A Few Kind Words About Ebonised Chess Pieces

I have two sets of the ebonised chess pieces & have to say they have held up well over the years. For someone not wanting to pay for the price of real ebony these are a great substitute in IMHO.

I still prefer my ebony sets but there is absolutely nothing wrong with ebonized.  I bought an older HOS tournament set off Ebay a few years ago (with considerably nicer Knights than current production).  For some reason the finish had started to "crystallize" in spots and also there was some kind of whitening (Mold maybe from improper storage?) in the grooves.  I didn't see it in the photos on Ebay or I probably wouldn't have bought it.  Anyway I dug out the old Dremel tool and improvised a buffer from an old cotton T shirt cut into small strips.  Took a couple of hours but the result is a gorgeous dark dark chocolate color.  Ebonized sets are fine by me.

Black shoe polish works wonders too : ) on real ebony or ebonised pieces likewise.

It's a matter of taste, I guess.  For study and OTB play I prefer a triple weighted plastic set (camel and black) such as my Drueke #35 or the Paladin set (very similar) by Chesshouse.

But for display and a very rare, occasional game at home, wood grain is my choice.  I like seeing the grain in both light and dark pieces.  Unfortunately, most wood sets are boxwood for light which has rather subtle grain unless you find a rare exception.  The rosewood dark pieces are my choice, not ebony, because I can't enjoy the wood grain with ebony or ebonized finishes.  As I say, personal preference only.

I hear ya. I really don't mind subtle wood grain as thats the nature of wood. I have a Ledgend set that is super dark eboney bought back in the day before their prices shot way up. Its a close copy of the original Staunton chess men & a delight to play freinds with.

My very first chess set almost 5O years ago was an inexpensive "German Knight" set that my grandmother gave me for Christmas.. boxwood and ebonized boxwood. I played that set hard all through junior and senior high and college. I recently examined the pieces and the ebonizing is still nice and dark with no light areas or wear showing through. I keep that set in the box now not coming out for play any more.

I am getting back into chess and bought a nice club set from the Chess Store with good plastic pieces but I just could not get to liking the plastic ones. So I gave them to my son and bought an inexpensive India-made set from Wholesale chess - boxwood and ebonized boxwood again. I find I enjoy the experience much more with the wooden pieces... and I dont mind if they knock about together in the case, they are nicer than my 50 yo set not sure if they will stand up after being played as much as those but time will tell.

I also have recently bought a couple of "nice" sets, one in padauk and the other in ebony. Other than a bit more attention on the finish and not as much detail in the knight, the cheap India-made set is every bit as nice. Just nice to have a real wood set that I don't mind banging around with.

Since I don't own a boxwood set, I'd be curious to know what there is about wood that makes it different from plastic.  Highly finished wood, such as ebonized, seems little different from finished plastic - the finish is what you touch.  My playing sets are triple weighted which is difficult to do with wood since you can't turn the inside as much and still maintain wood strength, hence you can't weight wood pieces as heavily at the bottom which effectively raises the center of gravity.  Is it the higher center of gravity you like, the visual appearance, or the lighter weight?

I'm curious as to why you say this. Weights are put in the base of wooden pieces same as with plastic pieces. And to quote just one example, the HoS Collector set with 3.75" K weighs 54 ounces in the wooden version and 52 ounces in the plastic version.

Nothing comes close to a nice weighted wood set however, plastic is my 2nd choice.

Thanks @FrankHelwig, I didn't know that about the weights.  One might assume that since the plastic bases are 1mm thick or so, that turning wood bases down that thin would compromise the strength of the wood.  So either the wood is stronger than might be expected, or the weights are stacked inside a bit higher (deeper).  If that latter is the case, then the center of gravity would be higher and the pieces more prone to tip over.  As I said, I don't have a nice wood set, so I'm just guessing.  I'd never buy an expensive wood set without being able to see it first.

