Guidance on weighting of homemade set?

I'm making a chess set and I need to decide how heavy to make each of the pieces. The king is 103 mm (4 inches) tall and I've already weighted it to 90g.  Is there any guidance available on how heavy to make the other pieces (I couldn't find any)?

If not, then there's a couple of other things you could do if you would like to help me.

If you think you could advise me for my particular set then there's a photo on Flickr with the tag chess-pieces-hamish-lawson (sorry, as a new user I can't insert an image or link in this post).

Or you could post a photo of your set and list the weights of each piece, and I could use that to work something out.

Thanks.

Hi, I know I will not answer your question but I can post the way I add weight to the pieces I make.

I make a hole to insert a bolt and add its weight to the piece

I use for nº 4 pieces M6x15 bolt for the pawns and a M8x15 for the rest of the pieces.

Is not to much weight but it is very easy to do and the result (for me) is very good.

I "glue" the bolts with putty with silicone base

In some sets I add a 15x1 magnet in order to be able to use my pieces with some electronic chessboards.

And finally the felt is glued with the same putty.

With all this work done I can share my oieces weights:

King (85mm.) : 33g

Queen (76mm.): 31g

Bishop (67mm.):25g

Knight (60mm.): 32g.

Rook (50mm): 27g

Pawn (43mm.): 15g.

But in order to help a little bit more to you I can share the weights of a number 5 pieces I have from chessbazar (the reikjavick set):

K (91mm.) ; 67g

Q (77mm); 50g

B (68mm.): 33g

Kn (61mm): 36g

R (48mm.): 23g

P (45mm.): 18g.

Hope it can help you.

Pieces with wider bases don't need to be weighted as heavily as pieces with narrower bases to stay stable. A lot depends on how heavy you like your pieces. Here are the averages of three 4" sets I have. These are fairly heavy sets and could probably be plenty stable with less weight.

King height 101mm , base width 46mm, weight 92 grams
Queen height 82mm, base width 43mm, weight 77 grams
Bishop height 75mm, base width 37mm, weight 58 grams
Knight height 68mm, base width 38mm, weight 59 grams
Rook height 62mm, base width 39mm, weight 66 grams
Pawn height 54mm, base width 32mm, weight 38 grams

I just looked over the weights of some of my other sets. The sets a I listed above seem very heavy for 4" sets. In fact, they weigh as much or more than two 4.4" sets I have. So consider those listed weights as an upper limit. You could probably drop 5 to 10 grams per piece and be happy.

@jacmater and @Gomer_Pyle, thank you for going to the trouble to gather the information you provided me with – it's very useful.