Look at craft stores for sewing, such as Hancock fabrics, Hobby Lobby or Michaels. You are looking for billiard cloth felt. The felt paper that you speak of is going to be the cheap stuff on bottom of cheap plastic pieces.
Trying to select good felt material for re-felting
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I tend to pick up sheets of Kunin Presto at Joann Fabrics. They cost about $3 for a 9"x12" sheet (enough for multiple sets) and are self-adhesive. I like those because I don't have to mess with glue and the adhesive strikes a good balance: it's strong enough to stay on but weak enough that I can peel it off easily without damaging the pieces if I ever change my mind.
Billiard pool table places have scrap felt or new. Call around or find online.
Wool felts and synthetic wools are also easy and inexpensive. Etsy eBay and places mentioned in this thread
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This place was recommended on a thread years ago, and I ended up buying some remnants to refinish a nicer set that I had purchased. It's spendy but I ended up with more than I needed (so plenty for later) and it is beautiful cloth.
https://www.baizewoolfabrics.co.uk/collections/fabrics/baize-remnants-offcuts/
I've also gone the Joann route and that worked fine.
oldquaker wrote:
This place was recommended on a thread years ago, and I ended up buying some remnants to refinish a nicer set that I had purchased. It's spendy but I ended up with more than I needed (so plenty for later) and it is beautiful cloth.
https://www.baizewoolfabrics.co.uk/collections/fabrics/baize-remnants-offcuts/
I've also gone the Joann route and that worked fine.
This is what I use - if you get the adhesive sheets, it’s only about $20 a set or so to do, and the felt is top quality (real wool).
Below is a recent Topic thread I made on the subject of refelting a Chavet set. I mention the tools I used and where I purchased them. It's important to note that this was a common, modern Chavet set that is still in production and sold in stores today. So I felt comfortable using a less traditional fabric color. If it was an older more pricey set I would use a more traditional green fabric. Finally, if the set was vintage and valuable, I would just leave it as-is and not mess with it. That's just me though. Good luck!
https://www.chess.com/forum/view/chess-equipment/a-chavet-project-re-felting-and-re-gluing-weights
+1 on what Pawnerai said.
It’s hard, every part of me wants to felt a recent set of French Regence pieces that are circa 100 years old. I won’t but gee, I want to …it enhance the nearly everything about playing with them.
I am not so much worried about value and depreciation by doing it - I didn’t buy them as an investment - rather I’m an sort of disrespecting their past by changing their clothes after a century or so of no shoes.
It’s hard, every part of me wants to felt a recent set of French Regence pieces that are circa 100 years old. I won’t but gee, I want to …it enhance the nearly everything about playing with them.
I am not so much worried about value and depreciation by doing it - I didn’t buy them as an investment - rather I’m an sort of disrespecting their past by changing their clothes after a century or so of no shoes.
Thank you for the excellent pointers, everybody! Will buy pieces of billiards pool felt for the large pieces and for small very light pieces maybe paper based “felt”, so they are more stable.
There is some great information here. Does anyone have advice on how to cut the felt so it fits evenly on the round base of each piece?
Best way is to use a cricut maker 3. Works well with leather as well
A couple of points to help - I found it very easy to paint glue on the base of pieces and then stick these pieces to strips of high quality billiard table baize … and then use very sharp and small fabric scissors to cut each piece off the strip and then cut around the base.
Also, on small, unweighted pawns - I used the same felt as the larger pieces and they remain very stable.
Below are some pieces I re-felted - the dark green felt is the new felt … contrasting by older felt on a Lardy set.
That cricut machine looks amazing too!
Yes..just draw a circle of x mm in the software, attach the felt to the mat and it will then cut a perfect circle everytime
I’m down a rabbit hole with these Cricut machines now … expensive but… trying to figure out if I could somehow cut a 2mm thick black acrylic Maltese cross finial for a black plastic king finial replacement …
Those Cricut machines are extremely expensive, so I will probably try to use small fabric scissors instead. I have two chess sets that were made in the Philippines--very inexpensive wood pieces, and the felt is not even felt, but some kind of really thin green cloth. For sentimental reasons I would like to keep using both sets, and it would be great to give them some new felt. There are a couple of fabric and craft stores near where I live, so maybe I will find some decent felt to work with.
Go to your local Billiard Shop and ask for scraps, from tables they covered. Simonis 860, or any fine playing felt that doesn’t pile.
You can get sticky back felt. I'm in the UK, you should be able to get it in the US also, on Amazon. I stick the piece to the felt first, then cut round the piece. Works perfectly.
for trimming felts for chess pieces....consider curved and/or manicure scissors.....for example...
https://www.amazon.com/s?k=manicure+scissors&crid=2W1OXTCXNKQB0&sprefix=manicure+scissors%2Caps%2C156&ref=nb_sb_noss_1
https://www.amazon.com/s?k=curved+scissors+for+crafts&crid=1EZSBSV2C4A0J&sprefix=curved+scissors%2Caps%2C129&ref=nb_sb_ss_ts-doa-p_5_15
be sure also to check out "Canary" brand scissors.....particularly with curved blade.....made in Japan so likely to be (IMO) of high quality....
https://www.amazon.com/CANARY-Scissors-Non-Stick-Fluorine-Crafting/dp/B0822BLQV7?ref_=ast_sto_dp&th=1&psc=1
Hi everybody, like many people here I like old chess sets and when I can afford a cheap one I buy them. Many old sets which had a felt material on the bottom have either lost it due to the glue drying, or have become fuzzy and ugly by coming out strong by string. I have one that may have had gotten wet who knows how many years ago and now lost color and is fuzzy. Some cheap wooden sets I got seem to never have had any felt.
The main two applications for re-felting my old chess sets is first to prevent the pieces scratching the surface of the board. I would like to be able to push pieces so they slide comfortably. The second reason is visual presentation in case I will want to sell or give them to someone as gifts (that may need removing old flaky lacquer flakes and applying a new finish, but that is a longer and harder to read story. Lol)
I primarily buy things on Amazon and there I found what is called “felt paper” that is sold and advertised for various crafts for kids. It costs like $6.99 for a bunch of smaller sheets or for a few big sheets. I’ve not been able to find other “felt”.
since I have not used this “felt paper” I wonder whether it’s even real felt or is it just cardboard paper that was made fuzzy by some process, have any you used it?
If anybody here knows what felt roll or sheets I should get for the purposes I described please let me know why is used best for this kind of project.
Thanks,
Yuriy