Those comical knights. Love it!
A Tale of Dogface Knights 3.2" Set - The Force Is Strong In This One
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Apr 17, 2021
0
#4
Thank you for your review. It made me smile too. Those cheeky knights and ... it looks to me like the kings and queens are stumbling home from the local pub. Cool set.
I wonder if you asked the kings/queens what was wrong if they would blame the stagger on the weight of the crown....
Honestly I know nothing about turning pieces, but it almost seems like it would be extremely difficult to make them off kilter like that. With the lathe spinning in a fixed orientation I would assume they almost have to come out balanced? Time to order a lathe and find out...
More like bad backs to me. I also wonder how come they can become like that. Is it because of bad quality of woods they used or is it because they were stored lying in small box for decades? Since couple of weeks I do store my pieces standing up in their boxes except for the pawns. Some of the boxes are too low to close the sliding lid but that's okay.
Heck, you know... now that you say that it takes me back to thinking about how wood moves in general.
In theory, those could have been cut from larger pieces of wood with a lot of tension in them or too much moisture on one side. When the turning blanks are cut, you would likely want to let them sit for 24 hours, like any other wood. However, if you cut the blank, threw it straight on the lathe, made the piece... it would come out straight, and then warp after the fact as the tension in the wood released to its final resting state.
So this would mean if they were properly processed then the position how they are stored wouldn't make them warp? Or could the chance of warping still exist because that's the nature of woods (despite good quality woods and proper processed)?
@TheOneCalledMichael Do you have a before pic of how they looked before you cleaned them? What product did you use?
"Cry 'Havoc!', and let slip the dogs of war." — William Shakespeare
TheOneCalledMichael wrote:
So this would mean if they were properly processed then the position how they are stored wouldn't make them warp? Or could the chance of warping still exist because that's the nature of woods (despite good quality woods and proper processed)?
I would doubt storage position they don't have the weight to alter their shape without another outside force. Were they stored in an attic getting blasted with heat? Did they get a lot of moisture variance? I'd expect things like that to be more likely.
However, I've never turned wood, and have never seen pieces like that, so it's purely guesswork.
Apr 17, 2021
0
#11
Is that a Lardy set? The knight faces look similar to mine, and the leaning royalty is a Lardy trademark...
Pawnerai wrote:
@TheOneCalledMichael Do you have a before pic of how they looked before you cleaned them? What product did you use?
"Cry 'Havoc!', and let slip the dogs of war." — William Shakespeare
Those pics with the pawns, on the right how they looked like when I got them.
I used just regular brown and natural shoe wax 
harthacnut wrote:
Is that a Lardy set? The knight faces look similar to mine, and the leaning royalty is a Lardy trademark...
I have tried to find out the origin of this set and it seems to be a French Staunton design so it could be a Lardy yes, altered and made for some local retailers is my guess.
http://www.chess-museum.com/staunton-style.html
Love those knights!
goedemorgen michael hoe gaat ie met je!!!!
Ha die Jasper! Ik vermaak me wel hier lol
jij vermaak je wel met je schaakstukken uitleg!!!!
I have seen often these dogface knights sets in local craiglist but I've never pay attention to them until I saw @DanielaKay's post : https://www.chess.com/forum/view/chess-equipment/project-restoring-grandpas-chess-pieces. In particular the horsies close-ups are really cracking me up. Since then I paid attention to local ad's but all the ad's I've seen are the simple snoot looking doggie face and with regular small collar pawns. Then last week I saw one that looks similar to ms D set, also with broad collar pawns so I had to get it.
Judging from the looks of it, it looks really old. So I ordered some elbow grease DeLuxe and buff them up.
I was pleasantly surprised when I saw the patina came out of all that dirts.
With 3.2" King height, it suits perfectly on 14" board.
Of course I had to take more detailed pictures:
Then I realized something when I saw the next picture...
The kings and the queens are all crooked!
For a second I was disappointed seeing all this leaning pieces but then I had to laugh seeing that picture one more time, it looks like all are having a good time and not one can walk straight. That and the funny horsies perfectly complete this set, a set that cheers me up looking at it.
They all live long and happily drunk... The End.