Turned Chessmen Book

[Chris Jenkins]

Can anyone here give some info on the book "Turned Chessmen" by Mike Darlow published in May 2008? I can't find it at any local bookstore or library. I have only been able to find a copy online and their isn't much info there besides the cover shot.

Any reccomendations besides this book?

Thanks,

Chris

[Jim Underwood]

Check the used online bookstores like AbeBooks or Alibris:

http://www.abebooks.com/

I found a couple of copies at AbeBooks.

[Jeff Nicol]

Check on Amazon they have books some times

Jeff

[Jeff Nicol]

Here is a link: http://www.amazon.com/Turned-Chessmen-Collectors-Woodworkers-Woodturing/dp/1565232593/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1232045041&sr=1-1

Jeff

[Chris Jenkins]

I know Amazon has it, but I was hoping maybe someone here has it and could give a little insight about it. Some publisher's websites show a few pages of what the book is like under the cover, but Fox Chapel Publishing didn't do that on this one. Their are no reviews at Amazon on it, nor did anything great come back on a quick Google search.

Chris

[Bill Keehn]

I have that book and the book "Wooden Chess Sets You Can Make" by Diana Thompson. What were you wanting to know?

[Bill Keehn]

I can say this, the book about 160 pages long. There are a lot of good examples of turned chess pieces until about 114. Then there are about 10 pages of profiles drawings you can use to turn some of the pieces. Finally there are about 38 pages of "how to" information for turning them on a lathe.

As a chess player and beginning turner I thought it was an OK book. I bought it for the design examples. I think there are better books for turning instruction.

As for the "Chess Sets you can Make" it should add "with your scroll saw". It's mostly a book of templates you can use. Not much to it really.

[Bill Embrey]

Chris, our local WoodCraft store carries this book... don't know if you have one near you.

I have read a couple of woodturning articles written by Mike Darlow and found them to be VERY technical and "mathy" (I just made that word up :)) and very deep on design proportions and such... Because of that, I've never really looked at any of his books. I tend to believe you turn what "looks right"... sometimes it works... sometimes it doesn't... much like everything in life.

Bill (in OK)

[Chris Jenkins]

Bill,

Thank you for the info. I guess the only question I can think of now is, Are the pieces designed to be turned ONLY, or are the pieces designed to be turned to rough shape and then carved to final defenition by hand? I ask as I have no real desire to carve, nor do I have any tools to do it.

Thanks,
Chris

[Bill Keehn]

Most of the piece are designed to be turned and then carved. There are maybe a few examples of some simple sets that require little or no carving, they don't require much turning either.

[Jim Underwood]

Most pieces don't require much carving really. A little for the top parts of the several pieces is easily done, like the queen, king, bishop, and rook. The difficult part is the knight...

So when I saw the knight done by turning an endgrain ring, I bought a certain book that I'll look up and share the title with you. At the moment my PC use is being pre-empted by my sweetie...

[Jim Underwood]

Well this book is by Darlow also - Techniques in Woodturning. And as others have said, he's a bit on the technical side..

The knights were what had me stumped, all the others I could see how to do. This part of the book was the whole reason I bought it. Didn't need the instructions on the other pieces. It's a pretty interesting technique though. There's not much carving involved in this piece either, unless you just want to.

[David Drickhamer]

Amazon and Barns and Nobel both have it (Amazon is cheaper) but neither has much info on it.