If you took all the chess pieces of the world and laid them end to end...

Would you get splinters?    Would it circle the globe?

Would it circle the globe?

Say 2.5 inches for the pieces, 1.5 for pawns. Each set is 40+24=64 (serendipitously). 64 inches is 5.33 feet. Suppose every person owns one chessboard. There are 7 billion people on the planet. That adds up to 7,070,265 miles. The earth is about 24,000 miles at the equator. But, of course, not everyone owns a chess set. But even if 1% of people own a chess set, that's still 70,703 miles, which is enough to go around the equator nearly three times.

So to answer your second question: yes!

As to your first question: No. Most of them are plastic, and the wood ones are sanded and varnished. 

As of this moment, you are one of my chess.com heroes.  You are getting a "You're Cool" trophy for that reply.  Well done. A+.  You laid a very solid foundation without bruising yourself.