Reproduction and Real Jaques of London Chess Set

LOL Mike. NO I don't think I ever have. :)

Maybe Alan can weigh in and say whether or not the new set coming in a month from CB will have lead weights or not and will the weight vary from the ebony to the boxwood pieces to even out the weight of the wood. 

This sounds like a problem which needs taking up with Vik in person. I reccommend you all contact him and ask if he can address these problems.

I think there are regulations in place about using lead in 'toys' which may apply here.

I have also had very bad experience with the Chessbazaar "support". If I had a question considering a purchase, I got my answer almost instantly. The moment, I had a problem, I never received an answer. No matter if  I wrote from different email adresses, different names or concerning different topics. You can see an excerpt of my correspondance here: http://www.chess.com/forum/view/chess-equipment/wooden-chess-sets-in-india?page=11 So I have the feeling, that Chessbazaar only wants to sell you their sets, but never give you any help or support with it. Since no one is this cheap on the market, they'll always get through with it. I ordered four times from Chessbazaar, even though I knew how they tick. But what should I do? I'm not willing to pay almost 1000$ for a set from HOS, so my hands are bound.

What regulations concerning lead in toys might that be, if they sell some sets with iron weights and some with lead weights? Wouldn't these regulations apply to all of their sets?

A different topic, I opened the wobbling pawn and made some pictures of the iron weights. As I feared, they already start rusting and now I think of exchanging them with lead - if I only knew how to do this. More info here: http://www.chess.com/forum/view/chess-equipment/wooden-chess-sets-in-india?page=37

hi guys,

Can I have permission to bring this to Vik's Attention as I am sure he will address this if he knows about it.

Alan.

I have several sets from CB, and many of them show the same problem: the pieces wobble. In some pieces the rust comes off inside the felt so I can hear a rattle when I move them around, in others I can hear the whole piece of metal move around; besides very often I had bad carving.I removed the felt in many of them (I also completely refelted a couple of sets), what I see is very similar to the pic above.The thing is CB replaced my pieces a couple of times, but the new ones wheren't any better than the old ones, and besides they usually had variation in design that made replacement useless. Reading the good reviews to the seller at first I thought I had been very unlucky with my purchases, I realise now that probably to keep the prices down so much they have to compromise on quality.

If I was making chess sets I would not use iron for weith, I would go for something that doesn't oxidates, for example stainless steal.

Also the idea of having some small gap between the metal and the wood I think is acutally a good idea. Metals expand and contract on temperature, if you have a tigh fill when the metal is cold, it more likekly will crack open the wood when it expand on warmer temperature.

No such thing as a "free" lunch. If you want to sell cheap and maintain a healthy profit margin you have to cut corners somewhere -- material and manufacturing costs are similar across the board. But once the skilled craftsmen, the turners and carvers, complete their tasks, someone has to buff and polish, drill the holes, insert the weights, cut and apply the felt or leather pads, wrap and package the pieces. Here's where you don't need skilled labors. And you can push an unskilled labor as hard as you want. If they can't keep up with production, or up and quit, there's always a dozen more standing in line to replace them. Ahhh, capitalism at its finest.

If this is a rust problem do to steel weights then CB can't be the only vendor with this problem?????  

Unskilled labour can make basically the whole set, exept some parts of a couple of pieces.

Making chess sets is more of an artisan than an industrial proccess. I just can't imagine anywhere in the world a factory of chess sets. All the pictures I have seeing are garage like shops. Just reading a PDF recently posted on this website that was talking about Drueke company, they manufactured a line of toys, including chess sets. For their plastic production, this is the cheapest and therefore the more sold product, at some point they used 3 plastic injectors, and this was out to make for all their plastic products, including chess sets. 3 plastic injectors is a very small factory, probably 10% of their production was chess sets.

I am sure anyone with basic to midle level of skill on wood working and a lathe, a press drill, a table saw and some few of other tools will be able to make in his garage as many as 80% chess set staunton designs that are out there on the market. Now add a CNC to the tool box and create a knigh design that can be easily carve with it and you will be on the top... as long a people likes that design.

my experience is limited to three sellers, and only CB's pieces wobbled, so I never even thought about checking the weights in my other sets.

I would like to see how many more brands chose this same material. I would be surprice if  ilearn this is a common problem all over the market. That will actually motivates me to create my own brand and sell, becouse I do know what to do and no have this problem, and at the cost of pennies, and seriusly pennies don't corrode this way, so still a better option.

This material selection was not done to save money, it was done out of ignorance on materials or out of pure evil.

Aristotele who are the other two chess vendors?

regency and designerchess, both of them very high quality.

Hi Alan, of course you may bring this to Vik's attention, although I'm not sure what he can do about it. Nonetheless, I'm curious if you maybe get to know the real reason for the iron weights.

Don't forget, that there's more than this one picture. In this gallery I have documented the whole process and you can also see the piece of iron. You know what, it's good to hear that I'm not the only one having this issue. Although my problems are not solved, it feels good to have someone who interestedly listens to your whining.