What is favorite size chess set:3.75", 4" or 4.4" Kings?

Very nice chessmen.  Do you have before photos for comparison?

MAc I See you said you had problems with the boxwood pieces in your heavily weighted 1849 set from CB.  I keep telling people it's 90% the weighting's fault and 10% the wood variation's fault. Can't people understand this, heavier isn't better. But yet people will say feel have massively weighted those pieces are???????  Is that important to you then fine, I rather have mine just right or slightly underweighted with no cracks in 6 years than to have a crappy set. And they all crack regardless from CB/HOS/or any other. And the Boxwood and SHeesham cracks as well as the ebony, all the woods do when they are improperly weighted.

I would sell my 1849 set tomorrow which is numbered 3 if I can get my money out of it with the shipping and insurance it would cost. 

Don't you think it would be better to keep it for awhile or do you have buyers remorse Mike?

Wich one you selling? the one with the nostrils on top?

Alan K. When Mac said he had problems and with the boxwood I checked mine also.  My problem was with the ebony pieces, have a rook and both bishops coming to me as replacements.  Sets only have a 2 year replacement guarantee for pieces I believe.  What kind of feeling do you get seeing this many boxwood and ebony just 8 months after it was issued being replaced. Nice they are replaing them but maybe the weights were a bit much for the pieces?????????  I hope not and I guess maybe the defects surface in the first 2 years, that would be a good thing. 

I just don't have the experience to know when most defects show up in these heavily weighted sets box/ebony.  

Maybe GNM can chime in and give some specifics to what he feels the cracks are from and what %, Weight or Wood??????  I am sure it is a mixture.  Kind of like poker Luck & Skill.     

BTW the Official Staunton Company, Carl's company the pieces feel great without being so over weighted and no cracks so far.  Best performance rating so far in my book by any chess seller.  And the craftsmanship of the pieces are superlative!!

wiscmike:

Maybe GNM can chime in and give some specifics to what he feels the cracks are from and what %, Weight or Wood??????  I am sure it is a mixture.  Kind of like poker Luck & Skill.    

Usually an ebony  base crack is a precursor to more ebony base cracks in a set over time.  Ebony is a finicky wood and prone to base cracks, that's why I prefer ebonised wood.  I can't tell you how many ebony pieces with base cracks I've had Alan Dewey repair over the years, but its a lot! I was quite happy when Carl offered  his Official Staunton 1849 & 1851 replica Stauton sets in ebonised wood. Granted  there still exits the chance for cracks, but way less than ebony. I have to agree with WiscMike that heavy  weights are  a major factor in base cracks, and more so in ebony.  I would like to point out I have never had a base crack in the many Noj Ltd Dubrovnik sets I have owned over the years. Grega's Noj Dubrovnik sets are made of European maple and are lightly weighted compared to the heavier Indian made sets. So I agree with WiscMike, there is a greater probability of base cracks in heavier weighted sets, and even more so in ebony wood sets.

Yeah, it's funny how that works. my lovely liberty pieces had endless cracking issues but my generic german knight set is seeminly unkillable albiet in my opinion rather underwhelming...

My Liberty set had cracks too. Hate to even check on it now. Too much weight for the size of the bases and no ebony wood used. My guess is that is the number one cause poor design on base with too much weight. If it was just the ebony all the Jaques pieces from 1870 would be cracked and many are not and that's a long long time ago.  

You can't tell me for 145 years it was always kept in 45-60% humidity 

Speaking as a former cabinetmaker I can state categorically that both Ebony an Brazilian Rosewood are notorious for checks and shakes which are not immediately apparent but tend to develop into cracks and splits in the finished piece.

Back in the late 1990's I talked a lot with Frank Camaratta.  I would call him at The House of Staunton about 3 - 5 times a year to ask about sets and inevitably order something.  He would tell me of sets that he was coming out with that were not yet on the market.

I distinctly remember having a conversation with him about Ebony pieces cracking.  Living in the Midwest I found Rosewood to be a better wood.  Frank told me that he actually studied various woods for expansion and shrinkage due to various environment or atmospheric conditions.

He then told me that he had designed his own weighting system that would leave room for expansion and contraction.  He actually told me it was something like a dumbell shape.  Frank is not one to B.S. so I believed him.

Since coming to this forum, I have learned from people like Alan Dewey that all these pieces have pretty much the same weighting style, including the HoS.  Also, people have talked of and shown HoS pieces with cracks.  So, if Frank indeed came up with a different weighting system, he either found it impractical to use in manufacturing, or it didn't work.

I think that there are multiple factors of causation that can affect whether a chess piece will crack or not.  Frank talked about the wood being cured correctly, and I do believe that is important.  The manner in which the piece is weighted also will affect this.  Environmental or atmospheric conditions definitely also come into play.

I own a number of HoS sets, none of them in Ebony.  One is Blood Rosewood, my Morphy Series set.  The majority are in Rosewood; Liberty, Zagreb, Players, Marshall and Championship.  And I have one in Golden Rosewood, Fischer-Spassky Commerative.  Thank goodness none of them have any cracking.

And as others have said, there are sets of all ages, up to 150+ years old that have never cracked.  Yes, there are also sets that have seen cracks within a few months of purchase, the good, the bad and the cracking.

I Like that ending, the good, the bad, and the cracking. 

Very early to have that problem makes me wonder about the wood not curing or storage issues.  At least you're  getting them replaced.  Stay cool!

Mike,

Another possible culprit, extreme changes in temperature and humidity during shipping.

When I first started collecting sets during the wintertime, I had several sets arrive with cracked pieces. One of the vendors from Florida said that he had a higher incident of cracked pieces when he shipped to colder climates in the winter. I don't think the large UPS and FedEx trailers are heated. It's a small sample, but the sets I bought at other times of the year had no problems.

And what about sets coming from India traveling by air? Some baggage-only cargo holds can be as cold as 45F degrees with very low humidity. A big, big change from 100F+ degrees and 90%+ humidity at the point of shipping!

Those sets I received from CB arrived here in 2-3 days so mostly they are always on the move. They get here faster than a 1st class letter gets to my mailbox sent from a near by state. Of course when anything flies it is subjected to frigid temperatures.