Wooden Chess Sets
Wooden chess pieces can have different characteristics such as color, hardness, density, ease of carving, or a better finish. These characteristics allow for many different types of wooden sets at various prices. Wood is an excellent material for decorative sets.
A wood chess set consists of a board and pieces but the same wood will not necessarily be used for a board and for the pieces. You have many choices of wood that can be hand carved into beautiful pieces.
In all sets you have both light and dark pieces and chessboard squares. In raw wood chess sets, wood with natural light or dark color is used for each square. In coated wood chess sets wood may be stained to produce the required darker color. Wooden chess pieces can be made from a variety of wood.
Wooden Chess Boards can also be made from a variety of woods. Natural light and dark colored wood can be used for the board squares, or dark squares can be stained to provide the dark color.
Wood will normally weigh less then other material. The natural weight of a piece will be no heavier then a single weighted piece but many will be even lighter then that. This means a single piece could only weigh around 20 grams. If you are looking for pieces that are a little heavier then marble or metal pieces would be a better choice.
Selecting a wooden chess set all depends on your taste of wood, the quality you want, and your budget. When buying chess sets the type of wood will be specified and if it’s not then it may mean it's a lesser quality wood. Wooden chess games make great decorations that can easily be taken off the shelf for a great game of chess.
Hand-Carved Pieces
A hand carved chess piece set can be made from materials such as stone, ivory, bone, or even some forms of glass. The earliest authenticated figural chess pieces date around the seventh century and were carved in ivory. However, wooden chess sets is a very popular choice.
There's just something about wood that makes a chess sets extra special. When looking for good quality hand carved chess pieces you want to pay attention to the detail of the pieces. In a traditional Staunton style set the detail in the knight will usually tell you how well the set is carved.
Fine chess sets will most likely be handcrafted chess sets. Carving chess piece patterns takes real skill and the level of skill required normally depends on the material being used.
Different types of wood have different carving qualities and requires the crafter to have knowledge of that wood. Boxwood, Rosewood, and Ebony are some examples of popular woods used for carving. A chess board carved out of wood is usually going to be a hardwood and obviously does not require as much carving detail as the pieces.
Other popular methods for making sets are casting and sculpting. Although even some soft metals such as pewter can be carved, casting is normally used with materials such as metal, plastic or resins such as marble resins.
Ceramic is usually done with sculpting methods. But there's nothing quite like hand made chess sets. Finding one made of good material with a lot of detail in the pieces can hold a lot of value.
Rare Wooden Pieces
Rare Chess piece sets make great chess sets for collectors. A rare chess piece set can come in many forms anywhere from vintage chess sets to luxury chess boards.
Unique chess piece sets can include a vintage wooden chess set, antique jade chess sets, or antique chess boards. You can also find sets made from precious stone. It's not uncommon to find sets made from silver of gold. However, depending on what you want you may need to request a custom made chess set. A chess piece set is out there for everyone's taste.
The earliest authenticated chess pieces found are from the seventh century. It consists of seven miniature ivory pieces including a shah, vizier, chariot, elephant, foot soldier, and two armed horsemen.
Others found include a Iranian 9th century ivory set in block-like form and a set of Isle of Lewis chess men made from walrus ivory that are thought to be from the twelth century and to have originated in Norway.
Like most other things you can find items throughout history but obviously not all are for sale. If you are looking for antique chess sets you can easily find some with some hunting.
The good news is that you can now easily search for sets online.
Learn more about chess pieces.