Thread: Chessboard

Alex, that is a beutiful chessboard, I like the knight motif in the middle of the board.

Do you have the chess pieces for it yet, or are you going to make them?

A chess board and pieces have been on my "to do" list for about ten years now ,
thats given me something to aim for

I like the motif - shows off the high level of craftsmanship in the board without being too overstated

Nice work Alex, I would like to be able to be as accurate in my work as that.
Dont tell me you cut them by hand as well.

Thanks Ironwood & Chrisp

Originally Posted by Ironwood

Do you have the chess pieces for it yet, or are you going to make them?

No, it was a commission. The client bought a set in China with nice carved pieces, but the board was just cardboard.

Thanks John. All the squares were cut on the TS.
I dressed two pieces, one each of cedar & silver ash, 50m wide, ~500 long and thick enough to cut 5 veneers from each. Glued 4 up 4 of each in alternating strips. The other two I glued together separately.
When dry, I crosscut both into 50mm strips. To get the checkerboard pattern, I reversed every second strip. If I hadn't been inlaying the horse, I would just have glued the strips together at this point, and applied them to the backing board.
To do the horse, I made up two 2x2 squares. I glued them one on top of the other, one with the grain vertical and one with it horizontal, using UHU craft glue, and glued the pattern on top.
The pattern was then cut out on the scrollsaw, with the table tilted about 10deg (be sure to cut in the right direction). After separating the pieces, the top piece fits into the bottom one with no gaps (hopefully!) these squares then replace the ones made from the other set of strips, which are then glued up and applied to the ply back board.
The other side of the ply was veneered with cedar.

Thanks for the work description. (I would have got slippage using pva glue).

I like it Alex. Looks good.

I don't think I'm going to live long enough to do all the things you blokes inspire me to do! Another top project Alex!

Cheers,

P