Chess set

[Daveyboyz]

A couple of years ago I decided I wanted a chess set, not your standard functional set but something of a talking point so I set myself on a path full of pitfalls and wastefulness.

The idea was that I would make the pieces, one side in silver and the other in gold and then make a board for them to live inside. I was originally going to do the board in metal too, and then I looked at the metal prices and changed my mind on a few things. When I last did anything in the trade gold was £2 a gram and silver was 20pence or so, things have changed so I needed to economise on this one. I decided in the end I would make one side from silver and the other from copper, this as it turned out was a mistake. Copper is a bit of a nightmare in my opinion, it conducts the heat away from where you are joining so that a small butane torch has a bit of a time trying to solder it and it also tarnishes terribly. There were lots of instances of dry joints and bits where the solder didn't run where I wanted it to. So in hindsight I should have made both sides from silver and had one side plated.

As it turns out I had both sides plated and that was quite an expense. The silver side I gave to a friend in the trade to rhodium which wasn't cheap but I thought it was worth it so that the pieces don't tarnish. The copper pieces nobody wanted to gold plate, when my friend found someone they quoted a price and by the end it was triple what they quoted (I have always stood by a quote even if I lost money, changing the price half way through the job annoyed me) though I can understand the reasons, its because they were too fragile to barrel and needed a lot of cleaning up.

I don't plan on selling these ever but I had the silver pieces hallmarked just because... then I did a bit of woodwork using black walnut and maple, something I had never done since school. It was a steep learning curve on this one, I reckon if I ever had to produce another I could do a much better job and much more quickly having some idea what I am doing by the end of it.

Both the chess pieces and the board ended up costing me way more than I had envisioned at the start, and took me longer than I expected too.

[josef1]

They look great top job

[LydiaNiz]

I'm always impressed when people actually finish a project like this! A labour of love. Do you have a favourite piece? There's something lovely about chess sets. Unfortunately my daughter has been able to trounce me for years.

[Daveyboyz]

Well the white queen looks like she has had a drink or two so I must rule that one out... I guess the white pawns or maybe the rooks...

[CJ57]

I meant to respond earlier today. It's an amazing accomplishment and the board Just completes the set. You just have to forget about the cost in the end and be proud of having achieved something that's a bit of an heirloom.

[Faith]

Wow that's ever so impressive, real commitment too to complete it. I particularly like the copper pawns with their pointy shields!

Faith

[Daveyboyz]

Thanks all ^^

[Dennis]

That's definitely in the family heirloom category. Echoing down the generations, they will say in hushed tones 'Great grandpa made that'.

Dennis.

[enigma]

Well done!
The board is particularly fabulous !