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Caring for your chess set part two (Boards)

Care for your chess board is very much different from chess pieces. There are a few different types of chess boards out there. Below I will list the various types and explain how best to clean and generally look after each one. Remember that a good quality chess board should last a lifetime, or longer!

Satin or matte veneer boards

If your chess board is made from veneers of wood and finished in a light sealing coat of satin varnish then it important that you don’t use any abrasive polishes or thick waxes on the finish. Essentially any cleaning can be done with a clean damp cloth, but not a wringing wet one. Bear in mind that any exposure to water can result in the veneers coming away from the inner core of the board so the board must essentially stay totally dry at all times. If the board becomes scratched there is not much that will remedy it, there is no thick lacquer to polish marks out of so it’s important to look after the finish on these boards, they don’t take repairs well!

Gloss lacquered chess boards

If your board has been lacquered to a high gloss it will have a fairly thick coat of lacquer applied to it. You can be sure of this because when lacquering wood the grain needs to be filled with the first few coats, and further coats built on top of this to allow polishing back to a glass like finish.

Lacquer does look great when it’s done right but it’s easily scratched or chipped. If your board suffers minor scratches or begins to loose it’s shine you can easily remedy this by re polishing the surface using a product called Scratch X. This product is primarily sold for car paint finishes, however it is extremely gentle and has a progressive action. It will remove light scratches and marks and leave a rich gloss once it’s polished off. Avoid cheaper products that contain ammonia and other chemical abrasives. Do a web search for scratch X, a tube of this will last for ages if all you use it for is your board.

Freshly polished boards can then be further shined and protected using a wax based polish, either a furniture polish or car wax if you want to. Remember that the lacquer on your board is not so different from the lacquer applied to car finishes. Therefore there is no problem in using very high quality car products on your board if needs be.

Natural wax polished chess boards

Some hand made boards are sanded to a very smooth finish then polished with a natural wax. This leaves the most natural finish and looks fantastic. It’s vitally important that during cleaning of these boards you do not strip the wax from the wood. If you do the board will become dull and lose it’s sheen and also become at risk from the elements. The best option here is to ask the manufacturer exactly which wax was used to finish the board, then use a compatible or similar wax cleaner / polish to maintain the board. Avoid any solvents or thin wax cleaners that may strip the original wax.

Caring for your chess set

So you have bought a lovely new chess set, maybe something a bit special or expensive, or just functional. Either way you are going to want it to last a long time. In fact there is no reason why a good quality set shouldn’t last for years and decades if it’s looked after properly.

Lets start by looking at the chess pieces. The chessmen have one arch enemy, and I don’t mean their opposing colour, that enemy is dust. A high quality chess set is the perfect ornament, the finest showpiece. But leaving it out means dust will gather on the pieces. Of course one way to stop this happening is to play chess with it every day, which we highly reccomend!

Another factor that will affect chess pieces is ultra violet light and heat. The light will darken the boxwood over the years, in some cases quite drastically. Extremes of temperature can also affect the chessmen and in some cases cause cracking. So essentially try to avoid exposing the pieces to either of these things.

Cleaning the chess pieces needs to be done carefully. Firstly it’s important to know how a chess piece if finished. The wood is polished with a very hard wax that softens when heated, this wax becomes impregnated in the surface fibers of the wood and with extensive polishing gives off the impression that the wood itself is actually shiny. It’s important to maintain this wax surface on the chess piece so do not use any solvent based cleaners or wax stripping substances. In fact the safest way to clean them is simply with a very soft cloth, just to remove finger marks, anything more than this and you risk damaging the finish.

The best method for storage of the chessmen is inside a wooden box, or if you want to display them for all to see, a glass cabinet.

Next week we will post about how to care for the various types of chess board. Watch this space!

The Sicilian Series Chess Set – Product Review

The Sicilian series chessmen with Rosewood board that has been presented to me for review has been done so extremely well. The chessmen come in a white box with the recognisable branding on the front. There is no doubt that this is a Regency Chess Company product. The Rosewood board is also presented very nicely in it’s branded white card packaging.

The Chessmen themselves have been made from rosewood and boxwood, one of the first things that strikes me is just how good quality the wood is. The boxwood is all clean and free of dirty grey blemishes and the rosewood is rich in grain and uniform in shade. Naturally my attention is drawn straight to the Knights and I was pleased to see that both halves are well matched in colour and grain.

The design of these chessmen is classic Staunton. Make no mistake, we are not looking at a direct replica of a set from the 1800s but instead a modern interpretation that takes the design to a new level of beauty. The proportions of the set are excellent, there is no doubt that they have been designed with active chess playing in mind. The chess pieces are chunky around their bases, and very bottom heavy with a very good balance and center of gravity.

