Post pictures of your chess pieces/boards that you made yourself

@ibuildchess so beautiful! I'm feeling everything about this setup.

Thank you! Which one was your favourite?

Let's see... I love the raised frames and wood patterns and without being cheese and saying ALL of them. I'm going to say my fav is the fold up board. My reason is I wish I had something like this for my 1950 Dubrovnik like a modern take on the original board. But yours have the custom colorful inserts that will protect and prevent clashing when stored. I can appreciate the thought you put in.

Oh wait and I just noticed the magnetics to keep shut. Looks engineered properly! I'm jealous now lol

Sharp eyes! I made 4 of them and they were thoroughly engineered, magnets for closing latches, little integrated feet to keep the board raised off the table so the hinges wouldn't prevent the board from laying flat, velvet lined fitted coffers and a custom made felt carrying case to protect them. I was inspired by the Dubrovnik board but I wanted to make something a little fancier with figured wood and a shapely figure. I'm glad you like it! Here's my purpleheart and maple one:

@Ibuildchess,

Amazing work!  I am so inspired.  Thank you for sharing.

@Ibuildchess Wow you saved the best for last in Post#241. The grain in that maple and sapele is stunning. I love how the figuring changes with the light in your photos. Do you buy your wood online? Or a local source? Do you use a moisture meter to ensure the wood is completely dry? 

I imagine the great thing about woodworking for your own enjoyment rather than a business, is that you can wait until you find that perfect piece of lumber before starting on a project.

@pawnerai Thank you! I'm glad you agree about the board! I had some skeptics question it while I was building it, and I wasn't anticipating it to be my favourite until I oiled it and I saw just how much that grain would POP in the right light! It's so hard to capture it in a photo, but my shop has a big LED above my bench and it did a good job of showing it and the curly walnut in #240.

No I don't buy wood online, all of this lumber is chosen by my hand from a lift of wood. Sometimes in lifts you'll get lucky with a piece that was not noticed and graded as plain grain when it has something distinctive, if you have a good eye you'll spot it, and sometimes you won't see it until you start machining and you have to stop and get another piece to do the basic project you started on. I like to let lumber acclimate in the shop for about a week before I start working with it, if a lumber yard were to sell me a piece of wet wood I would be coming back with it! Luckily I have never experienced this, just occasionally wood that's been dried improperly and then when it's cut open it becomes obvious that it's not usable. 

You got that last part right. I'm also so perfectionist and can be so high stress that if I had a customer with a deadline and something wasn't perfect I would be beyond stressed. That and I like to build what I like, when I build things for people they often ask me to build with wood combinations that I don't like and with designs that won't work well or look good. If I'm a believer in a project then I will do a better job.

@Ibuild . . .

Amazing work!!!!!

@krames @chojn1 thank you both

Very nice work. Craftsmanship is always sought out and appreciated. 

"And still I am making more! I can't stop myself. I see beautiful lumber and I see how it can make a gorgeous board or a beautiful set. Definitely a problem."

I know what are you talking about....

Congratulations , really impressive no other words can describe my impression about your boards. Love the maple - sapele one. I've made a few boards (nothing to do with yours) and it was like impossible to have no misaligned squares even being simple boards with just a simple frame around.
Now we will wait to see a selfmade chavet over that boards!

Your chess board's Sir @Ibuildchess are a real work of fine craftsmanship , Thank you for sharing .

@ibuildchess - that last board and pieces are magnificent … that said though… everything you’ve displayed here is magnificent. The quality, care and precision shines through but so does your humility. Thanks for posting - lovely to see, even from a distance.

Thank you for your compliments I think your hand made sets are lovely, your knight carving is something for me to aspire to! The boards are tricky, I have clamping techniques dialed in, and I will say that the quality of your clamps and jigs absolutely makes a difference to the end product. Also the sharpness of your other tooling while you're machining matters a lot as well. Be fussy about everything from start to finish, and you'll end up with something that much better than if you did not  

Thank you for the kind words @lighthouse I enjoy sharing with this community!

@powderdigit Thank you so much for the kind words on my work but also my character! 

Another Chavet on the road

At the drying chamber

From this...

To this

Enjoy!

@Jacmater That’s a really good job!

Here's a set I just finished designing, I'm currently making it out of wood. The squares will be 1.5"

In this image, squares represent 1/4"

In this image, squares represent 1/8"

These two, and the next one, are fairy pieces, and I am currently working on designing more of them. These two are variant pawns, the Berolina and the Sergeant. The Berolina moves diagonally and captures forwards, and the Sergeant moves diagonally and forwards and captures diagonally and forwards.

This is the Amazon, which moves like a Queen and a Knight.

What are your thoughts?