@Ibuildchess
VERY interesting way of integrating feet onto the bottom of the prototype board so the metal hinge doesn't touch the table and it lays flat when opened. And not just on the 4 corners. You have feet along 8 points for stability. I've never seen that before. So creative!
@Ibuildchess
VERY interesting way of integrating feet onto the bottom of the prototype board so the metal hinge doesn't touch the table and it lays flat when opened. And not just on the 4 corners. You have feet along 8 points for stability. I've never seen that before. So creative!
Wow, you're a sharp one! You miss nothing. Yes indeed I used 8 feet overall for hinge clearance and to support the middle so that the hinge screws were not stressed during play. Since I wanted to not have finicky screw on feet (for ease of use) I felt that some offset glue in feet would suffice, they worked out nicely.
@pawnerai Thank you for the compliment! I started off working to create a more ornately styled Dubrovnik board (with the rounded raised lip on the edge) and came up with this. I'm waiting on the velvet to arrive for my fitted coffers for the interiors.
Here's a teaser of the finished boards, finished with Sutherland Welles polymerized tung oil, which is a true tung oil, not a "tung oil finish" product. Purpleheart and figured maple, figured walnut with figured maple, Sapele and figured maple.
Ohh.... we need to talk. Message sent 
Thank you for the kind words Mark and Dave.
Yes I agree with the flow of the grain going with the flow of play, the interesting thing with fiddleback maple is that the figure runs perpendicular to the grain and it is so tight that it appears to be the grain, when in fact it is just the figure! It does provide a lovely effect in the right lighting, and of course with a good finish. Tung oil offers so much more than lacquer, but it is very time consuming to apply.
These boards are built for myself and family at the moment, though my family is always heckling me to start selling things to the public. I feel that I wouldn't be able to make enough money for it to be a worthwhile venture. But perhaps when the kids are older...
Ah Purpleheart, I have a love/hate relationship with it. It's a particularly difficult wood to work with, it's incredibly unstable. It warps and burns when cutting, so a lot of Material is lost in machining, plus a lot of time is spent sanding out burn marks. It warps when left overnight, and even when the utmost care is taking to stabilize it, it moves. This is what I get for using air dried instead of kiln dried. Maple unfortunately is often much the same. The most stable wood I used in these boards is Sapele (looks like mahogany, rich ruddy brown) but it's the least exciting in terms of colour and figure. Though it's colouration would make a great Dubrovnik board from what I've seen.
Hey all,
I'd just like to share this with other chess fanatics.
Ive built 4 chess boards with the intention of building some luxury folding boards for myself and family. The first is my proof of concept board (which is what I'm showing you here) milled from humble spruce and cedar, and finished with a relatively inexpensive wipe on varnish. The other 3 are made from various colourful hardwoods and figured maple, I'll be showing them once they're completed, they'll be outfitted with fitted coffers inside to protect the pieces. They're 50mm squares and the interior of the board can accomodate up to a 41mm king base.
So here it is, my proof of concept spruce and cedar board with some pieces I roughed out on the bandsaw around 13 years ago. It's my workplace study board and game board.
