How to Use Marquetry to Make a Chess Board

Marquetry is the art of design using pieces of wood veneer glued together. The pictures can be intricate, but the chess board is an easier design to make. A marquetry chess board can become a family heirloom to be admired for generations, and you can make one in an afternoon.

Things You'll Need

• Light veneer
• Dark veneer
• Silver for stringers
• White for stringers
• Border veneer
• Masking tape
• Knife
• Gummed paper veneer tape
• Steel straight edge
• Set square
• PVA glue
• Base board
• Balancing veneer
• Contact adhesive

Instructions

1. Choose the veneer you want to make your chess board from. You need two colors for the board and a third for the wide darker frame border of the chess board. Select a silver as a stringer (thin border strip) to contrast with the dark border and an outer stringer of white.

2. Cut four strips of dark veneer 1 3/4 by 14 inches. Cut five strips of light veneer 1 3/4 by 14 inches. Cut four 1/4 by 17 inch stringers of both silver and white and four 1 by 17 inch borders.

3. Join the nine dark and light strips together, backside up. Start with the light color on the outside and alternate with the dark color. The group should end in a light color. Use small bits of masking tape on this side to temporarily hold the strips together. Apply gummed paper veneer tape to the other side to hold each seam together. Remove the masking tape.

4. Square up the length. First square the outer untaped edge on each side using a metal straight edge and set square. Using the same set square and straight edge, rotate the veneer 90 degrees and square the edges. Once both sides are squared, cut across the rows making 1 3/4 inch strips. Each of nine strips will have alternating colors.

5. Join the nine strips, staggering them so you always have a light and dark square next to each other, creating a checkerboard. A light square should be outside the main square on alternate ends. Use masking tape to hold until you have applied the paper tape on the reverse side. Square the project by cutting off the spare light squares.

6. Glue the joints on the working side with PVA glue. Allow it to dry. Remove the tape and butt both stringer and border up, leaving overlap at the edge to miter. Use tape to hold and do a second edge. Miter the overlapping corners by cutting through both pieces with a line coming straight from the corner, leaving the border and stringers cut at an angle.

7. Complete the same process on the other three corners and glue. When the glue is dry, use contact adhesive to put the veneer on a base board. Veneer the opposite side of the board with plain balancing veneer.