Stone chess sets

i would like to open a discussion on a topic that i believe must be discussed.

when you think of a chess set, it is made of either wood or plastic. that seems to be the only types of chess sets anyone uses nowadays. why does everyone overlook the inate beauty and durability of a stone chess set?

stone sets (especially marble) look and feel so much better than plastic or wood. you don't have to worry about wheter or not you should get a weighted set, it is already the perfect weight. and if you are worried about the price, it is possible to find sets of a fair quality for between 50 and 100 USD. the really high quality stuff can get up there, and the stone set i currently own doesn't look as good as some of the others, but i got it for 20 bucks at K-mart.

If I could find one, I'd definitely buy it, especially for 20 bucks! One question, I have a wood set, and one of the pieces has cracked, presumably from age or having been dropped, and also I notice plastic cracks notoriously if it is dropped. I assume stone would also be vulnerable to (unintentional of course) abuse?

wood sets typically crack due to age, like you said. plasic sets are pretty brittle and will crack or chip if dropped (although the old plastic sets were denser and more durable).

stone sets however tend to be very durable. depending on the on the type of stone. my marble set has taken some abuse and is still fine (there are a couple of scratches on the polish, but that could be fixed). if it was a soapstone set though, which i've seen, it would be more brittle.

Stone sets don't look better nor do they feel better than wood. They may be heavy but the balance of all the stone sets I've ever played with has been horrible. Stone always feels cold to the touch whereas wood feels much warmer. I used to have a stone set but, as usual with stone, the pieces gradually became chipped and broken.

I'll never own another stone set.

i prefer the cool feeling of the stone. the look and feel of the pieces is an opinion based thing. and as for durability, plastic chips and breaks faster. wood is a good choice for durability depending on where you live. in a humid environment like SC, wood sets tend to crack in as little as a year. (putting a finish coating on them will extend the lives a little, but with constant use, it wears off and they crack anyway).

I prefer to have this kind of stone chess set:

i would fight you for it.

I have a few well-carved soapstone sets. They don't feel good at all and I'm always afraid I'll scratch or crack them if I take them out of the case. Also pretty much the same set in wood or ivory is highly valued by collectors, but the stone ones are considered rather cheap. I like them for my collection because I do think the carving is good, but I don't consider them playing sets.

Ok my marble set is super-durable, but the carving is super basic.

It seems with stone you either get good carving or a durable set, not often both. (Maybe someone else will post a well-carved hard stone set. It's much more difficult to produce such a thing it could happen... still, though, you knock the pieces against each other sometimes when you play. Hard stone will chip when knocked against hard stone.)

My experience with stone sets has been that they're a wonderful idea and look amazing until you get them into your hands and try to use them, and then you realize they're not very practical.

can't get the pic to upload, but my marble set is very simple too, but there are some high quality marble sets (over $100) that really do look great.

actually looking at my marble set close up again in the picture you can see it is chipped as well. I hadn't noticed/thought about it much before.

how old is that set?

I believe you, but I don't think I would like them because of the feel.

oh well, my last comment on this thread, as i accomplished my mission (to start a discusison about something i hadn't seen discussed on here yet).

to each his own.

and btw, i like glass chess sets too.

The first set I'm not sure. I have it narrowed down to 19th or 20th century, which isn't very helpful I know. For a while Garrick Coleman was trying to sell the same set and I just looked for that page to see what he said but I can't find it anymore. http://www.tykroll.com/chess/stone.html ... where I say Floyd told me these sets were of "any vintage in the last 200 years," not terribly helpful. I think another collector actually showed me some better research once and has a narrower date-range for these and maybe I have it written down at home but it didn't make it to my website.

The second set is pretty new. I've had it for maybe ten years and it was probably new when I got it.

http://www.houseofstaunton.com/the-gods-of-mythology-antique-chess-set.html

"The chessmen are made of an antiqued ground stone with the opposing side stained in a rich burgundy brown."

Here is the search result for "stone" chess pieces/sets at House of Staunton. 

Here's what I think is a slightly newer version of that set:

http://www.tykroll.com/chess/dragonsg.html

The carving is not nearly as good as the other one but it's kind of cool with the dragon knights. It looks like the guy who sold that one to me said it was from the 1930s. I took off all the links to this page of my site because I think it gets too cluttered. I don't displaying a set like this when I have another that is just the same set only better, but I left the page there.

That's a cast resin set, Dragonair... completely different thing. They mix it with stone dust and call it stone. Those are usually not hard but can be less brittle because they have a bit of "give."

Wow, you're a chess set collector and creator... I'm thoroughly impressed. Didn't know I'd run into someone like that in the forums, lol. I think you should contact your local news station and have a feature story on this. Get your story out there. You've got a nice website there. I really like your handmade Seashell Set! 

Thanks dragonair. (I don't want to pull this thead off topic though.)

This is an inexpensive set I got in Mexico about 30 years ago.  I can't say how well it would hold up because we never use it, not because of the material but because the design.  Some of the pieces look simalar.