How Would You Make (Chinese) Dominoes?

[Chris Schumann]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_dominoes

I have a set of these, but want to make more of them as gifts. They were often made of ebony, and I would eventually like to do that, but I'd like to try a cheaper wood to start with, say, walnut. I might try to ebonize them.

I'll have to cut all three dimensions, as 1/4" stock is a bit too thin, and anything else is far too thick. Ebony is easy to find in 1/4" ... and 2", and not much between, without a special order. (Ebony is also often sold with a heavy wax coating, and I haven't dealt with that yet.)

I have a band saw and table saw, a palm sander, as well as a No. 5 jack plane and a smaller plane that I haven't seen in a while, but I imagine I'll at least need a drill press. I have in mind a set of templates I can make to place the pips very repeatably. Are there bits with rounded tip profiles?

But the main issue I have is how to take a hunk of arbitrary stock and get pieces of uniform size out of it, especially if some time passes between sets. Will I really need a jointer?

(Actually, even older sets were made from bone, but I haven't found anything resembling bone sheet stock!)

[Dave Cohen]

planer

Joiner is just really to flatten 1 face, and put an edge 90 degrees to that face on the board (S2S)...from there you can plane it down to thickness, and rip it to width (S4S).

[Anthony Whitesell]

Rockler sells a template for the pips (dots) with the drill bit.

I would acquire a piece of stock and joint/flatten one side. Place that side against the bandsaw fence and resaw just thicker than the domino thickness. This will allow you to sand both sides without getting to thin. Then use the template to drill the pips/dots. Go back to the bandsaw and use a stop and the miter gauge to separate the pieces.

[Chris Schumann]

I hadn't seen that Rockler template. Very nice. Too bad it won't work for the Chinese style because of their different shape (longer and skinnier than western dominoes), and layout of pips. (The 4-4 tile looks like 2-2-2-2, etc.)