|
Alwoodley Chess Club |
|
|
Alwoodley Community Centre, The Avenue, Alwoodley,
LS17 7NZ
Multimap
|
Making Veneered Chess Boards
Plastic chess boards are very cheap and hard wearing. You can play just as well on a plastic board as a wooden board. So why bother to buy more expensive veneered boards costing over £30 each? For many players there is no difference, but it is surprising how many get that extra quality feeling playing over mahogany and sycamore which makes the three hours or more staring at the squares a more satisfying experience. Even so it is an expense that few clubs can easily justify. I get some pleasure from making things with my hands, even though I am not very handy. And I was able to make five boards for our first team for a fraction of their retail cost. Here is how, in case you would like to copy. (Any expert woodworker will be able to do far better than this. But I am hoping that other beginners will take hope from my attempts and give it a try. Making boards, like playing chess, should be FUN)
The base board.Material:I chose MDF (medium density fibre) board, but ply wood is an alternative. Size:I chose to make a chessboard with a standard 2inch (or 50 mm) square with a 2 inch border. So the base board was cut 20 inches square. I clamped a guide strip of wood to the board at the measured size to ensure that my saw line was straight as I am not a very accurate sawyer otherwise. The veneer.I found it possible to get veneer from local wholesalers – but they need a bit of persuading as they do not really want to deal with the public. There may be retail outlets near you: my nearest seems to be about 50 miles away. The Internet yields other sources, but they carry overheads to do with postage etc. I have found Allwood Veneer on eBay is very good. (But perhaps that willl only be true for Alwoodley!) A variety of woods can be used. The most easily obtainable are probably mahogany (dark) and sycamore (light). For other choices you might look at www.chessdirect.co.uk which sells all manner of wooden boards that you can use to guide your choice. Cutting the veneer.I used a Stanley knife and a metal straight edge. This was a rule which happened to be exactly 2 inches wide which made it easy to cut the strips to size. I used an offcut of MDF to rest on. I then rubbed the edges of the strips on fine sandpaper to make them absolutely smooth. When four strips of each colour had been cut I stuck them together - alternating dark and light - and stuck them together with sellotape. I rubbed a small amount of woodworking adhesive into the joints from the other side, but I am not sure that this is necessary. I then took this new assembly of striped veneer and cut it into strips again in the opposite direction. If the width of the original veneers is wide enough this gives 8 ranks or files of squares. (If not then you just need to repeat the earlier steps to get the 8 you need.) When these strips are sanded as above, assembled in alternating fashion and then stuck together as above you have in your hands the veneered squares of the chess board. Sticking the veneer.I wasted a lot of time and effort using a water-based woodworking PVA glue to start with. The trouble was that the veneer absorbed it and expanded and some squares expanded more than others and I got gaps and cracks and wrinkles. I found that a contact adhesive was least trouble – I used a one that is not instant so that the veneer can be moved slightly into he right position for a short time. I drew guidelines on the base board joining the middles of the sides to ensure a central position. When it was dry the sellotape was removed. A decorative strip.Most boards have a small boundary, about ¼ inch wide, around the squares. These can be bought in various sizes, for example from www.marquetry.co.uk I chose instead to use strips of veneer that I gold-painted myself. The border.The border can be made from the darker of your veneers or you can use another wood, as I did. I first cut strips a little longer and wider than the outside edges of the base board, glued them on, trimming them to size with the Stanley knife. Then I cut four more strips for the top face of the border, cut them to a triangular wedge shape at each end, sanded their edges and then stuck them on to the base board. Again I trimmed with a knife. Sanding.I used mainly a fine grain sandpaper on a sanding block to go over the whole until I had a smooth surface and edges. Varnish.There are many varnishes on the market. I ended with a gloss varnish. I put on about three coats, sanding with a fine wire wool in between. But then I decided that the playing board looked a bit too shiny and ended by making it rather matte by a gentle wire-wool sand, leaving the border glossy. The underside.I bought some green felt at the local market and cut it roughly to size. I stuck it on with PVA adhesive, and then trimmed to size with the knife. I chose this alternative more to protect the surface of any other boards that were stacked underneath than to protect any playing table. Inscription.Finally I inset into one of the borders the words Alwoodley Chess Club printed on a piece of light veneer set into the darker veneer. If you want to know how I printed it email to ask. It was not easy.
- Dylan Morgan (also website creator) mailto:dylan@alwoodleychessclub.org.uktop |
|
