Completed primitive chess set. Lanier Graham type chess set

[rafairchild2]

Lanier Graham type chess sets are my favorite "modernist"/"minimalist" design.

This set is more for outside use, on larger squares. I am still figuring out what I want to use as a board. The one displayed is for the smaller, more formal pieces I make. The pieces all fit together into a rectangle so I can make a box for all pieces to make it portable.

Now the technical part.

The dark pieces came out much better. I could mess with the light, but this is supposed to be primitive, not perfect.

I tried a new/different wood supplier for my 1.5^2 x 12", stock for my compound cutting. Needless to say, the wood quality, consistency of cut and uniformity of wood, were less than desired in comparison to Ocooch hardwoods products, my usual go-to source. Less expensive is not always better...

Because of that, I could not use this stock for my regular projects. I saw an idea for a "Primitive" cut chess set and decided, I could use this stuff and get something that might look cool, and can be my grandsons first chess set. Basically, this is just a fancy set of blocks, they can take a beating and will look better as they age and get dings and dents.

I used Canary Wood for the light pieces and Walnut for the dark. Cut with a Pegas #10 skip tooth blade since all the lines were straight. I usually use a #3 or #5, when doing lots of turns and detail work. Of course, it is a free hand cut on my 30" Pegas scroll saw.

Side note: After laying things out, I realized I can create a pattern that cuts one side of the board pieces from a single piece of wood for light, then one for dark. Now, the above set is 1.5^2 for the base, so they are chunky. As you can see on my traditional board, they fill the squares tight. If I use a 3/4 thick piece of wood, I can cut from a 4x6" slab. Smaller pieces, portable and will fit more paying boards.

I need to do some tweaking on a couple canary pieces, but overall, for having crappy wood to start this came out looking pretty good.

The total time was about 6 hours. This is measuring and scribing the lines with my mechanical pencil, vs doing a glued-on pattern, cutting, sanding on the belt sander and finishing with Danish Oil.

Your thoughts? Something you would like to have as a portable set, that can take a beating?

EDIT TO ADD: For you chess purists out there. This is my shop board. I use it to visualize and take photos. I am still deciding what type of board I am going to do for these. I am not totally happy with this set, in particular the canary wood. So, I might just use a silicone roll up board for this one (outside use and young kids). It will have 2x2 squares, so that gets the 75% fill.

Edited September 22, 2025 by rafairchild2

[rafairchild2]

Lanier Graham type chess set is displayed at the Museum of Modern Art in NYC.

Makes me want to design a set of my own and see if i can get it into a MOMA by me.

[heppnerguy]

First time I have seen a Chess set like this one. It is easy to tell what the pieces represent too. Way to go.

Dick

heppnerguy