Tom Watson wrote:

I'm posting this because I truly believe that the Staunton plastic men
are a good model for making yer own Chessmen.

I don't know which set you got, but I agree. Mine are the "Marshall"
version, which is what I needed to get to size for that board I made.

Now, if I can only remember where I put that Satinwood solid stock ...

...and the Ebony - where in Gosh's name did I put that stash of Ebony?

I got a lathe for Christmas, and one of my plans for the thing was a set of
chessmen based on these plastic ones. I don't have any suitably thick
stock in any appropriate wood though. I never thought about that until I
started turning. 4/4 lumber does not a good turning blank make when the
base of the thing is 1 1/4" in diameter.

Anyway, I'll come up with something eventually.

Your post reminded me of one that I had been meaning to make, so I'll tack
it on. What do you, wood wrecker and chess grand master extraordinaire,
think about contrasting pieces with the board?

I'm going to make myself a walnut/maple chess box when the weather gets
warmer. I've been debating whether to make the pieces out of walnut/maple,
or choose something else, like cherry/ash or whatever I can come up with in
turnable stock.

One argument says making pieces out of the same boards as the chess board
would be very cool indeed (but I'd have to do a glue-up to make the blanks
in that case, or else mail order some 8/4 or whatever lumber), and another
one says that pieces *exactly* the same color/texture as the board might
tend to be easy to overlook. Not exactly invisible, but maybe I forget
about the walnut rook on the walnut square until it checkmates me. In the
latter case, going for strong contrast might be a good thing, and I could
pick any pair of light/dark woods that I could get in log form for my
stock.

What do you think?

BTW, I have no freaking idea how I'm going to do the knights. None
whatsoever. I couldn't carve my way out of a wet paper bag with a CNC
carving machine.

Truth is, given what a bitch it will be to make all these pieces look right,
I'm thinking about just using the damn plastic ones. They may be plastic,
but they sure look good. Much nicer than any chess sets I've ever had
before, and I've had wood in the past.

--
Michael McIntyre ---- Silvan
Linux fanatic, and certified Geek; registered Linux user #243621
http://www.geocities.com/Paris/Rue/5407/