The original plan called for a folding board, but I decided against it at the last minute. Jared: I'm currently building a spruce table goban. Several folks have said that mine provides the best sound of any board in the club.Īxd: are you talking about the heso, or about the empty space between the legs? The resulting space under the board means that it resonates very well when whacked with a stone (especially my big fat Ing stones). Scartol: I made mine out of yellow pine ($6.99/plank at Home Depot) and added little feet (in my case they are wooden circles from a craft shop, but my pal Matt found some rubber dealies that are even better). For that and other reasons kaya boards are very expensive. However, kaya trees are reasonably rare and they grow very slowly. Kaya has the properties as described above, it is quite soft (nice sound), the colour is light (yellowish) and the grain is subtle. 'Competition' boards, the ones which are in photos of 'Go World', are typically made of the Japanese 'Kaya' wood. Choose a type of plywood that is not too dark. You can get a thin piece of furniture or cabinet grade plywood and sandwich it to cheaper plywood for a thick, good-looking surface. Good quality plywood (not construction grade) is fine for home-made boards, as it is relatively cheap and easy to work with. For aesthetic reasons, the grain should be " masame", i.e. In practice this means that wood is used. A secondary requirement is that the surface colour and texture must be so that the grid is clear, and that the sound made when hit with a stone is pleasant. The main requirement of the material used is that it is durable and does not warp. Nowadays, however, the trend seems to be towards simplicity and austerity. I once played on a board made in Algeria, which was made of leather (pigskin, apparently) stretched out over a wooden frame, with engraved camels around the side and inset pieces of mirror. One can find old boards which were highly decorative, and made to resemble e.g. However, this is not really a requirement. Find an appropriate transport system and be careful who you play with at club.Traditionally, go boards are made of wood. You can lose stones, players may to have any respect for your equipment, spilled drinks, smokers, you can drop your bowls, stones chip if dropped on concrete floors. Taking a set to club is fraught with peril. The edges get dinged, the surfaces get pitted from energetic joseki, the bases get scratched. I have an ancient, slotted Katsura for club and two beautiful objects for playing with friends. I have three or four boards and I stopped worrying about them many years ago. IN Japan, the cover for fine go boards is commonly made of a lightweight wood called paulownia. If you know a woodworker, offer to pay them to make a box that will fit loosely over the board. A towel or decorative weaving works well. Put a resilient or solid cover on it to prevent additional damage from animals or persons other than you. Is this normal with Shin Kaya boards? Is this wood really so soft? Do you guys treat your gobans like they were made out of thin glass or in some kind of tea ceremony level of carefulness? I am scared of moving this thing out of the house but I'd like to take it with me to my local go club some day.ĭents in the edge and corner of my 50mm shinkaya gobanĪny wood will do that. My laptop, for example, is 8 years old, I use it every day and it shows very minor signs of use. I don't usually break stuff and I treat delicate things with care. I consider myself a fairly careful person. During those days the board was laying on the living room table table and at some point I moved it to another table. It is made out of 5 pieces but the joints are very inconspicuous and the wood grain is subtle and nice in everyone of its sides and specially the playing board.Īfter a couple of days I noticed two small dents in the edges that I'm 100% sure there were not there when I received it. When I first got it I was pleased by how beautiful it was for the price. I bought my first 19 x 19 goban in this German website.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |