Chess board warped

I thought already nobody would react to the thread, thanks a lot!

Everything depends on why the board has warped which includes what its made of.  Wood moves all the time, its the nature of the material.  Solid wood (with a veneer layer) will warp as it dries or absorbs moisture from the environment with the greatest movement happening along the growth rings (timber moves very little along the grain, or over the height of the tree) but changes a lot around the tree, which is why logs split in the way that they do if left out to dry in an uncontrolled environment.  How the wood is cut (flat slices with long sections of growth ring will warp more than pieces where the growth rings run straight through the thin dimension of the piece.  If the board is made of blocks glued together then how it moves depends on how the blocks are arranged and how thick they are.  If the board is made of plywood with a veneer layer then that will only warp if it is mechanically bent, that will not warp by itself unless there is something wrong with the materials.  The usual response to a warped solid piece of wood  in a workshop (that is in equilibrium with its environment's humidity) is to assume that that IS the shape of the wood and making it flat by removing wood or cutting it to remove the worst of the curve (either cutting out wedges or turning the cut piece over to even out the bend), and if its a big piece, you wait and see whether it moves again.  Thats not a great option with a chess board and not something to do yourself.  You might try a mechanical approach if its not solid wood or blocks.  I'd worry about putting stress on the glue joints in a block-based board.  If you have a warped veneer board then weighting it down might help a bit.   How bad is it?  can you deal with the problem by evening out the underside and leaving the top alone?

• 
  theendgame3 wrote:

  I like to bump up friends unanswered questions, hopefully people will respond.

  Also an interesting subject

• theendgame3 wrote:

  I like to bump up friends unanswered questions, hopefully people will respond.

  Also an interesting subject

I tried to inform myself. People sometimes said that I should try making one side wet and put wait on the board. I am just afraid to ruin them. Anyway,  I can almost not imagine that this will fix the problem. 

They are both pretty warped,  as you can see in the pictures. I would not make a big deal out of this, but the problem is that they are old and beautiful. One of them has a ring attached to the frame so you can hang it at a wall which is a brilliant idea.

Some interesting things:

1. the boards have warped away from the veneered tops, have the gaps between the squares opened up?  Usually veneer shrinks the side that its applied to, so you find veneer on both sides of whatever is veneered top balance the tension.  What is on the back?

2. both boards are really very warped and both in the same direction, were they made together do you suppose?  

I wouldn't put water on them, old glues are water soluble (damp is bad) and you risk getting water marks in the wood.  It looks like you could unscrew the frame on the one that hangs and see how the board is put together.  

I bought them like this from different sellers. I think I will take them tomorrow to an expert and ask him. If the price is okay I will let him do the job, as I really like the boards and I see them as quite valuable, at least the big one.
 I thought already that humidity would be a bad idea.  If I remember well these are the only boards that I have which are warped like this, and I have a lot of boards. I guess that they had a heavy object on them for a long time, or they were stored in a basement (or perhaps both). Basement is not a good place for chess boards in Switzerland (humidity / cold-hot).

Thats a draughts board on one side and a chess (or 8x8 draughts) board on the other and it looks like its cupped on the chess side and bowed on the draughts side.  Its veneered.  The substrate may just be a thin solid board.  I'm a bit surprised that the frame hasn't popped off but the screws we can see may be there because it did pop off.  If its a solid board core there may not be much that can be done, bending the board back without disturbing the veneer could be awkward.  

I'd be interested to know what he says.  

how did you go with the restorer?

I didn't try. I will bring the board to an specialist and see if he can do.the.job for a good price. Actually I have two old boards with the same problem. 

yes, I was asking about the specialist

Ok. I agree with him to bring the boards,  perhaps I will do this today, as next week everything is closed again because the pandemic.