Colorado Wood Worker review

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Avatar of baudouin27





It’s always worth our time to snitch on those supporting our addiction.  I’ve purchased 2 boards over the past year from Brad Borkowski.  In both cases, I had slightly custom requests (and questions).  Brad is always receptive to requests and happy to offer useful perspectives when asked.  His work is beautifully crafted.  The walnut and white oak board has 2” squares.  The Walnut, Brazilian cherry and birdseye maple board has 2.25” squares.  My tastes are for spare looking and solid feeling boards.  Brad’s craftsmanship checks all the boxes for me - and as a bonus, is completed quickly, shipped safely, and at a reasonable price.  I’m looking forward to my next CWW board once I get used to playing on these and have a clear idea of what to add…

Avatar of Powderdigit

Your boards and the pieces are the epitome of class, in my eyes. The boards appear solid and while lovely now, will only get better with the age and use. Also, as good as the boards look - they are plain enough ( that’s a compliment) to be a functional canvas for the pieces … whether you put highly styled pieces on the board for display or slow play or classic Chavets or Dubrovnik’s for a more robust game … great stuff.

One thing you may want to consider for future - for something different - is a slight raised edge - top and bottom. Such an edge frames the playing surface on top and then underneath the playing surface is slightly raised off your bench (due to the edge) and so you get this wonderful resonant sound when clunking the pieces down on each move. Just and idea for future boards…

Avatar of baudouin27

Thanks a very kind comment and useful suggestion, Powderdigit. I realized looking at the pictures just now that the pieces used to show off CWW’s boards are probably too large in each case. Although not the point of the original post, it does arouse my OCD! :-)

Avatar of baudouin27

MCH818: Good call. Normally there’s a 3 7/8” set on the larger board, not a 4.4” king…. That Hallett set (you know your chess sets) looks better on the larger board.

Avatar of lighthouse

supporting our addiction.  baudouin27 is never a good thing ! when it comes to this forum .

Very nice boards , wink

Avatar of lighthouse
lighthouse wrote:

supporting our addiction.  baudouin27 is never a good thing ! when it comes to this forum .

Very nice boards ,

Frank has an nice one up for sale ,  baudouin27 this forum can entice you & before you know it them dollars are gone / Mind you it's a nice set / if i was on your side of the pond would buy it ,

https://chessantiques.com/product/hallett-of-high-holborne-chess-pieces/

Avatar of baudouin27

lighthouse, that is a beautiful set. For my pocketbook, Mandeep Singh’s replica/interpretation is the limit of my reach.

Avatar of RussBell

You can check out the board that CWW made for me (my posts here on 7 & 10 March 2017)...

https://www.chess.com/forum/view/chess-equipment/cb-gm-blitz-set?page=4

The board is made of solid wood - cherry and maple squares (2.25 inch) , with walnut apron surround - the same as the OP's 1st phto above.

Avatar of baudouin27



@RussBell: Hey, that’s my board! 😀 Well, almost! Great looking, boards. I just broke down sooner than expected and ordered a third board from CWW, this time for 4.4” pieces (which I have to admit are bigger than I prefer… 🙄). Here’s my version of ‘our’ board again (2.25”), but with more appropriately sized pieces than in my earlier photos.

Avatar of pjaworski03

Wow