Your thoughts on lacquered sets

I would say, like yourself, that lacquered sets are an acquired taste.  I have two HoS sets, the Zagreb and the Dubrovnik, and they are both natural boxwood/ebonized boxwood.  I would be curious as to whether lacquered finishes hold up better over time. -Gg

I know this, at a home improvement store they have wood deglosser product, if you brush it on your pieces you will get a flatter/maybe satin like finish, and if you put more and more on you can probably get a flat finish.  Test it on your replacement queen first but it should work, I used it on wood trim and doors in my century old farmhouse.  Real timesaver, saves the effort of sanding.

I, too, have been tempted by some of those lacquered sets, but was concerned about the glare. A couple years back I bought a nice hard plastic set with a shiny, wood grain finish.  And although it worked just fine around the house as an analysis set, I found it difficult playing with the set in coffee shops, cafes & libraries that had bright overhead lighting, which produced way too much glare. So much so, even my opponents would gently complain.

Of course, I could use one of these. . .

. . .But then I'd be carrying around more gear than a boy scout on a camping trip to Frog Hollow. So I thought, better to stick to regular sets that won't require a Chevy Tahoe to transport my 'accessories.'

I personally love lacquered sets. Never had a complaint and even some of my club members liked the look so much, they bought their own lacquered sets!

My club meets at a local coffee shop upstairs after hours, where the lighting is ceiling mounted high intensity spots. If the sets are reflective, you have to wear shades!

I have one lacquered set from HOS and I enjoy ti. It is one of my favorites and was inexpensive to boot.

I bought a CB set that had a bad oxidation problem with the Padauk (bud rosewood) pieces.  Every 2 weeks or so the same exact 8 pieces would get a very white build up on the surface.  It wiped off very very easy and left a brilliant shine, but I hated having to wipe the pieces every two weeks.  I intentionally used a spray on lacquer glossy finish from Home Depot on the set, white pieces to match.  I now LOVE the glossy pieces, and it matches my glossy board as well.  I do not notice any glare problem.  Never thought about that as an issue before reading this thread.  It did solve my oxidation issues permanently.    

if anyone has an non-lacquered set, and wants one, I strongly suggest using Rust-Oleum Triple Thick Gloss (and they do have a Triple Thick Matte - which I have not tried).   It's fairly easy to use ... but I have accumulated some tips:

(1) Make sure the product is  the same temperature as the outside - I found it is a mistake to use the can in a hot outside temp when the can was stored inside with air-condition was running at full blast. Just store the can outside in your shed or garage.

(2) Spray enough on to allow the product to self-level.  It's wetting action will work just fine for this ... but if you think that you are going to spray several light coats, then the midst spray "droplets" will not allow you to achieve an ultra-smooth finish.

(3) Do not spray so much that you get runs ... this product is a spray can ... and it sprays very well, but it is spraying a very thick varnish / lacquer / shellack type of product.

recap of (2) and (3) above :  Basically spray enough that you see a coat of shiny lacquer that wets the surface enough to lightly flow evenly ... but not so much that it can develop a drip that runs.  I sprayed from 6" away with several short, and slightly overlapping, bursts ... as I made my way around the pieces. 

This is mostly common sense, not very hard at all ... my set dried ultra smooth, very good professional results.  But the look is very different ... seems to make your set look much more expensive.  And, what I call the "tiger's-eye" look of Padauk rosewood is even more apparent with glossy sets.  The light trapped in that surface material seems to add to that effect. 

@richiwalt - can you post pics of your modified set?

This lacquered sets is one of my favorites, and it happens to embody two faux pas--lacquer and red pieces.

I have the same problem. Could you please speak to the oxidation problem? Is this common? Is sealing the red pieces the only way to deal with it. Many thanks for your informative post.

