All our Staunton Chessmen are manufactured by skilled craftsmen in Amritsar, India. This is somewhat known as the ‘home of wooden crafts’ in India and has some of the most popular and renowned companies that supply the major Chess retailers, including Chessgammon. These manufacturers have been in the business since the 1960s.
Our team recently visited these manufacturers to see exactly how the products we provide to our loyal customers are made. We want to ensure that only the best materials, crafting supplies and standards of working conditions are utilised in the making of the beautiful products that we sell.
- The Materials that are Used
- How are Staunton Pieces Weighted
- The Factories and Workers
- The Process of Carving Chessmen
- Polishing and Finishing
The Materials that are Used
Our Staunton chessmen are provided in sets of Sheesham and Boxwood or Ebony and Boxwood. These are the only materials that the Staunton Chessmen are available in on our website. This is the wood type used because it is easiest to turn on the wood turning machine, unlike other solid wood types. Solid Blocks of Sheesham and Boxwood are used, initially cut up into smaller sized blocks and then these are directly placed under wood turning machinery to form the initial shape of the chess piece.
In this video, you can see the artisan skillfully turning over the wood using the machine. The angle of wood turning is what creates the smooth surface of the Staunton chessmen and requires years of training and experience to be able to expertly turn wood in this way.
The wood that is used for the making of these chessmen is dried for 3 months upwards before carving takes place; this ensures that there is no damp in the wood. The moisture would compromise the efficacy of the carving procedure as moisture would make certain sharp carvings weaker and stodgier.
Here we were able to see the storage area for all the solid wood materials used to carve the Staunton chessmen as they were in the process of drying.
How are Staunton Pieces Weighted
Staunton chessmen can be single, double or triple weighted. The pieces used in the FIDE world chess championship are triple weighted and the set itself is unique to the world chess championship.
A small weight is placed within the Staunton chessmen from the base to ensure the stability of the chess piece. Weighted chessmen have many advantages, one of which, is the comfort in movement during the game. Chess pieces are quite prone to toppling over due to their taller stance; this will lead to game disruption, time wasting during blitz games and even damage to the actual chess board itself.
Once a weight is placed inside the piece, the base is fixed and a green velvet overlay is placed over the top.
The Factories and Workers
The Staunton chess pieces are produced in the city of Amritsar, in India. There are countless factories in the city, and it houses some of the finest Indian Craftsmen. These craftsmen would take years to train for this level of skill and are limited in number. Even after training, there is still no guarantee that the craftsmen will be able to carve chessmen that are up to standard. Therefore, finding craftsmen like this is a very difficult task and training craftsmen is always a risk.
We were able to visit a few factories in action and see, firsthand, just how talented these men really were. They used wood turning machines, hand carving tools and a polishing conveyer to produce the final Staunton set. The factories were very large, and each worker oversaw a single particular element of the entire set.
The Process of Carving Chessmen
Each factory produces their own set of carving tools for each type of chess pieces in order to ensure that they remain standardised in every set. The workers use this, the wood turning machines and other basic carvers to produce the pieces.
Once the wood is dried to satisfaction, the process can begin. The large planks are cut into even smaller blocks of wood. This will allow them to turn well on the wood turning machine. Each block is carved into a single chess piece.
Here the artisan can be seen carving a pawn piece from a block of wood placed in the wood turning machine. The process seems fairly simple, however doing it takes a very skilled craftsman. Any slight misstep or movement of the cutter/carver can ruin the entire piece.
The pieces themselves can be carved in just a few minutes, however, there is one particular piece that takes much longer. The knight. The knight piece of a typical Staunton set takes approximately 2 hours to carve and can even take an entire day for particular luxury sets.
The ebonised chessmen are dyed black and dried for 10 days. They are also solid wooden, however, are of the same wood as the original acacia chessmen.
Polishing and Finishing
Once buffed and polished three times each, the chess pieces are assessed for quality control. A chess piece can be carved beautifully but if it isn’t polished properly then the entire set does not meet the Staunton quality standard.
All of the Staunton chess pieces have a glossy, sleek surface; the base of each piece is felted with green felt. This felt will allow them to sit comfortably on the board as well as prevent any damage to the wooden boards after years of play. Staunton chess sets are designed to be long lasting and incredibly durable.