As far as wood vs. plastic, if I can't see and feel the wood grain, what's the difference?  I would always prefer a blood rosewood to ebony for the dark pieces for that reason and would never consider spending money on an ebony set.

I am a wood worker and have always loved the feel of fine finished wood. Boxwood does have subtle grain which I wish my ebony set had but it has been stained to be pure black. Also over time the finish on the wood piece develops a patina that just cant be done with plastic. Also on plastic I don't like the mold lines that are pretty difficult to get rid of unless you are going to sand and paint them. 

Regarding balance, I have checked my wood pieces on a sloped surface and all of them will start to slide down a textured flat surface (ie like a book cover) before they tip. 

If I am playing someone who likes to slam the clock with the pieces I usually ask them to be a bit gentle. I don't mind some war wounds but would not like to get a piece broken.

If you like grain in the dark pieces try paduak. African rosewood is also nice but I am not a fan of Indian rosewood, too muddy and brown for my tastes. My padauk set is gorgeous dark red with very prominent grain.

Older plastic sets like my Drueke #35 set have no visible mold seams.  Not so with more modern sets.  But I agree that wood feels good - but only when it hasn't been finished to a plastic shine.  I love a good rosewood piece for dark, but I've yet to find a boxwood piece with sufficient visible grain to excite me.  And I'd never use a really good, expensive set in tournament play with unknown opponents.

What is everyone's opinion on lauquered wooden pieces? Are they more durable and resistant to moisture and wear? Or are they not worth the extra money?

I'm no expert on wood pieces, but for me, the more coating you put on wood, the less it feels like wood.  On the other hand, oil from hands can soil uncoated wood, especially boxwood which is very light.  If you "ebonize" wood, it doesn't look like wood.  If you lacquer wood, it doesn't feel like wood.  Perhaps @Hunter5117 can weigh in here...

Where is Goldendog when you need him . ;)

To me a lacquer usually refers to a high-gloss paint like material ie car paint, painted kitchen cabinets etc. Uses a much higher volatile carrier than does normal varnish or poly and they can be manipulated to level out very nicely leaving a super smooth glossy finish. The old nitro-lacquers could be put on nice and thin and the grain still showed through, check out a vintage Fender guitar. Mosts pigmented lacquers these days are pretty opaque although of course you dont have to pigment them and then you can have a very high gloss finish. Lacquer is quite durable and can be sanded/polished to increase the shine.

Lacquer would not be my first choice unless I specifically wanted that look. I imagine most pieces these days have some sort of poly coating, similar to lacquer just not as hard and shiney. Actually a very nice finish but probably the hardest to maintain is wax. Lots of old English furniture has nothing but a was finish but you have to maintain it a lot and it is very succeptible to picking up dirt from fingers etc. I also smoke a pipe and play around with restoring old pipes and carnuba wax is the standard finish for briar pipes. Carnuba is very hard and can only be properly applied with a buffer wheel. Keep meaning to try buffing up my cheap chess set and see what it does especially to the dark pieces which I find to be a bit dull.

Here's what house of stauton says about it

To create lacquered chessmen, Boxwood pieces are painted with black, red, ivory, or clear-coat lacquer and then hand-rubbed with fine pumice stone. The result is a hard, durable water-resistant finish which has a very high gloss

I prefer wooden pieces with either French polish or a wax finish. Here's two examples:

- Vintage Jaques from around 1900, French Polish

- Chavet from early 90s, Wax finish

I can imagine doing a French polish on a set of chess pieces sounds like a couple of day work all by itself. Pretty hard to find something like that in a modern set.

Really nice set btw.

I would like a bright red and white set of pieces and lacquer would definitely be the way to go for that. Classic playing in the park set.

Lacquer is also susceptible to cracking if the wood or finish shrink and expand. Newer lacquers less so but some of the old ones were bad for it. Guys who like to "relic" their guitars sometimes will take canned air and hold it upside down and spray their guitar finish with the freezing cold carrier to try and make the finish crack and craze like the old guitars are.

LOL I am just full of this sort of trivia..