The King

The King encompasses all of the classic Staunton design elements. I am pleased to say that there are no ornate or strange aspects to him, just smooth curves and classic lines. He feels heavy and solid with a great finish.

The Queen

Like the king she has all the classic Staunton design elements, a slightly thicker shank relative to the rest of her but a very open crown, like a flower in full bloom. The ball on the top is very well detailed indeed, It’s been turned with such a fine tolerance as to potentially make this part of her quite fragile. Thankfully in my review set a total of four queens were included. I might be needing them!

The Rook

This is the piece that in lower quality sets one expects to see the production issues. Thankfully there are no problems here. The lines and recesses are perfect. It begs the question ‘Just how many of these did they have to throw away to get each one so perfect?’ The size of the rook is quite large in scale to the rest of the set but not enough to raise any eyebrows. There are authentic castle slanting bevels which add a very nice touch indeed.

The Bishop

The bishop is fairly plain and functional, the slot in it’s hat is a plain cut with no advanced bevelling, I guess that would be just too much to ask for the price! Very well proportioned and with a lovely deep curve to it’s shank.

The Pawn

When reviewing pawns I like to line up all 8 of a colour and check for uniformity. These are all completely identical in height, width and proportion. They have very round balls that have been finished perfectly. They are clearly very functional in that the shank is quite thick, which means snapping the balls off won’t be easy.

The Kinght

Saving the best til last of course, the Knights are excellent, some of the best I have ever seen on a set in this price bracket. We are looking at a well toned horse here with good muscle definition. Each tooth is carved to perfection, we have deep nostrils and a very good sense of character. Being the hardest piece to keep consistent I am pleased to say I didn’t notice any differences among the four Knights in this set.

The Board

The chessmen can be bought alone or as a set with a rosewood veneer board. I reviewed the whole set and while the board is nothing spectacular to look at it is very well made, has a zero defect level and uses very fine materials indeed. It’s an ideal partner for these fine chess pieces and makes for a lovely set. You could opt for a more expensive solid board but I personally wouldn’t.

Find The Regency Chess Company at the FSB

Finding The Right Chess Board

How hard can it be? Essentially a chess board is a large square with squares on it. Of course it’s way more complicated than that. Before the Far Eastern mass produced boards came along choosing was pretty much without risk. These days you have to be careful and choose wisely to make sure you buy the right chess board making sure you avoid cheap nasty boards from retailers who only care about profit.

One huge factor to consider when you choose a board is if you would like a solid wooden board or a veneer one. Some people will refuse to entertain the idea of a veneer board, assuming that they are somehow inferior. There are however plenty of advantages to veneer boards. Firstly they tend to be extremely consistent, in a batch of 50 boards you can expect each one to be almost identical. Because they are more ‘manufactured’ than their solid wooden counterparts they should be without flaw, precise and very clean.

Veneer boards are also a lot less expensive than solid wooden boards. If you desire a luxury hardwood such as ebony you will pay huge sums for a solid ebony board whereas a veneer version might be one third of the price. The solid ‘board snobs’ should certainly take a few moments to check out some really high quality veneer boards. They may well be pleasantly surprised!

Solid boards, while a lot more expensive are not to everyone tastes. Because each one has to be completely hand made there are plenty of inconsistencies. I like to think of solid wood boards as being something you would expect to find in an antique shop in years to come, whereas a veneer board would sit better in an ultra modern designer home.

Due to the nature of their construction solid wooden boards will certainly age better. Over the years we can expect our chess board to receive the odd dent or knock, of course no chess board is immune to this (apart from maybe a plastic one) but dents in solid wood certainly look a lot nicer than they do in veneered wood.

Another factor is that solid wooden chess boards are a lot thicker and heavier than veneer boards. A veneer board might only be 10 or 12mm thick compared to 25mm on a solid board.

What about the finish? Veneer boards are often finished in thin satin varnishes with the wood grain left open. This gives off a nice natural look and feels good to the fingers. It’s also easy to maintain as it does not require polishing. Solid boards however tend to be lacquered to quite a fine gloss finish. Which does look very elegant, especially when the reflections of the fine chessmen can be seen in the board. It does however require plenty of polishing and will pick up finger prints like you wont believe!

But lets not get too hot under the collar about chess boards. After all, if you choose the wrong one and you have bought online you are within your rights to send it back and exchange it for another type. Of course make sure you try to avoid those retailers selling cheap Chinese chess boards. Instead stick to reputable sellers who import from Europe.

