When you get a lathe, turning a chess set gets considered. Every piece can be turned - fairly plane or as complicated as your turning skills permit - except the knight. They require some carving - and that seems too tricky. So turning a chess set doesn't get on the To Do List.
But if you've got a bandsaw, or scroll saw, a lot of the carving grunt work can be eliminated with some planning.
Or you could turn one that looks like this
Seems like a creative guy like you could do it, Charlie..
Maybe undercut it like a mushroom and trim off one side??
3 sides? hmm... living in 3d and thinking in 1d...mac
Please remove splinters before emailing
"William Noble" wrote: (clip) books show how to turn the horse's head on a kinght - it's a
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ It shouldn't be too hard to generate your own template. Imagine the finished knight spinning in the lathe, and make a template that removes everything outside the ghost image. After turning to this template, carve or saw off any wood that isn't *knight.*
I like it!
I can carve, as I was doing that long before I ever got a lathe, but I wasn't able to keep my interest level up long enough to get more than
1/2 way through a set. (Turning all the pawns is what did me in) Maybe I'll give it another try.As an additional quick carving tip, if it's not obvious, the cross on top of the king can be turned as a wheel and axle on the top, and shaped with a chisel to make it a cross very easily.
Charlie investigate "ring turning" A German method used to make toy animals you basically cut the profile of the desired animal in a ring on the lathe and then cut out radial slices for the animal shape. You should be able to get a few dozen knights out of a 12" ring.
While I understand the concept, 1. my JET VS mini (or is it a midi?) only has a 10" swing 2. my abilitiy to visualize, let alone cut, the neccessary profile are in the realm of possibilities, the probability is pretty low 3. it's sort of like scratching your left ear - with your right foot. Leave it to the Germans to take something difficult to do, and making it extremely difficult to do. 4. I'm looking to make the knight in one piece - bottom turned, horse cut/carved with as little hacking and hewing as possible.
But thanks for the suggestion
charlie b
"charlieb" wrote: (clip) 4. I'm looking to make the knight in one piece - bottom
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Find a knight that you like. Mount it in a chuck by the base (horse head pointed toward tailstock. Set it spinning. Take a photograph by room light with a slow shuitter speed (don't use strobe.) Use the photograph, which will show a blurred envelope/ghost image to turn your knight. Carve away what it takes to reduce it to a horses head.
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