Cgrau ... Oxidation issue.  Yep ... I have scoured the internet for information on why that happens.  I've found nothing.  I only have admittance that it's being studied by CB, and even HOS.  HOS said a few of their sets have this issue.  They recommended applying a paste wax to keep the wood surface from coming in contact with the air.  I followed their instructions.  Worked for about a month, but slowly the problem returns when the layer of past wax (MidWax) wears thin.   Spraying the pieces with this "Triple Thick Gloss" works long term.    

As to why it happens ... I have theories.  Nothing known for sure ...  Padauk is a wood that has a high amount of oil in it.  CB makes these sets from lathing of  lots of this exotic wood that they purchase.   (I've located YouTube video of them making sets if your interested, it is interesting).  Anyway, my theory is that the sample pieces of this exotic wood should be sold after the wood cures.  By "cures" I mean, it should have had enough time to leak out all the natural oils in the wood that it's every going to leak.  (There are people who complaining on the internet, {not chess applications, but wood workers} that this particular type of wood can turn neighboring woods orange or red - or various coating that should be clear get turned red and orange, etc ..)  This is probably because the oils in the wood have not all leaked out of the pores.  So, my theory is: sometimes a chess artisan works with a lot of wood that is not cured.  They make the chess pieces, and then go through the burnishing process to buff to a shine on a buffing wheel by priming the wheel with the compound.   The non cured wood leaks oils through the compound and that causes the oxidation.    Some have posted that "Eventually the oxidation will stop after a while".  I never experience that for the larger part of a year.  I simply rubbed off the white powdery substance (leaving a brilliant shine afterwards) - only to start building back up over the next two weeks.  I suppose however long it takes for the problem to "eventually stop" may be directly related to how fresh the piece of wood is - i.e. how much oil will eventually leak out.  But all this is just speculation ...

To back up this theory.  I have two chess sets with Padauk wood pieces.  Before I lacquered the problem set, I used to polish the pieces with a cloth.  The cloth would have red on it when I finished.  If I polish the non-problem set (or even a non-problem piece) with a different cloth - no red on the cloth when I finish.  I think that red is from the oils that are continuously seeping from the non-cured wood.  

I do know that with my first set ... I only had the problem with 8 pieces.  Not all the Padauk pieces.  The Knights, the Queens, the King and three particular pawns.  The remaining five  pawns never had the problem, as well as the bishops, and the castles.   So, the problem pieces were probably made from a lot of wood that had the problem.    

I have a post on my personal blog about this Oxidation issue.  http://www.richimages.net/?p=7257   I did not really have a great picture of the problem in full bloom - I probably could have waited a week longer to get a really good picture of the problem - but I polished my pieces with a microfiber cloth almost every other day because I could not stand to see my pieces like that.  

Anyway, hope that helps ...   

Thanks for the very detailed answer!

I have had an HOS set for at least ten years. Only some of the pieces exhibit the problem, but it has continued unabated for at least ten years. Wax didn't stop it, and I am loathe to refinish them.

I too have had issues with 'white dust' gathering on my padauk chess pieces. It seems to accumulate in the crevices, so you can imagine how badly it effected my 'shorty padauk' set with all these crevices. The dust would accumulate (on all the pieces) within weeks, and it took me 10-15 min. to brush it off. I eventually sold off the set. I loved those beautifully carved knights though. Rare for such a small set.

Where the above set was made with untreated padauk, the 'New American' set below was made from padauk that had be processed using a high frequency vacuum drying process (see link below).

ttps://www.alibaba.com/product-detail/High-frequency-vacuum-drying-machine-equipment_1869569325.html?spm=a2700.7724838.0.0.xVwtVa

 The treatment seems to reduce the dust problem to just a few pieces, which takes me less than 5 minutes to remove. I just consider it routine maintenance, like periodic waxing.

Thanks, Lou.

My thoughts are this.  I don't like high gloss finish, at most I like semi gloss/satin finish.  I usually buy matte finish computer monitors as well.  However, I am HAPPY that the woodworkers offer sets with different finishes, it is excellent customer service because everyone has different preferences.