Buy a Chess Set For Christmas

The Christmas season is looming ever closer and it will soon be time to begin thinking about buying presents for our loved ones, and not so loved ones! For those relatives you are not too keen on we would always advise socks and pants, maybe some soaps and smellies for those with poor hygiene. But for those you are fond of there can be no better present than a fine chess set.

A luxury chess set will last longer than a lifetime, in many cases it should last multiple generations. There is also something extremely satisfying about a fine chess set. You don’t have to be a fan of chess, or even a fan of fine crafts to appreciate a lovely chess set. There is just something magical about them that is impossible to explain. A total of 32 (34 on a luxury fine set) pieces, each one carved with such loving attention that it could be sold as a fine gift on it’s own!

One mild irritation about buying a chess set is the problem of where to find one. It’s almost impossible to find a decent selection in a high street shop. Even the specialists chess shops don’t sell particularly great chess sets. Online shopping is the only answer it seems but with Christmas round the corner there will be plenty of the usual suspects piling the sets high and selling them cheap.

Plan ahead and do your research, buy from a reputable retailer who is happy for you to drive over to their premises to sample the products before you buy them. Be fussy and remember that the UK consumer laws mean that if you buy online you have the right to return it for literally any reason and for a full and complete refund. Always ask a retailer if the photos on their website are the actual photos of items from their stocks. It’s not unheard of for less reputable sellers to steal product images of high quality products and use them to sell their cheap wares. Aside from getting themselves sued in the new year it’s also bad practice on behalf of their customer service which results in disappointment when the products arrive.

So when you type buy chess sets into google this Christmas do your best to ensure you buy from the best and if you do make a mistake don’t worry about getting it returned and getting your money back. Good luck and Merry Christmas!

The Future For Luxury Wooden Chess Sets

Classic Chess sets, such as the Staunton variety, tend to involve looking back into the past, as opposed to the future. We seldom think about what will become of our luxury chess sets, but it stands to reason that the really high quality and super luxury sets will hopefully remain treasured in your family for generations to come.

The issue facing fine luxury chessmen, and indeed all other luxury hardwood items is the ecological situation surrounding the woods used to make them. Ebony, Rosewood, & Red Sandalwood are the most commonly used woods and certainly some of the most desirable. Yet ever year the price of these woods goes higher as the socks run low and governments across the world impose restrictions on the further deforestation of these woods.

One issue we face is that the trees that bear these woods take many years to grow, indeed some can be over 100 years old when cut down and harvested. This means that any re planting schemes are extremely long term efforts that probably wont sure up any supply problems in the coming decades.

Already countries like India are trying to impose export sanctions on luxury hardwoods, countries like Brazil have completely banned the export of their precious rosewood much to the dismay of the luxury musical instrument industry. As pressure from the environmentalists mount, and governments bow down to the scientific consensus it’s realistic to assume that supply of luxury chess sets is going to shrink.

The UK’s most prominent online chess retailer is feeling the pain of this situation with the supply of their solid ebony chess boards. The boards come in a variety of sizes and are made from huge chunks of defect free black ebony. The results are quite stunning. Being the only retailer in the UK to offer such boards the demand is high, despite the very high price.

However obtaining enough stock to fulfil the orders is a constant challenge. Suppliers complain that it’s hard to source enough of the high grade woods and the prices are increasing every month. The costs of the wood are now scaring some wood workers out of using those woods through fear of making a mistake on a chess product and having to throw the item into the reject bin. Something that then pushes the overall price up further.

In the eyes of the consumer this situation isn’t having much of an impact yet. They can still buy excellent chess products at good prices, often artificially low at present due to failing chess businesses selling off stock cheap to maintain some cash flow. However this will be short lived and the days of being able to buy luxury wooden chess pieces at an affordable price will soon be behind us.

The only advantage to consider is that in future generations the finest chess sets made from the best grades of endangered hardwoods will increase in value and collectibility. One just has to look at the price of musical instruments that contain Brazilian Rosewood, in some cases they are worth thousands of pounds now! Given the price of classic antique chess sets these days it’s a fair assumption that the finest chessmen at today’s new prices will represent superb investment opportunities!

How they make those perfect chess pieces

When we see a supreme luxury set of chess pieces it’s often difficult to imagine just how much work has gone into producing it. There are many stages that the producer has to go through in order to end up with 32 perfect chess pieces that are good enough to attract the ‘luxury’ price tag.

Simple beginnings

A chess piece usually starts life as a solid block of hardwood that is cut roughly into an eight sided shape. It’s then put into a lathe and turned to it’s correct shape by pushing a very sharp blade against it. The blade is of utmost importance. It must be a perfect reverse of the desired shape and extremely sharp. The aim is to cut into the spinning wood without splintering the wood or leaving small hollows. Not something an amature can achieve very easily! The end result should be a perfectly formed chess piece albeit with a slightly rough surface.

