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This wall chessboard took me two years and about 150 hours to make after hours. The frame is Olive wood from South Africa, while the 64 x blocks consists out of different kinds of wood. Some of the blocks are even wood from fruit trees. I made a list of each blocks's Scientific name, English name and Afrikaans name, which I laminated. I did everything with only a handsaw and sander, because I do not have professional equipment. The frame is also made out of different Olive wood pieces and the dividers where the chess set is standing on, I used perspex. The size of the board is 65cm x 65cm x 6cm and it is quite heavy. The chess set is a cheap plastic set I bought and spray painted afterwards. Because it is handmade, it contains lots of small errors, but maybe it gives it a little character to it. Hope you enjoy it too.

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1,434 Posts
That looks amazing. Great hand work and a clever design too. Well done.
 

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Tx Swirt. I made the top part flat, because that is where I put the pieces that comes off the board while playing, if one wants to play of course…
 

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A totally unique and cool chess board,nice work.
 

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Excellent concept and very well amde …so atractive. I've just got some olive wood too…trying to make something out of it.
 

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Tx Majuvia. As you know yourself, Olive wood is from the same species as the more than 30 Ironwood species worldwide, thus a very hard wood. Hard to saw and sand but makes excellent finishes. Hope you make something nice out of it.
 

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Great job, how you win all your games.
 

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Tx Joe. Yes, now I can sit on my couch and study each position for a long time before I play…
 

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Whether a person plays or not, that is a beautiful well crafted piece. Beautiful woods used.
 

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Nicely Done. Been wanting to make one of these for quite a while.

CtL
 

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Tx PaulDoug. Olive wood and Desert Wood is for me the two most beautiful woods out there.
 

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Brilliant idea, really nice work.
 

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Tx Markslawes. In the beginning I had to handsaw the wood stumps into rough planks and ended up with tennis elbow aches and pains in the evenings from all the sawing… I definitely need a power band saw, but on the other hand it keeps me fit…
 

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Wonderful job! Been planning on making one of these for a while now, but not quite that fancy!
 

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Is the perspex inset into dados between the squares or just flush with the face of the board?
 

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Tx Drbyte. Because I did not want to make the sides 100% square, I could sand the sides with the wood pieces I had… from there the curves. Saves some time on that and something else for a change.

I started off with MDF compressed wood for a base, then I glued the different blocks onto that, but left space between each row of blocks, where I fitted the perspex. The 64 blocks is about 1cm thick, thus it holds the perspex quite sturdy.

Once I finished with the interior (also put a layer of resin on the blocks), I started to add the outside frame.
First I fix the four corners, so that I have a sort of alignment for the rest of the blocks and then add each block in between.
 

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Hi Pieter, baie geluk man, baie netjiese stukkie werk. Dis die 1ste keer wat ek so skaakbord sien, sal dalk self later een probeer maak. Is daai olive wood olyf hout in Afrikaans, kom dit van 'n olyfboom?
 
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