Chess set

[paisawood]

Hi,

I haven't posted for some years but having just finished making a chess set as a christmas present for one of my grandsons I thought that I would post a couple of pictures.

The chess board was fairly straightforward and was made from bandsaw cut 1.5mm veneers (walnut and maple) which were glued to a birch ply base. A balancing beech veneer was glued to the back. I don't have a wide belt sander so sanding and scraping everything level took quite a while. I found that the thick veneers were too thick to easily cut with a scalpel so I bought a cheap Kirschen veneer saw from Amazon and was pleased to find that (after sharpening the saw and cutting against a straight edge) ) I could glue the strips of veneer together without sanding or planing. The board was finished off with 5 coats of Liberon satin interior varnish.

I don't do much turning so there was a bit of variability between the sizes of the different chess pieces (most noticeable on the pawns) but not excessively so. Progress was fairly slow but by the end my skew chisel skills had improved considerably. The wood was walnut for the dark pieces and sycamore for the light ones. I drilled a 20mm diameter hole in the base of each blank for mounting the pieces on the lathe and once complete I glued a 6mm thick brass disk into each hole before glueing felt onto the base. This gave the pieces a satisfying weight. The pieces were finished with Chestnut friction polish although without a buffing wheel I couldn't get much of a shine on the knights,

Hope this is of interest.

David

 

[kevinlightfoot]

Lovely set and board ,I hope they are appreciated.

 

[doctor Bob]

Very good

 

[That would work]

Check mate. very nice =D>

 

[Hattori-Hanzo]

Excellent work and a lovely chess set, I'm sure your grandson will cherish it for ever.

 

[gregmcateer]

Well done, sir!

 

[Sheffield Tony]

Super. I like the knights - the softer edges give a more modern look perhaps. A lot of work in that !

 

[paisawood]

Thank you all for the kind comments. Grandson was very pleased.

I spent ages worrying about how to make the knights but in the end I just turned the bases, cut a flattish surfact on the tops and then used the bandsaw to cut around a glued on print of a horses head. Finished off with rasps. files and sandpaper.

Regards

David

 

[jimmy_s]

Really good - I might have a go at making one sometime, thanks for posting.

 

[MikeG.]

Beautiful. My only comment, en passant, is that the black (brown) pieces could be a bit darker, ideally.