Royal Chess Mall Reykjavik 3´´8

This beautiful set arrived today. Cost me about 130 USD + freight. It shall be interesting to compare it to the two 25-dollar sets from Amazon I will pick up tomorrow when I get home...

Congrats @hermanjohnell!

Nice set and an interesting comparison for sure. I suspect that a $25 wooden set is hard to beat for pure value for money … and then, whether another similar set is worth 5, 10 or 50 times as much is always going to subjective to the purchaser.

For example, is the repro Lewis that I am buying worth more than 10 times the value of the 30 year old Leipzig repro that I picked up locally a year or so ago… probably not, but I hope I am happy with both. And I hope you are happy with your purchases too. 👍

Yes, this looks very nice. Good job.

So, here´s the comparision between this Reykjavik set from Royal Chess Mall and the 25 dollar American Staunton set from Amazon. Pieces from the Amazon set to the left and from the RCM Reykjavik set to the right.

The height of the king usually defines the size of the pieces. The Reykjavik king is 3´´8 and somewhat smaller than it´s colleague but has a slightly wider base. They feel equal in weight.

The knights show that the sets differ in quality. The knight from Amazon is slightly rougher and as far as I can judge the wood is stained, somewhat unevenly, dark.

The set from RCM is well worth what I paid for it and a shade nicer than the cheaper set but the set from Amazon is still very nice and was a real bargain for 25 dollars (still a good buy for 50) especially as it was delivered in a very fine leatherette bag that makes it perfect for carrying on travels or to tournaments.

edit.

After posting the above I took a closer look on my other 25 dollar set and found that the dark knights were of better quality - smoother and not stained - than in the reviewed set so buying these sets are, obviously, a bit of a lottery.

Hmm...it looks like you got a set, like one of mine, that was very noticeably darker than my other two sets.

I don't think these are stained darker, but instead are actually darker wood. And I believe these are this set here in the link.

https://www.chessbazaar.com/reproduced-french-lardy-exclusive-tournament-size-weighted-wooden-chess-pieces-in-indian-rosewood-box-wood-3-75.html

Anyway I´ve now treated my black knights (from the darker of my two Amazon 25-dollar sets) with some beeswax and am pleased with the result.

I’m a big fan of a beeswax oil mix. Not so much on new pieces that have already been buffed to a beautiful lustre already but rather in older pieces where you can almost hear the wood sigh in relief … interesting, I have one set that I purchased with a gloss finish … it’s not something I’ll do again. They are beautiful to be sure but too shiny under most light and somehow they lose the feel of wood - I know that sounds ridiculous but it’s how they feel to me. An yet, I love the semi-matt look of beeswax, and how the pieces look and feel after … that said, spending more time with wood workers lately…. start a discussion about finishes, grab some popcorn and sit back and laugh … everyone is right in their own eyes and they all do it differently with different mixes of this and that.

@hermanjohnell Glad you got that sorted out and hope you'll enjoy those pieces. And thanks for pointing me in the direction of that Dubrovnik set. I didn't get it since it was a little larger than what I wanted and didn't have extra queens, but still it led me to a Zagreb set that I ended up ordering. I'll have to post more pics when it gets here along with a new board.

What I used wasn´t pure beeswax but something called Burt´s Bees (hand salve). Anyhow it worked just fine and I ended up treating all the dark pieces.

(1) DIY finishing techniques: wooden chess sets - YouTube

Yes, I saw this some months back and it (shoe polish) makes sense me. On my wax/oil mix a I apply in a similar way - wiping on and then buffing off but only to a lite sheen. It’s all very quick and the pieces don’t change - they just seem a little prouder.

Well, shoe polish consists mainly of wax and oil (with lanolin beeing something in between wax and oil) so I guess Powderdigit was on the right track. As was Desperate. And I, since the ingridients in my hand salve are beeswax and oils.