One day off: Refinishing the Cribbage Board

I have been on the DuPont schedule for the past few years.  I've never gotten used to it - probably never will.  There's a point on DuPont where you work three 12 hour day shifts, get a single day off, then work three more 12 hour night shifts.  The one day off doesn't give you much rest, but I did manage to get a small project finished, and that was the cribbage board.

We were given a large cribbage board by my wife's parents.  It was pretty banged up, and it's been sitting in the garage awaiting storage or re-finishing.  I decided that it would be a decent project that I could accomplish on my one day off, while saving my longer stretches off for larger projects.

Stupid me, I started work on it without taking a "before" picture.  By the time I thought to take a picture, I had already sanded the top of the board.  The side still shows the original finish and the numerous dents and scuffs that were in the board.

Below, 100% sanded and ready for staining.  The sanding actually took quite a while.  I started with 100 grit and worked my way up to 400 grit, which seemed good enough.  I should have taken the sanding outdoors.  What a mess!

Below, stained and about to get a first coat of Polyurethane.  Note to self:  Skip the foam roller - It makes the Poly bubble and foam.  I had to follow up with a dry brush to knock the bubbles down.

Below, drying out after a second coat of Polyurethane.  It turned out a little bit lighter in color than the original (I was afraid to use the dark walnut color stain), but it's definitely less abused-looking!