About Us

Hi!

I'm David Oakes, "The Cribbage Guy", maker of some of the finest cribbage boards from our workshop in Tennessee.

I hail originally from Brighton, England, and after college, I lived for ten years in Wales, where I learned to carve Welsh Love Spoons, a traditional craft dating back to the 1500's.

After falling for an American lady, Marty, I emigrated to the States and proudly became a U.S. citizen in 2001.  We lived in Michigan for almost ten years before moving west again to northern Idaho with our young son, John.  We found an idyllic spot in the woods, surrounded by mountains, rivers, and lakes.  Throughout this time, we played much cribbage and gin rummy, treasuring our time playing at the local coffee shop.

Given the space, a new workshop, and plenty of time, it wasn't long before I was working with wood again. I inherited some tools when my father passed, and those just added to the joy of creating from wood. I started carving some more love spoons and, of course, cribbage boards. I have been developing and building my own specialized computer-assisted machinery to help with the manufacturing process. It certainly helps when some boards have almost 500 holes to drill, each needing to be carefully placed!

Most of my work is sold online through this website to customers from around the world. We're not part-time hobbyists - this is our profession, and we plan to continue to make boards that people will enjoy playing on for many years to come.

After 18 years in northern Idaho, we have just moved to Tennessee, and we are working hard to get established there, reopen our business, and build a new workshop.

Marty looks after the website, the orders, accounts, production planning, packing, shipping, and most everything besides designing and making the boards.

Thank you for reading this far - We hope our story inspires you to play more cribbage, learn woodcarving, or just to chase your dreams!

And if you buy one of our boards, that would be great too!

David & Marty
The Cribbage Guy