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A Chess Set For My Daughter

Stu in Tokyo, member

41 users recommend

The whole chess set

Timothy Buerger Photography

Just the board and storage box

Timothy Buerger Photography

Hand carved knights

Timothy Buerger Photography

Flocked Storage and the underside of the board

Timothy Buerger Photography

Closer look at the storage under the board

Timothy Buerger Photography

The whole chess set

Photo: Timothy Buerger Photography

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Last year, on the evening of December 23rd, my youngest daughter asked me for a chessboad for her Christmas present. I was able to bang out a very basic chessboard by Christmas morning. I told her I'd make her a complete set for her birthday in July, this is what I came up with.

I turned all the pieces myself, all my own design. I wanted to stay close to a classic Staunton set, but have my own take, It think I did this. The knights are hand carved, by far the most difficult pieces to make, but I think they turned out well. I took a lot of versions of knights to get to the final one, seven I think. 

I did not want to only make a simple board, but a box to keep the chess set in as well, this kind of took on a life of it's own and ended up with what you see here, I went back and forth on adding the small short Chippendale style legs and in the end I very much like the look, but maybe it puts the chess set a bit tall on a regular table to play. I think I might be making a special table to go with the chess set so it will be at the right height to play on. 

I made this set in my Dungeon workshop here in Tokyo Japan, then I had to ship it to Canada where my daughter now lives, going to school.  The wood is Maple, Curly Maple and Walnut.

I have over 200 hours of work into this project, and I loved every minute of it.

Thanks for taking a look.

Cheers!

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Comments (6)

ukmeager writes: Sorry about my typing and spelling errors on my first comment but I did tell you I´d lost a considerable amount of my brain. A ruler next to the individual pieces would help get a better perspective on size. Sorry to be picky I still think its a great thing and wonderful craftsmanship. UK Meager
Posted: 5:23 am on April 16th

ukmeager writes: I´ll give you a game anytime what a lovely thing I wonder how many gereration this will be haded dod through and tales of exciting games that lasted beer after beer I hope after all your effort you can play well I used to untill a severe stroke took over a third of my brain.but I can still appreciate fantastic craftmanship when I see it and boy am I drooling over this piece wel done and check mate good buddy
Posted: 7:28 am on August 26th

tg3k writes: Beautifully done, Stu!
Posted: 12:49 pm on August 17th

akreid writes: I'll take any credit I can get on this project. Seriously though it was a pleasure for me to be able to help you in any way on this piece of fine craftmanship.
Posted: 7:36 am on August 17th

brent_dowell writes: Stu, Just fantastic. FWW should put this in the Magazine!
Posted: 10:37 pm on August 16th

Stu in Tokyo writes: I forgot to thank a couple of people, my buddy Alex down in Zushi for sanding the curly maple on his drumsander, and Timothy Buerger Photography for taking such wonderful photographs of my work, many more photos here......
http://www.flickr.com/photos/timdesuyo/sets/72157630797159330/

Cheers!
Posted: 10:13 pm on August 16th

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