My X husband was an industrial arts teacher and quite proficient with wood and automotive. He enjoyed playing chess. I had a friend who did ceramics so in 1973 I bought and painted a chess set for him. He then made a box
to house the pieces but never put a sealant on the wood or made the supports for the interior to hold the pieces.
When he left, he didn't take the box. It has sat on a shelf in the basement ever since.
When we were up at Kevin and Dawn's I learned that Ian played chess and DING, I decided to get that box out and see if Pete and I could complete it. We bought some 1/4" birch plywood and cut 4 12" square pieces. It took forever for Pete to decide how to cut holes in two of the pieces so it would hold all of the chess pieces. He had to do two exactly alike and put doweling legs between the layers. The two layers don't look like they line up but it is the camera angle I guess because they do.
Then I noticed there was one 12" piece left over and decided to make a chess board out of it. I covered the board with painter's tape, measured and marked the squares, used a metal straight edge to slice through the tape, and then carefully removed every other tape square with an exacto knife tip. Then I used a stencil paint stick and stenciled the exposed squares with a rust color. I was happy to find when I took all the tape off that the edges were very straight and smooth. I began putting layer after layer of poly on it and the box, steelwooling in between layers. I used a tack cloth and was careful to not leave any dust on it so it turned out very smooth and nice. Then I put a piece of stiff green felt on the back.
I wrote up a big explanation and story of this special chess set for Ian so he would know how much time had passed since Grandpa Lyle had made the box and the work Grandpa and I had put into it, just for him.
Tonight, Ian set about teaching Eliana to play chess. He was surprised at how quickly she picked it up.
