Chess Piece Restoration

All,

I start with the wisdom of our friend HermannJohn saying the ‘golden rule of antique restoration: ‘don’t’!’ 🤓 Absolutely correct! So okay, now that we’ve put that behind us, I’ve been looking for threads here on the topic - I know I’ve seen a couple of especially good ones, but can’t get my search matrix to pull them up……. I seem to remember one in particular from Chuck Grau with photos of the various stages?

I’ve refinished a lot of boards, but have only ever ‘touched up’ pieces. I’ve just acquired an average Soviet set and *think* I may refinish it. I have all manner of abrasive devices from jewelers files to Scotchbrite pads and anything else in the category (short of a sandblaster) - all manual hand tools.

Besides abrasives, I’m exploring solvents and possibly strippers (I do worry admittedly that having a stripper by my work bench won’t help with focus or a steady hand - advice welcome!).

Two concerns are: a) stain may be deep in the wood, so getting to a clean surface may be limited, and b) I want to ensure crisp lines are maintained on the pieces and are not softened/dulled by the abrasives (and shakey hands).

If anyone has a few minutes to share experience and advice, I’d appreciate it.

If this were mine, I would want to keep it as it is. If I wanted to play with this style o f chesspieces, I would buy a new copy of this set. Of course, this is my opinion. I would only consider restoration if the pieces were broken ( with missing parts) or if the set had missing pieces.

You might contact Rom Fromkin at ivoryrepair@yahoo.com for ideas and opinions. See his website here.

It doesn't get any better than the knights you've got. A clear case of Herman's rule! I happen to have the same kind of set, and while my knights are of a desirable type, your knights are of a rarer type- and very beautiful. Mine is more beaten and I play it everywhere. This 'Latvian-Mordovian' style is very playable, a joy to play, imho. Yours is still good, you wouldn't play it everywhere or carry it around in your rucksack like I do, but you could keep it as it is and keep playing chess with it like it has always been played. Please excuse me for giving a dumb answer. You did quite explicitly ask for interesting restoration tips. But, rejuvenation would bring a loss of structure. And I don't see anything to restore Okay, you want to restore the finish, and it is a beautiful set worth every effort. But even if you succeed, it will be hard to come out better than it is.

@Ungewichtet, I did ask because I very much appreciate this forum and the expertise here. No need to ask a question if you’ve already decided on an answer, right? And you certainly are among those whose opinion I respect most.

I haven’t decided yet whether to go ahead. Your perspective is persuasive and has weight. Thank you! 

@GrandPatzerDave

Appreciate the help! I will follow up. Thank you!

Mine is a finder's perspective rather than a maker's. Want to say I do not want to discourage you at all, and I'd love to see a time machine version from your hands. Just that we can't have it both ways and if I'd have to choose I'd enjoy the patina. (This is how they come to look like and you have got one of these rare specimen)!

Post a photo of the whole set, if you can, please! Is it a small one or a big one? Is it stamped? Thank you!

Fantastic, a best possible last addition to a collection. Thank you for sharing

Gorgeous! A careful clean is always a great start, but nothing will convert my shabby set into that Dubrovnik set! Of course, I still have a wife! 😁

I think the patina is beautiful and would not alter it. But it’s your set to do with as you please. I saw more conventional early '50s Mordovian set Porat Jacobsen refinished in vivid red shellac, and it looked absolutely stunning. You will lose the unique patina and its historical signature, but there is no denying that you could achieve amazing results.

But if you insist, I’ve used Citristrip with good results. It’s a paint stripper that is a lot safer and more gentle than many other paint strippers out there. I cover the chess pieces in the gel, put them in a container, cover them with plastic wrap, and then leave them overnight. If you find out the gel dried out, use some more gel to reactivate the stripper. Then use a toothbrush or something like finer steel wool to scrape the varnish off, and clean the pieces under warm water (which is what I did) or probably better yet mineral spirits.

In my case, the pieces still looked a bit stained, so I ended up repeating the process one more time and lightly sanded the pieces with 500 grit sandpaper. But especially if you're going to refinish the pieces in red, I think it’s unnecessary to remove the staining of the wood. Below is the result of a white and black knight I stripped and sanded.

