Chess Board

[Mark Hoffman]

Finished a chess board this weekend that i've been working on since after Christmas. Wenge and curly maple squares, Brazilian cherry frame and ebony, lignum vitae for the boarder. I use General Finishes Arm-r-seal semi gloss and a couple coats of wax. Not seen in the pics i dressed up the edge of the frame by using a beading bit on top and bottom and then plowed out what remained between the beads to give fingers a place to lift. squares are 2.5 inches so the entire thing is 29 inches square w frame which makes for a big board. I splurged on the chessmen. Ebony and boxwood from houseofstaunton.com. I'm not a very good chess player yet. So far I'm 1-3 against my 10 year old... Next up is a box for the chessmen. All in all should make for a nice heirloom. It's not perfect but projects rarely are. I shoot for perfection and am happy when i get close.

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[John Towns]

Very, very nice! What's next! Chessmen?

[Greg Parrish]

Very nice. Bookmarked.

Are the squares just veneer glued onto cherry, or are they thicker? Couldn’t tell for sure from pictures.

[Jim Becker]

That's really beautiful!!

[Mark Hoffman]

Thank you. I used 1/2 ply as a substrate for the veneer. So the field is a little thinner than the frame. It’s recessed on the underside. If I ever make it into a table that lip underneath will make a good place to register the legs. Splines helped line everything up during the glue up - frame to playing field.

[Charlie Jones]

That looks like a lot of work. Very nice job.

[Ron Citerone]

Very nice chess board. I like the way you clamped it too!

[Carl Beckett]

That is awesome!