Building a Goban
For the surfers beaching here by chance, Go is a game
and has nothing to do with boats!
The Goban is the board used to play
For further details on the game, follow the links
It's easy and much less expensive than buying !!
I've found a piece of Framire wood 9cm thick.
It's a yellow strawcoloured wood, nice pattern (picture) but rather hard to
work with.
It's the best I could find for a goban (no kaya available!!).
Begin with cuttin at the good dimensions.
Plane with an electric planer
(difficult to work with hand planer because the fibers tend to tear off).
Sanding
Sand the faces to have them perfectly flat and smooth.
Finishing
The first thing to do is to have a try on a piece of wood to make sure that the
wood, varnish and ink are compatible.
You will put at leat 3 coats of a good uncolored varnish with sanding between
each.
Sand also the last coat with a very thin grain water sandpaper in order to let
the ink stick on the varnish.
Then draw a few lines with a 1mm tubular draftsman pen.
For the hoshi, you will find easier to use a circlular template.
Let dry and put several coats of varnish with sanding between.
You will also lightly sand the last coat and put wax in order to have nice mat
surface.
"Et voilà!", if, you're happy with the result, do the same with the goban!
for the legs you will cut 4 identical blocks and
glue them.
I've also glued a protection pad under the legs.
That's all, I don't play better but it's even more pleasant!!