Smoothing things over

The next job is to carefully sand the rough surface of the chess piece away. This is usually done with very fine abrasive paper. Then the piece is polished with a rotating buffer to remove the sanding marks. There are many stages to the sanding and polishing of a chess piece. Mechanical polishing combined with hard wax is used to create the desired effect.

A weight off your mind

Even the best style and quality of chessmen would be nothing without some weight inside them. The chess piece is clamped carefully and then a large hole drilled into the base. The hole is then filled with either molten lead or a steel disc. It’s vital that some room is left in the hole for some flexible filler. If the metal weight goes in with a tight fit it can cause cracking later on!

Covering things up

The base is then covered with either a felt circle or a piece of leather to cover up the weight and filler. After this a final stage of polishing takes place. It’s worth noting that during all of these processes each piece must be carefully checked. Defective or damaged pieces must be thrown out and replaced with a new one. On luxury chess sets it’s typical to turn around double the quantity you need in the knowledge that 50% wont make it through to the end of the finishing process without picking some damage of defect. Super luxury chess sets will often have minute tolerances of what can be considered acceptable, which can mean the pile of rejects is huge compared to the finished examples.

Ebony Chessmen

The classic look that chess players and enthusiasts love is the deep black of ebony wood for the dark chess pieces. When polished to a deep shine it looks so deep, so black, so Staunton! But Ebony is seldom this black by nature. It will often have streaks of dark brown running through it. It is common practice to stain the ebony jet black in order to create a uniform blackness.

The Regency Chess Company

The Internet is awash with retailers selling chess products. Recently a new contender arrived on the scene in the form of The Regency Chess Company. Based in Bath, United Kingdom these guys are creating something of a stir among the chess retail industry.

One of the most striking things about the regency website is their amazing product photography. I am informed that they do this themselves and only photograph the exact items that they stock on the website. This means you can be sure that you will receive exactly whats in the photos when you order, not a generic product sourced from another manufacturer long after the original photo was taken.

Already they seem to be holding stock of some unique and exclusive designs of Staunton Chessmen but one of the striking things about their range is their selection of chess boards. Many of the UK based chess retailers seem to stock a fairly small range of boards whereas these guys have a vast selection that includes basic veneer boards right up to luxury solid hardwood boards.

Already some long established budget retailers have begun copying The Regency Chess Company, like all great things, imitation is inevitable. It would appear that if you want to buy the cheapest chess sets, buy from somewhere else. If you want the best, buy from Regency.

Selling for less than the sum of it’s parts

I had the chance to talk to a traditional English woodworker today. He makes fine chess sets from lovely cuts of luxury hardwoods. I quizzed him about the types of wood used to build chess sets and found out some interesting facts. Lets take rosewood as an example. A quick glance at some chess retailers tells me that you can buy an imported rosewood chess board for as little as £80. Yet I showed an 18 inch solid rosewood board to the English wood worker who priced up the raw wood materials at around £75! and that’s before he has even picked up his saw!

There seems to be a mighty casm between the price of these things in the UK against imported wooden products from countries like India. He went on the say that should we wish to commission him to make an identical chess board to the one retailing for £80 he would charge us a trade price of £250!

It does seem a little crazy but it would seem the cheaper imports are what is needed if luxury solid wooden chess products are to be brought to the mass market and made affordable to the everyday man in the street. It’s fair to assume that as stocks of wood like rosewood and ebony run dry and deforestation restrictions come into force the price and value of these woods will increase.

Will the day come when the scrap value of your large luxury chess board be worth more than you paid for the board? Either way, with the ecological problems the world now faces it’s clear that generations in the not too distant future wont be able to get hold of these sorts of products at a consumer price, so enjoy it while you still can!

Luxury chess sets

Chess blogger has been on the prowl for luxury chess sets this week and has travelled afar to look at some in the flesh. Before one begins to scratch the surface of fine chess pieces it’s hard to know just how luxury and indeed expensive a set of chessmen can be. London seemed to be the place I needed to get to if I wanted to see a decent range of expensive chess sets. The big name department stores and a couple of niche chess specialists was where I was heading. I wont go into detail about the products and stores I looked at, instead I will keep this post fairly general.

Was I impressed? Well in a word yes, and no. Although I did see a great deal of chess sets, some for hundreds, others for thousands of pounds I didn’t see anything that looked like it was of immeasurable quality. My keen eye is always trying hard to spot faults and many faults I did spot, even with one set that was the most expensive one in a very well known department store.

It seems that price can’t be your gauge to quality, while some chess sets may appear to be ‘reassuringly expensive’ it seems the reassurance of quality is not to be assumed lightly.