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

Another christmas gift:

A knight for a friend

And the next project in mind:

Reikjavick 1972 model

This is my first chess set. A lot of pieces made it to the fire pit before these ones.

Beautiful set! A Dubrovnik with Minceta rooks, squat Varna Olympiad-like pawns, and some wonderfully melancholic knights! Such a delightful combination. Really beautiful grain on the black pieces as well. What wood did you use?

Thanks! The black pieces are Brazilian Rosewood. The white pieces are Canadian maple. I basically stole my favorite features of other Dubrovnik sets ... made them all a bit thicker at the base and made a big fat rook. I don't like most knights so I tried to make this one unique but also keep the features very robust -- nothing to chip off. Also, I didn't swap the pom-pom colors on the bishops like other Dubrovnik sets since I never really understood the appeal of that feature -- also it seems like a PITA to do.

Oh yeah, the more bulging bases are nice. And the knights look comfortable to hold. They seem shaped a bit like the FIDE World Championship set, but much more elegant and polished.

I must say I always enjoy the accent colors of opposite-color finials, but having the pieces all in the same color is quite elegant and calming to the eye as well. I’ve recently actually gotten fascinated with pieces that are done in a single piece of wood. I recently discovered it’s a “special” feature of the royals of my ’50s Soviet Droplet set.

And it’s a feature of this fourth type of Mordovian analog set I recently discovered as well. At first I felt it was missing something compared to the other sets which do have opposite-color finials on the royals, but it has grown on me—especially since learning that the finials aren’t separate elements. I’m not quite sure why that feels so satisfying. I guess it’s an appreciation of the craft, the same way as admiring knights that are done in one piece including the base.

Those are some pretty rad sets! Where do you find them?