  Our standard boards were made convex meaning the middle hole is "bowed" to allow for easier removal of the discs.

Note that if you really have a hard time getting the discs out we recommend you install a small half-inch "scotch bumper" (on Amazon HERE) to make them even easier to get out.  Per BoardGameGeek, Tracey boards also have this small inconvenience to them.

Repair Tips

There are a variety of potential issues that customers may experience relating to a damaged board.  If you recieve a damaged board the first thing you should do is take photos of it, inspect the packaging and try to determine if it was damaged in transit or was a manufacture's defect.  If your board was damaged in transit please contact us immediately so we can open up an insurance claim with the shipping company and get reimbursed for the poor handling.  We will then refund you or replace your board at your option. 

If your damage is due to a manufacturer's defect, please take photos and email us at support@maydaygames.com so we can address the issue and take care of it with you.  These boards are over the "standard" size that most shipping companies will take a package so there are a lot of oversize shipping fees associated with the shipment of a crokinole board.  As such, we will often offer you a small refund or in-store credit to compensate you for a very damaged board and ask you to try to fix it yourself.  

If the damage is so bad that such a repair is impossible then we will likely have you hold onto the game, repackage it and wait for our further instructions.  It often costs $50 USD or more to ship a board out, so rather than have you return the board to us we will often list it as an imperfect board at a discount on our website and then send you the label to send the board on to the customer who buys your damaged board.  Note in all cases the exact damage as described by you and your photos will be used to advertise the board so the next customer 100% knows what they are getting.  

Here are some general tips on common issues and what to do about them:

Multiple Wood Pieces Used in Production

Note that all of our boards come with 100% real hardwood veneer finishing on top and that these wooden veneers come from real trees.  The longer the trees grow the wider the pieces of veneer with be, but the larger the trees the more expensive the wood.  In order to offer our boards at these prices they are always made from several separate pieces of hardwood together to form the top of the board, usually 3 pieces but sometimes even 4-5 depending on the width of the trees the wood comes from.  This is not a defect of the board but one of the ways we are able to offer these boards for less than half of what other people are selling crokinole boards for. 

Elite Loose Fitting Acrylic 20s Holders:

The acrylic 20s holders are intentionally a little loose so that they don't scratch the rim of your board. They wiggle a bit but if you put a small piece of microfiber or other cloth or even a papertowel/napkin in the gap then it fills it nicely AND acts as a buffer so the very hard acrylic doesn't scratch your board all up every time you use it. The 20s holder for our standard boards (here) are not the same as those that come with the ELITE boards (here) so be careful which set you order if you want an extra set!  If you don't like the way your acrylic holders are fitting try this nice little hack by one industrious backer.

If you aren't careful to put something between your board and the acrylic holders then it can result in damage if the holders are forced too hard on the wood, one 2024 backer had a small child get a hold of his acrylic holders and pull hard on them several times resulting in this damage.... don't do that!

Rough Surface: Dust/grit particles on the board

We just recently (August 2026) started getting reports of some boards having some dust/grit particles that seem to be actually in the veneer/laquer of the board that is causing the board to be rough on the surface.  We had a wood expert come into our warehouse and review this issue and he said this issue was cause by the spray nozzle that was used to apply the laquer not being totally clean.  Rather than applying a uniform amount of laquer it sprayed on some "spit" or thicker spots onto the board causing these rough spots.  The spots are simply excess laquer on the board and he showed us how to easily remedy this issue.  He just sanded the board lightly with 3000 grit sandpaper (here on amazon) all over the whole board to remove those spots and bring the finish of the board back to its intended fine gloss finish.  The process feels more like "buffing" the board than sanding it as 3000 grit is super fine sandpaper and won't damage the board or remove the existing lines or in any other way damage the board.  Then you can apply a coat of our wax to the top once finished for a glass-like surface!

Here are some photos of the grit/dirt looking surface on a few of our boards for your reference. 

We are inspecting all of the cherry ELITE boards by hand and sanding over the few we find with this issue so hopefully you won't have to!

Other Issues

We are sure there are other specific issues that aren't covered here, if you have specific questions or need support please email us at support@maydaygames.com and Elizabeth or Dawn will be happy to help you.  We have sold over 15,000 boards over the last 10 years and we are committed to EVERY customer getting a board they are happy with, or getting some compensation or in extreme cases even a full refund.  We are by no means perfect at making these boards but we hope we will continue to improve.  

We aim to make a board that is 80% as good as those high-end boards but at half the price.  We hope you will forgive us that we can't deliver a 100% perfect product, but that you will appreciate the value proposition of our boards.