Wooden Pizza Peel

This was a crazy fun and simple project. I didn’t know how useful a pizza paddle was until we had one in the kitchen. We generally cook our pizza right on the oven grill so having a pizza peel available to pull the pizza from the oven is very useful.

I went to my local hardwood dealer and picked out some 1/2” stock. This will save me time from planing down thicker stock on my planer.

I found some nice mahogany that I’ll use for the center and hickory for the outer edges.

You’ll begin by cross cutting two outside pieces (hickory) to roughly 15" and one middle piece (mahogany) to roughly 30"

Clamp and glue everything together and try to keep all the pieces level and in line. I’m using spring clamps on the joints for proper alignment

Next you’ll want to draw a large circle. I’m using a 14.5" pizza pan from my kitchen.

Now you’ll draw the handle and blend the lines. The handle width for my pizza peel is 1 3/4”.

At the end of the handle you’ll draw another circle. I found the base of a spray paint can to be the perfect size. Again you’ll want to blend the circle into the handle lines. The total length of the pizza peel should be about 28"

Now you can take the piece over to the bandsaw and cut out the shape. I like to cut as close to the line as I can without touching it. I’ll then finalize the shape in the next steps.

You can then take your rough shape over to the disc sander and sand down to the lines. For the handle and curves you’ll need to use a spindle sander or sand and file by hand.

To beef up the handle you can thicken it up with another piece of mahogany. Here I’m using a piece that’s 1/4" thick and tracing the handle onto it.

And then back over to the bandsaw to cut out the shape. Again you’ll want to cut close to the line without touching it.

Next you’ll draw a curve that’ll blend into the main part of the pizza peel. And back over to the bandsaw to cut it out.

Now you can file down a bevel that’ll blend into the pizza area of the pizza peel. I’m using a Dremel tool to remove the wood. I would suggest not using a router as the corner pieces are too fragile.

Next you can clamp and glue the piece to the handle.

Once the glue dries you can sand everything flush on the spindle sander or with a file and sandpaper.

For the front of the pizza peel we want to cut a bevel that’ll allow the pizza peel to easily slide under a pizza. In the photo I’m just free hand drawing where that bevel should end.

Next you can file or sand away the wood to create a nice front wedge. This was quickly done with a belt sander and some 80 grit sandpaper.

For the handle I’m using a 3/4" round over bit in my router table to round over the edges. I’m only rounding over the top (face) of the handle. The bottom of the handle and the pizza area will have a much smaller round over and we’ll use a random orbit sander for that.

Next you can drill a 1" hole in the handle so you can hang and display your pizza peel in the kitchen.

Now you can sand everything up to 220 grit. I use the random orbit sander to blend all the curves and round over any edges.

For a finish I’m using a heavy coat of food grade mineral oil. Once the mineral oil has had time to soak in I’ll then melt some paraffin wax and mix in mineral oil to about a 50/50 mix and apply it to the pizza peel. Once the wax cures you can then buff away a nice protective coat.

And that's it! Be sure to watch the video for extra tips and details!