Oh something else I just thought of. Do you want a completely pristine finish, or are you just unhappy about some of the inconsistent discolorations like on the queen's crown and the bishop's miter?

If it’s the latter, I would recommend an artistic restoration that will give you that consistency without sacrificing the traces of time completely. Alan Power does beautiful work with Soviet sets that could use a little something to give them back their splendor.

Thanks all for the responses (and photos). Although I have not decided, I am strongly persuaded in the direction of cleaning, perhaps refelting.

It's a crime in my eye's , If you want a nice clean polish set then buy a Repro ?

Most of the time the set need's a good clean , Then after half this , it's, basic wood working skill's to bring the set back to it's glory ? Unless you have broken parts ?

I mean you need to keep it's history , Not some pig in poke ?

As the patina hold 's the DNA in time , Maybe it's a European way of looking at Art ?

Not clean & polish , It must have a life of it's own + the scars of history .

That 's my take on it > 👁️

Very well said.

The only thing I can think of for restoration is to add felts at the bottom to avoid further scratching or similar issues with different boards. Besides, a basic polishing might help add a bit of charm. But since these are termed antique restorations, the scars make them more beautiful as @lighthouse mentioned "Not clean & polish , It must have a life of it's own + the scars of history"

If it were my set I might want to add a bit of shininess, but only to the bits that have lost their original finish. Like the top of that Bishop, for example. But to do so, you'd want to know what the original finish was, of course.

Always happy to add to the confusion and conflicting advice...

Fair, but there are some counter arguments:

1. Most repros don’t do the originals justice. For some reason Indian carvers never do the Mordovian knights justice; only a few Ukrainian chess makers do.

2. Some vintage sets you can get a lot cheaper than what you would pay for modern reproductions. So for some it could make more sense financially to buy an old set and get it refinished as opposed to getting a repro.

3. One may want a pristine-looking set which is nevertheless a historical object.

4. There is also something to be said for bringing a historical set back to the state it was intended to be.

5. I understand the traces of time argument, and in this case I think the patina is really beautiful. But some very old sets do look quite pristine, especially when they have just been stored in a box for years. I’m not sure one would say such a set is less desirable, although this could be subjective. It nevertheless endured the passage of time. Traces of time could mean many things, including restorations it experienced along the way. I’m guessing we would find it easier to appreciate a restoration that was done decades ago than a contemporary one though; it’s easier to see such a thing as part of the history of the set. I personally find it quite poetic to see ourselves as part of those traces of time, whether we choose to restore a set, contribute to the traces by playing with the set, or even contribute to the patina by smoking around it or handling it with greasy fingers.

6. I think the argument to keep an old finish is potentially stronger now. Eventually a finish is likely going to deteriorate beyond what we could appreciate. I bought a rare 1951 mini Mordovian which has flaking varnish (see photo below). I find the patterns created by the flaking really attractive, so I will just add a layer of transparent matte lacquer to seal everything and prevent further flaking.

But what you see here is a snapshot of an ongoing process. I also bought a rarer 1949 mini Mordovian, which has lost most of its varnish (see below). It’s not yet in my possession, so I will make up my mind later about whether I want to keep it as it is or refinish it, but I’m leaning towards the latter.

I imagine this is more or less the end point of many of these sets. In 50 years from now, will chess collectors of vintage or antique sets have many of these bare sets with the finish mostly lost? I’m curious if you see justification to apply shellac with an authentic process to sets like these, or do you see the lack of varnish as a consequence of the passage of time that should be left intact?

I don’t necessarily disagree with your arguments by the way. I’m aligned with them most of the time. But I think the choice to restore or refinish is a highly personal one, mediated by different motivations and considerations. I’m not quite sure why it would offend us what someone else chooses to do with their set to get the most enjoyment out of it.

On the other hand though, Mordovian sets—at least the early ones—were made through forced labor in Gulags, so I do think we shouldn’t be blasé about our choices, and give it the consideration it deserves.

hello wondering if someone can help identify this set

@WandelKoningin I think you're making the right decisions about restoring your sets. There's no point in preserving something that you regard as ugly (unless it has some sort of historical significance).

It's not like you're taking a belt sander to the Ark of the Covenant.

I also like that idea of clear-coating over the flaking paint - you've made a rat-rod chess set there. It's gorgeous.