Ebony Pieces Cracking

Try the full URL here.

^^^ It seems Rairden edited his/her post to include the link. I have it now.

Thanks, @GrandPatzerDave.

@Rairden It looks like the severe crack had two cracks conjoining. That's horrible, what happened to this piece.

@BattleChessGN18, I don't think I ever dropped anything and can't remember when I first saw it cracked. I barely ever used the set (not a tournament player). I played about 30 games on it; the most use was in 2013.

Funny thing. Up until a few days ago when I started my inquiry here, I have never seen a boxwood piece crack. I've only all but seen Ebony pieces do this. And yet, the piece in your picture is one piece which double-cracking has reached severity record in my book, none of which my Ebony pieces have.

M'kay. So, it seems Boxwood can crack, and all recent replies have persuaded me well of it. I wonder why I never experienced it, while experiencing it more than enough times from Ebony. Horrible luck of the draw, mayhaps?

Also, at least one person brought up Indian Rosewood having cracked. That one I can believe. Once again, I've never experienced it once, but I do believe in that possibility; better than I did boxwood. haha

I'm sorry for reviving old flames. I was reading earlier pages and saw two guys being totally unhelpful AND creating issues for you. You had a question, and they didn't even try to answer it.

No one told them to look at their behavior so I'm doing it now.

p. s. I'm glad your cousin got the gift. I'm sure they liked it. Its the thought that counts. just like the holidays. speaking of which, happy new year. 

@33_BlackBlackBlackberry, I totally appreciate it. And, Happy New Years to you, as well.

The randomness of your recovering this long-gone conversation  did catch me by surprise, I won't fib. But, I do see your heart and intentions were in the right place.

Indeed, I was very cordial in my initial inquiry. One thing to keep in mind is, those who criticize well-mannered people as being "rude" tend to be rude/impolite people themselves. It's childish self-projection is all, since they likely have enemies based on their behavior in real life.

(Of course, I think the more I talk about it, the more power I'm giving them. So, I'm cutting it off and drawing the line right here! Ha )

I've never seen a boxwood piece crack like this, but the cracking pattern is similar to what I've seen with ebony pieces. I made a topic about repairing these: https://www.chess.com/forum/view/chess-equipment/chess-set-restoration-repairing-cracks-in-ebony

It happens when the wood tries to shrink around the immovable weight.

Unfortunately I've only ever repaired ebony pieces, where the colour is easy to match. A couple of options are to put wood filler deep into the crack (to provide strength) for the bulk of the fix and then hot wax sticks (where you could at least try to match the colour) on the surface.

But other people may have some better suggestions!

There's much respect for your work, @IpswichMatt.

Saves the cost of having to buy a new set.

Of course, the question also is, how much do you charge to repair a piece?

kudos to IpswichMatt!   Definitely

Thank you BattleChess and 33_blackblackblackberry!

IpswichMatt, do you have a personal website that features your working service?

No I have only ever worked on my own sets.

2@ years ago I acquired an 1849 repro set with cracked ebony and boxwood pieces.  The set was free, so  I  decided  to repair the pieces.  I used ca glue and epoxy  glue. I filled the cracks but I made no attempt to color the glue. I keep the set in my car , as a spare , just in case I need it. I can also use it   to play blitz chess.   So far,  the  "repaired"  pieces have not developed new cracks.   I just discovered the  Starbond line of colored ( black and brown)  ca glues. I am sorry that I  "repaired" those pieces with regular ca glue.   I just finished repairing several cracked ebony pieces with Starbond black ca .   They look much better than the pieces that   I used clear ca for the repairs.