How to Make Chess Pieces From Wood
Making you own chess set can be as fun as you wish to make it. This project is about how to make simple chess pieces from wood that are easily portable, recognizable and fully functional. This project will not take more than a few hours and only costs a few dollar (assuming that you already have the tools). This chess set can also double as a checkers set if you turn the pieces over.
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Things You'll Need
- 1-inch diameter dowel rod
- Hand saw and miter box
- Sand paper
- Vice
- Cardboard strip (3/4 inch wide)
- Soldering iron
- Two colors of wood stain
- Two plastic cups
- Spoon
- Newspaper
Instructions
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1
Cut off the end of a 1-inch dowel rod so that the bottom of the rod has no dye (often used to color code the size of the dowel). Cut the dowel into 32 pieces, each 3/4 inch thick, using your hand saw. Make sure that the dowel rod is laying in a corner in the miter box as you saw so that you have nice, flat ends.
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2
Touch up the pieces with some hand sanding. Make sure that the sanding flattens the ends. The sanding should also cover the entire piece so that it will accept the stain later.
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3
Print out the chess symbols from the computer font "Unicode" (see Additional Resources). Any chess symbols will work as long as they are recognizable. Make sure that you print out at least eight copies of the pawns.
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4
Clamp the sections of dowel rod into the vice. Make sure that a thin strip of cardboard is on the edge of the wood to protect it. Trace copies of the images onto the dowel rod onto one wide surface with a pencil. Burn the drawings into the sections using the soldering iron and a steady hand. Keep a copy of the images handy for reference.
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5
Pour two different colors of wood stains (honey and cherry, or other colors as you prefer) into separate plastic cups. Use each cup for a different half of the set. Dip each piece of wood into the stain with a spoon and lay it onto several sheets of newspaper to dry. Make sure that you have enough sheets so that the stain will not soak through as the stain dries.
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Tips & Warnings
Make a chess/checkers board by staining a cutting board. Use masking tape to cover the "light" squares and the boarder. Stain the dark squares using a paint brush to brush the stain on evenly.
Use caution when working with sharp tools and hot instruments, especially the soldering iron. Wear safety glasses and wear gloves to avoid contact with the stain. Only burn the wood in a well-ventilated area with a means to put out any potential fire. Let the pieces cool from burning them before dipping them into the stain to avoid toxic fumes.
References
Resources
- Photo Credit Photo by "cohdra" at Morguefile.
