Hey /diy/nosaurs, I'm looking for a bit of advice. I'm

African blackwood or ebony for black and maple or something like lilac for white.

Shop around a bit for exotic dowel stock.
http://www.bellforestproducts.com/wood-dowels/

Try to find rubber stamps or make some stencils for the markings.

>>907208
You could buy one type of wood, and simply stain half the pieces.

The two woods you should use are obviously ebony and ivory - they even wrote a song about it it's so obvious.

>>907254
>ivory
>wood

>>907254
When you find a ivory tree you let me know. I hear the grow at the base of rock candy mountain.

>>907208
The traditional wood for chess pieces is boxwood. The black pieces are stained boxwood. It's dense, grain is good for carving, and not prohibitively expensive like ebony. Using box dowels or turning stock, I'm gonna guesstimate the materials cost to be $30-$50 U.S. Comparatively, ebonies would run around 4x that price, so a set of buxus and ebony would cost you up to $125. Mind you, I'm pulling the dowel dimensions per piece out of my ass, so ymmv. Good luck. Sounds like a classy little minimalist project.

>>907208
>would cost
well if you want a chess board for ants like the picture it wont cost much

>>907443

Nice one, currently converting dollars to sterling haha, thanks for your help though. It'll be a few weeks (probs after Christmas) before I get anywhere with this, but keep posted to /diy/ ill post my progress.

I started carving my own set a month ago. Not rushing, but not trying for perfection on my first set. Just going for simple shapes. I'm using 1-1/4" square poplar, and will stain the one side and polyurethane all. I'm planning on building a chess table for this set. I'm also planning on making a steel set that will sit in holes on the board like pegs. The board will fold into a box because I plan on that set being my travel set. I figured the peg system will make it easier for my kids to play on road trips.

>>907254
Also, ivory is kinda illegal to use...

I actually did this myself many years ago, I used English Oak and Scots Pine. really easy to do glued it straight onto some chipboard.

>>907796
depends on when you got it. if you can prove it was harvested before the ban your golden...

they take the keys off of old ass pianos because of this...