Post pictures of your chess pieces/boards that you made yourself

Another christmas gift:

A knight for a friend

And the next project in mind:

Reikjavick 1972 model

This is my first chess set. A lot of pieces made it to the fire pit before these ones.

Beautiful set! A Dubrovnik with Minceta rooks, squat Varna Olympiad-like pawns, and some wonderfully melancholic knights! Such a delightful combination. Really beautiful grain on the black pieces as well. What wood did you use?

Thanks! The black pieces are Brazilian Rosewood. The white pieces are Canadian maple. I basically stole my favorite features of other Dubrovnik sets ... made them all a bit thicker at the base and made a big fat rook. I don't like most knights so I tried to make this one unique but also keep the features very robust -- nothing to chip off. Also, I didn't swap the pom-pom colors on the bishops like other Dubrovnik sets since I never really understood the appeal of that feature -- also it seems like a PITA to do.

Oh yeah, the more bulging bases are nice. And the knights look comfortable to hold. They seem shaped a bit like the FIDE World Championship set, but much more elegant and polished.

I must say I always enjoy the accent colors of opposite-color finials, but having the pieces all in the same color is quite elegant and calming to the eye as well. I’ve recently actually gotten fascinated with pieces that are done in a single piece of wood. I recently discovered it’s a “special” feature of the royals of my ’50s Soviet Droplet set.

And it’s a feature of this fourth type of Mordovian analog set I recently discovered as well. At first I felt it was missing something compared to the other sets which do have opposite-color finials on the royals, but it has grown on me—especially since learning that the finials aren’t separate elements. I’m not quite sure why that feels so satisfying. I guess it’s an appreciation of the craft, the same way as admiring knights that are done in one piece including the base.

Those are some pretty rad sets! Where do you find them?

I got the Droplet set via Ebay. The other one I found on Etsy; it’s still for sale.

I spent time categorizing all Soviet sets on Etsy into different lists to get a sense of the different types, their variance, rarity, and price ranges. If you're looking for a particular Soviet set, I can have a look for you.

@jacmater Beautiful set of chessmen. I remember when you were still working on the design. I love the raw chunky nature of the horse's mane. Similar to some Rodin sculptures. Did you ever come up with a name for your design? Looking forward to seeing the progress on your next project.

@Dibiasky The chessmen look amazing. So refined! The unique knights look right at home with the Dubrovnik style. Such an original look. Hard to believe this is your first set. Keep up the amazing work.

PS. With no mitre cut on the Dubrovnik style bishop, I'm pretty sure, traditionally, the opposite color finial ball on top is there to help differentiate the bishop from the pawns when the board is viewed from above. When looking down at the board the round bishop top (with no mitre cut) looks similar in shape to the round pawn top. From the side and angle, of course they look different and have no issues. It's just when viewing from above (and no mitre cut). In some sets where there is an opposing color ball on the Queen, now that is purely decorative. Opposing color finial balls is not a "rule" by any means. Your design choices look perfectly fine to me. Great work!

Great great work! Respect! I am really intrigued by the thought of making my own set. Could you tell me what equipment you used/need to make such a set myself?

You will at least need a "Drechselbank" to make such a set. They'll have to tell you what turning tools they used/made. For the knights you'll need some whittling tools, a good eye and a steady hand.

Thanks! Yeah tools and products used e.g. for finishing the pieces would be interesting. His finish looks very good and reminds me of NOJ.

Thanks! I'm glad they remind you of NOJ pieces as those were my inspiration. Building the pieces was a fairly involved process involving a lathe, Fusion 360 CAD software, a 3D printer, a cheap CNC machine (for the knight) and a ton of time and patience and a bunch of screwed up pieces.

For the design I wanted to make pieces for players -- not pieces that would sit in a box forever. As such, there are no fragile features on these pieces. The bases are stout so that they are quite stable even lightly weighted. I wanted a unique knight that was comfortable to hold. After a lot of trials, I came up with what I have. It's a little sleepy but I like it.

The pieces are all turned and sanded on a desktop lathe that I haul out of my garage to my backyard every time I use it. I built a flat platform for it so that I could attach patterns to it to keep the pieces consistent. I designed the pieces in Fusion 360 and 3D printed a pattern for each piece that screws into the platform on the lathe. I also 3D printed tools and jigs to hold the carbide lathe tools at the right height. Each piece takes between 20 and 30 minutes on the lathe.

The knight is done the same way on the lathe, but then taken to the CNC. I designed and 3D printed jigs to hold the knight in the CNC and then perfectly rotate it 180 degrees for the other side. After the CNC, the knight goes back to the lathe for about 30 min to an hour of sanding -- nothing about this is quick.

The pieces are finished with five or six coats of tung oil at about 3 day intervals. Six weeks later, once the oil has hardened, they go back to the lathe to be waxed.

Finally I epoxy a stainless steel slug in their base and finish them with a piece of baize on the bottom.

Now that I have the entire "system" worked out, one set probably takes about 40 hours of actual work. The lesson here is: if you want a nice set just go out and buy one. But if you want to create something a bit unique and your own it's an enjoyable hobby. The next set is on its way!

Thanks for looking

@Dibiasky, wow! A lot of work! Glad to see other makers here. Love your set, the wood and the glossy finish, it's hard to me to get a fonish like yours because I use porous woods (cherry wood) and water based stains and varnishes this means that my pieces are not so polished because the pore opens. This doesn't happen with spirit varnishes but I don't want to breath the solvents. Very beautiful new dub set. Waiting for another project from you!

@Pawnerai. Great to hear from you! And thanks for the feedback. I have to recognise that 'm not so inspired and I use to work quite fast lately and that makes the result not as satisfactory as I would like but it's ok fot me, the reikjavic set will be made more care.

I think you can prepare your wood for a better finish by grain filling.

Work in progress

Sad day today....and meanwhile I'm close to finish the Spassky-Fischer replica (or my own interpreration)

This battle definitely inspired me a lot to start having an interest in chess

As always, a truly beautiful work!