I'm intrigued by old games. Obviously, the one most people know is chess, but I'm also interested in some that are older or just more obscure. As someone who makes stuff, these old games also provide an opportunity to make my own set, even for sale, without running afoul of modern IP laws. So, when I started playing the game Hnefatafl, I pretty much immediately wanted to replace the cloth board and resin pieces of my set with something I made myself. This set is the result.
I had just made a really thick, heavy cutting board that I loved, so I decided to make the board for this almost 2" thick, out of maple that I had from that project. I actually had designed the grid/graphics for the board a while earlier and tried various techniques like stenciling or cut vinyl to make a board, but disliked the results.
Then I bought a laser.
I glued up a panel of the maple to get to about as big as I could fit in my small laser's working area. I etched the pattern in and was really excited with the results. It kept the wood grain look while being easy to read, etc.
I have lots of ideas for how to do the pieces, including 3D printing, making molds, cold casting metal resins, etc. I definitely still want to try those things. But, I also wanted at least one set that was simple.
Then I remembered the bog oak I had bought, thinking I'd start turning pens (the lathe sat in the box for 4 yrs. ADHD can be vicious). Bog oak is wood from trees that was preserved in peat bogs for literally thousands of years. What better material for a set to play a really old game than really old wood?
The sets found in archeological digs are often pretty simple, so I decided to just go with basic rectangular pieces. Bog oak for the black pieces and maple for the white. My original intent was to just use boiled linseed oil for all of it, but I had just bought some of the new finishing product Rubio Monocoat that I wanted to try, so we used that on the board and the linseed on the pieces.
For the pieces, I could basically dump them into a bath of the oil and let it soak in and then wipe dry. The Rubio finish is expensive, but does a great job and it takes very little to dover compared to what you're likely thinking.
Overall, I'm really happy how this turned out.
