On 7 Oct 2004 19:49:17 -0700, (David Bogie) wrote:

Sorry, I thought I had seen the term "laminate" applied to almost any
build up that involves full-length glue-up.

I'd expect the etymology of laminate to imply laminar planes.

Do you play?

Badly.

But can you tell me
why you would you choose to do the glue-up instead of the veneer?

I wouldn't, but then I'm not making it, and I'm not the customer.

The super-thick Japanese boards are for playing on the floor, whilst
kneeling. Using one of these on a table looks ridiculous.

For playing on a low Japanese table, the board thickness is about an
inch and half, so as to make the playing height the usual 8".
Westerners, except the most flexible, will want it higher.

My ideal go board is thick MDF, with a pale ash, beech or maple veneer
on it. It's about an inch thick and using MDF instead of ply gives
more mass, and thus more stability. I play on a low table, sitting on
the floor or sofa. I generally kneel, and many of my guests kneel too
(the iaido bunch), but the ones I play go against don't bend well
enough.

I have no interest in the really thick boards. Even though my lounge
is already full of stacked timber, I'd regard the use of a whole log
as wasteful for a game board. About an inch or two is enough to give
stability. As part of the aesthetic of thick solid timber in Japan,
it really wants to be either one piece, or as close as you can get to
it. 20" is more than you can likely find, but if you can get 18" as
solid then I'd use that. 20" would be an unusually wide board
(although not so unusual for length).

Purpleheart isn't my choice of timber, being too dark and distracting.
You should certainly avoid knots or "loud" figure. My own ash-veneer
board has been criticised for the grain being a bit too obvious.

Proportions for a go board are rectangular and not square. Square
isn't iki. The marked out area is usually 38.5 x 42 cm, with the
players on the narrow edges. The border around this is either
symmetrical or very asymmetrical, so the whole board is still
rectangular.

--
Smert' spamionam