Woodturning Chessmen (Fox Chapel Publishing) (Darlow's Woodturning) Paperback – Illustrated, May 1, 2008

This is a very interesting work on turning chessmen. I imagine the intended reading demographic is small, but for those who are interested in the concepts of woodturning and making chess pieces, I think this book is the top of the heap. It has very good mock-ups and full photographs. If you are competent with a wood lathe, I think this is the book for you.The book also does a very good history of chess pieces, which is actually a majority of the book. It is a very good read, particularly if you want to think about designing your own set from scratch. It gives you a good guidance on looking at historical sets that could be replicated and expanded on if you were creative.I would warn you, however. I would say that the intended audience is for intermediate woodworkers and above. While there are some rudimentary step-by-step procedures described and pictured, if you are a complete novice and need a comic book-like step-by-step hand holding on how to do every single aspect of turning, this book may be a few steps above you. The author does seem to assume you have basic woodworking skills, know basic terminology and wood lathe operation. It is not overly complex, but I would think a complete novice might be put off. However, even a novice would appreciate the historical overview of the pieces.I gave the book 4 stars for reasons stated in the above paragraph. The historical overview is excellent, but the actual parts of wood lathe operation as it pertains to making chessmen could have been expanded just a bit. I also thought that, given the historical context of the first half, plans could have been included for a few more of historical period pieces. Overall, however, I think it is an excellent text that will certainly spur creativity on the part of the wood lathe operator making chessmen.

I've had my copy of this book about a week and I'll be spending a long time absorbing all the material in the text. My initial impressions are that the author has written very thorough treatise incorporating a short history of chess, the evolution of the design of chessmen, fundamentals of the design process, scaled drawings of several historical reproductions of chessmen, and tips on turning your own sets. This is not a beginners book in the sense that the author doesn't lay out one specific design and takes you through each step in copying that design. Rather, he gives you the tools to create your own designs, examples to copy if you choose, and an appreciation of the history of the game pieces. Plus there are little snippets of info scattered through the text that add to the background information but are clearly not directly needed to make a chess set. The book is a fun read even if you never actually make a chessman.

I am very happy with this book. It is exactly what I was looking for. In contrast to some of the other reviewers I found the history of chess sets very helpful. I really think that to understand the aspects of chess piece design we need to look at what has proceeded us. Besides all that it is just fun to see the evolution of design with a lot of photos of historic chess sets.For myself there was plenty of practical information on the actual construction process. There are also a number of templates for making specific sets. All and all a throughly enjoyable read even if I wasn't interested in the actual construction process.

My only real expectations for this book were picking up a few tips. What I found was much, much more. Even if you are just a chess collector, this book is incredibly well researched and exquisitely detailed. It also provides some fabulous information, tools, and techniques for the artistry required for good design as well as ornamental turning tricks and examples. I had to stop marking the pages that I wanted to refer to because I found that I was flagging all of them. As a side note, I don't consider myself an expert turner by any means. This book (in my opinion) provides more than adequate information for the beginner and intermediate as well as largely experienced craftsmen.

Very informative book. As a history geek I especially enjoyed the information and pictures on the early chess pieces. Now to get my turning skills up to make some of these!

An extraordinary book. Not only is the history of chessmen very well researched and described but the practical knowledge of a modern craftsman takes us back into the 19th century workshops of Europe where the art of chess turning reached its zenith. Compulsory reading for all chess collectors. I can't wait to get my hands on Mikes other books: he is a consummate teacher!

Mike goes into a lot of background detail, which is interesting, but a little overkill. I have made a Staunton design set but could not find the plans and had to draw them myself.I wold like to see a little more info on appropriate weights for various sizes.I used tungsten instead of lead, more expensive but twice the density. Mike did not cover this alternative to lead.Overall an ok book for our club library

Excellent book with many great ideas which was what I was looking to find. If you want a step by step how to turn a chess set this may not be what you want. But if you want examples of many ideas for creating your own set. This is the book to get.

Uitstekend goed boek , als je van schaken houd , prachtig uitgevoerd.Een musthave als je zelf je schaakstukken wilt draaien. Leerzaam en verassend!Bijzonder aan te raden , krijg je gèèn spijt van, en is zijn geld waard.

A thoroughly written book on one specific topic / turning chessmen. The history is fascinating and the sections with diagrams and instructions are detailed and very clear.

it doesn't show how to make the classic Staunton design, would be logical in a book about making chess pieces. Further he goes way to much into the history of chess, almost making the rest of the book feel like an apendix.His descriptions of how to do specific techniques are pretty much lacking, either he doesn't cover it at all or refers to one of his other books....I mostly bought this book for the challenge of making the Knights/horseheads, his Description on how to make them is pretty much: "carve them", no explanation on how to carve them, he just says "carve them". So this book is pretty much a waste of money if you want to learn anything about the actual techniques needed to make chess pieces

Além das orientações de como criar peças de xadrez, o livro aborda, de maneira muito interessante a história da evolução do "hardware" do jogo.

Das Buch (nebenbei in englicher Sprache) bietet viele Informationen rund um Schachfiguren, ihre Entwicklung im Lauf der Jahrhunderte und ihre Herstellung. Verschiedene Figuren- Sets werden als Entwürfe vorgestellt, die man nach Wunsch verändern kann.Auch für die Herstellung der Figuren wird beschrieben und auf die erforderlichen Spann- und Drechseltechniken eingegangen. Bei manchen Sets wird wie zu erwarten auch geschnitzt (--> Pferd).Allerdings: Das Buch ist in meinen Augen nicht als Einsteigerbuch in das Thema Drechseln gedacht, wer hier Schritt- für- Schritt- Anleitungen erwartet, wird enttäuscht werden. Es bietet Anregungen für eigene Projekte.Für mich hat dieses Buch ziemlich genau die Informationen geliefert, die ich benötige, um im Lauf der Zeit ein eigenes Schachfiguren- Set herzustellen.