Face vs. End grain for chessboard.

[Rennie Heuer]

I have a commission coming up for a game table with an inlayed chessboard. I'm a believer in end gain for serious cutting boards. I understand the benefits of end grain's 'healing' properties, etc., but I'm a bit fuzzy on why it's also a good idea for a chessboard. Looking on line I find several videos on building either. Perhaps wood movement plays a part. I think it would be easier to get a mirror finish on face grain. What am I missing?

 

[Ryan Mooney]

I've seen a small handful of both.

The face grain ones were more likely to suffer from contraction/expansion issues, partially because the builders often seemed set on assembling them cross grain. I think if you pick woods with similar expansion co-efficients or did a thinner veneer on a stable substrate that would be less likely to be a problem.. You'll still have end-grain<->end grain junctions which in theory makes glue failure more likely, you could solve that by glue selection or again using a backer...

The other issue is warping, which again, can largely be resolved by alternating grain alignment and material selection.

I think I'd personally go with a thick (maybe 3/32 or 1/16 or so..) veneer if I'm visualizing roughly what your styling on something like this would be...

 

[Don Baer]

I remember seeing one table that Sam Maloof did with a Chess board built into it but it's been so long I can't recall for sure but I think it was face grain. I did find this online that shows the top of another one he did in 1969 and it appear to be face grain.
https://qa.pbs.org/video/antiques-roadshow-appraisal-1969-sam-maloof-chess-table-chairs/

 

[Mike Stafford]

I have made one chessboard. I used face grain and was careful to align the grain direction for bot h the light and dark squares. The banding surrounding the playing field proved to be more of a problem than the squares as it wanted to restrict the movement of the squares in one direction.

That darn wood movement will get you every time.

P.S. It was suggested to me to use MDF for the substrate because of its stability. It is very stable but the other materials continued to want to move.

 

[Don Baer]

I have made one chessboard. I used face grain and was careful to align the grain direction for bot h the light and dark squares.

interesting you say that because looking closely at Sam's table it would appear to me that he also oriented the direction of the grain of the squares to be the same and just as important important it matches the the direction of the rest of the top.

 

[David Johnson]

Made several chess boards 1 1/4 inch deep. Face grain with walbut and maple aligned in one direction. No problems as far as I know.. I did wonder when I made them about the wood expansion but felt the grain going the samer way would take care of that.
David

 

[Matt Hutchinson]

Hi Rennie,

I own a chess board made by Drueke (a nationally known GR based gameboard company). It's solid wood, about 3/4" thick, and all the grain is face grain running all the same direction. It's made of walnut and aspen. I've had it for 20 years with not an inkling of a hairline crack anywhere.

 

[Rennie Heuer]

Here's where I'm headed - Although I'll share the overall design here now, I will start a new thread when I actually build this.

The table is being built to match the set of Limbert style lamp and coffee tables I built for this client earlier. The inverted heart is taken from the antique chairs he purchased for the chess table. Shown below - hard to see in the pic, they are cutouts in the front stretcher.



Judging by many of the comments in this thread, wood movement in the chessboard may not be as big a concern as I thought. Even so, since my table will be joined in segments so I can't align the chessboard to the table's grain. So, I'm thinking of having the chessboard float in a series of grooves.



The board would be made up to be a finished thickness of 3/4" (the drawing above shows a veneered board, mine would be solid.). The lowest layer in the drawing is a piece of 1'2" plywood. This is there to attach the top assembly to the lazy susan that will allow the top to spin independent of the legs and apron. Still needs a few details, such as that plywood bottom has to extend into a rabbet in the underside of the top segment.