How To Make A Chess Set Out Of Wood

Author: Bruce Campbell

Photos: Ray Pilon

Illustration: James Provost

Published: June July 2008

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Chess is 1 of the globe's virtually popular games. In this first article, I will begin with the nigh challenging part, turning the knights.

Photos

Chess pieces

Drawing two

Drawing three

Drawing 4

Dimensions of chess pieces

I take played chess since I was a boy and have used many different chess sets. When I decided to make a set up for myself I wanted one that would non only expect and feel skilful, just also be 'playable'. That is, the pieces would take to be piece of cake to distinguish from one another (peculiarly pawns from bishops), easy to grasp, and have a nice balanced weight then they would stay put on the lath.

Design

Everyone is probably familiar with what a chess set looks like – a board with 60-four 2-ane/4″ squares bundled in eight rows by eight columns, and two sets of sixteen pieces (players). I wanted my chess pieces sized so that they would non appear crowded on the squares, and so that the king and queen would stand out a little from the residue of the players. As is common to all chess sets, I varied the height of the pieces according to their value in the game.

A general principle in turning is to employ good materials, and this is especially true for this project. I propose that you apply dumbo, tight-grained hardwoods that have contrasting colours only similar densities so that all mutual pieces will have the aforementioned weight. My personal favourites are Due east African blackwood and boxwood. Both are wonderful wood to turn and their natural colour matches the generic black and white common to modern chess sets. If you prefer the original colours for chess sets (red and white), and then red heart (a.one thousand.a. Chakte Kok) and boxwood are good choices. Alternately, you can use a forest that bleaches well and apply a stain to the pieces. Again, boxwood is a good selection here.

You volition need 40″ of 1-1/2″ ten 1-1/two″ stock for each set of sixteen pieces, for a total of 80 linear inches. This is roughly three quarters of a board human foot of materials per side (ane ½ BF in total). To avoid the need to laminate thinner stock it is all-time to use 6/4 (1-1/2″) stock. Call back that you will be turning two sets of each piece – one out of your darker wood, and one out of your light wood.

"Ultimately chess is just chess – not the all-time thing in the world and non the worst thing in the globe, but there is nothing quite like it."

W.C. Fields

Plow the Challenging Function Offset

The most challenging piece to turn is the knight, every bit it needs to exist carved likewise as turned. I discovered a way to take a lot of the work out of the etching and ensure all four knights are the aforementioned size. The technique I use, called 'ring turning', was adult in Seiffen, Germany over 300 years ago. The tops of the knights are turned separately from the bases and and then glued together later they accept been carved.

Start past cutting two pieces of each colour of wood into 5/eight″ x 1-1/iv″ x 1-1/4″ blocks with the grain running downwards the long sides.
Attach a 6″ x half-dozen″ piece of 1/ii″ plywood on a faceplate, mount information technology on the lathe, truthful information technology round, and square up the face so that it is flat. Then scribe a three-i/ii″ diameter circle centered on the cake, and mark ii lines through the heart of the block 90º apart. Remove the whole thing from the lathe and lay information technology on a work surface. Mucilage the four project blocks to the waste matter block (I use gap-filling cyanoacrylate gum for this job) with the grain running vertically. Use the lines you have drawn to space the pieces out evenly and be sure to line upward each piece so it is flush with the circle and centered on the lines. Fill the gaps between the pieces with waste material wood that is about the same height as the blocks, and then put this aside for a few moments to let the glue set.
Make iii templates from strong paper (business organization cards piece of work well). You lot need one for the dorsum of the knight (Template 1), i for the forepart (Template 2), and one for the side profile (Template 3). Now the fun begins. Mount the glue-up back on the lathe and plough the outside to the profile of Template 1. And then plough the inside to the profile on Template 2. I use small bootleg scrapers for this. You have ii goals – i is to turn the pieces to match the template profiles, the other is to remove enough material so that the front and back templates just bear on at the peak. This ensures that the pieces are the right depth. Once you are washed, remove the setup from the faceplate and cut out the pieces from the waste wood on the band saw. Then, sand the sides of each piece to the profi\ le of Template 3. You now have four identical, roughed out pieces and are well on your fashion to completing the knights. The rest of the effort is carving. I practise most of the etching with a rotary tool equipped with a 1/four″ dovetail burr, a 1/sixteen″ cylindrical detailing burr, and two small ball-cease burrs. There are only a couple of places where you may need to use a small knife.
First by etching the mane using a dovetail burr. The mane should be most ane/viii″ high by 3/32″ broad. When you have the mane roughed out, texture the sides and edges with a flat-tip cylindrical burr, and circular the corners off the chest and back. Then, define the area effectually the chin, jawbone and under the ears. Carve away the sides of the nose until information technology is about 1/4″ wide then blend the cheeks back to the jaw line.
Round over the top of the chest to merge in with the mentum line. The wattle under the chin is not anatomically right (horses don't have wattles) but it is a prissy detail. To stop the chest carve two deep, curved grooves, one near the back and the other to define the chest. Round the sides over and blend them in. Carve away the sides of the nose until it is most 1/4″ wide then alloy the cheeks dorsum to the jaw line. Round the top and bottom of the nose slightly. For the finishing touches add a line for the oral fissure, shallow holes for nostrils, two lines for each ear, and deeper holes for the eyes. Take care to make them the same on both sides, especially the eyes.

If you are a little worried nearly your ability to do this I suggest you cut an extra block or ii and gum them into the original ring – it's just every bit easy to plow v, six or more than as it is to turn four. Then practice on the extra ones before starting on the final pieces. I promise you lot will be as surprised as I was with how easy it is to make the 'hardest' part of this projection.

Side by side issue, I volition discuss how to turn the bases for all the chess pieces and give some tips on duplicate turning. In the final article I will talk about how to decorate the major pieces.