Ebonized Pieces Suck...

Years ago, chess sets were predominantly black and white, with a painted red set here and there. Now that we have a lot more options, with all the various rosewoods and padauks, does anyone find their color preferences shifting from the ebony/ebonized sets to those with brown and reddish hues?

For years I yearned for an ebony chess set. When I started collecting in earnest about a year ago, one of the first sets I bought was this ebony BCC (British Chess Company) repro set from HoS (via eBay).

Since then, I've added an additional dozen or so sets, two of which are ebonized. All the remaining sets are either sheesham, rosewood, bud rosewood, blood rosewood, African padauk, or red sandalwood.

Although I still enjoy my ebony/ebonized sets, I find myself, more often than not, playing with the brown and red hued sets. So much so, I now prefer them, even to the 'real' ebony. If I had my druthers, I'd even-swap my BCC set for the blood rosewood version shown below. It's funny how our preferences can shift when our options are so greatly expanded.

Blood Rosewood is very sharp and different than Bud Rosewood.  But then there are many types of Rosewood.

Here is an intertesting article I found.

http://news.mongabay.com/2012/0411-hance_rosewood_thai_cambodia_border.html

On the thread topic people forget that the Liberty set by Pinney is stained black and lacquered.  HOS duplicated this set and has no more.  Lardy sets, although I find them boring, were also stained and lacquered for the most part.  I love that 40's and 50's look of the Liberty set and wish someone would duplicate it once again. 

True, preferences shift over time, sometimes quickly. I always liked black pieces, but lately started looking at natural brown woods for the black pieces. I'm thinking of a "Russian Zagreb" in shesham and boxwood from CB (thanks a lot this forum for getting me hooked).

ofircohen16 wrote:

All this talking about how expensive ebony is makes me feel like kind of a douche because I have an ivory chess set.

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Imho an all Ivory Staunton is the ultimate... Now an all Ivory Dubrovnik would surely be the bomb... Wouldn't that be something ! Incidently that blood rosewood set is a beauty. Gorgeous wood :)

I bought an Ebony set from Don Oswald and his company, The Chess House back in 1990.  After a year and a half, it developed cracks on a number of pieces.  That put me off of that wook.

I then went to Rosewood and Dreuke.  In 1998 I was ruined and found Frank Camaratta and his House of Staunton.  Talking with Frank made me feel better.  While he worked a lot on having a high quality and good Ebony, he didn't disagree at all with me wanting Rosewood.  In fact he agreed quite a bit.

At about that time, I realized I liked the color of the Rosewood better than the Ebony.  I liked, and still do, the grains and different shades of the pieces.  And the Rosewood does darken with age.  So I have stayed with Rosewood ever since.

My nicest set is the HOS Morphy Series 4.0" in Blood Rosewood.  It is gorgeous, and arguably nicer looking than Ebony.

I did buy 2 Noj sets, Dubrovnik 1950 II and Best Chessmen Ever, with Walnut as the dark wood.  Note that they say on their site that it is European Walnut.  That wood and/or those pieces of both sets are incredibly tough.  I also really like the Brown of the Walnut.

I am guessing the harder the wood the easier it might be to delvelop cracks when turning or carving that you can't even see till you have it for a while. You can see by the chart any type of rosewood is much softer than ebony. 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Janka_hardness_test

Real ebony turns from a dark chocolate colour to black. Weird, eh?

I'm 100% certain some Dubrovnik enthusiast would scathe your for your choice of ebony Dubrovnik rather than the 'real' walnut (or whatever) of the original, and roll his eyes at your insolence. :) 

Maple and walnut.

I agree, some people just wanna have everything ebony, it can get to a point when it can be repetitive and even boring. lol.

What...? I didn't say anywhere or anything about a ebony Dubrovie ??? Most know I own a Noj maple and walnut. Anyway, to repeat I did say an all real ivory Dubrov would be really something. Obviously I don't think we'll see that made anytime soon....

'Bony! 

My very first set, gifted from my grandmother when I was maybe 12yo, is a very inexpensive ebonized boxwood set. It has seen a LOT of hard play over the years as it was the only set I owned for probably the first 30 years of my playing. Other than the dings and dents of hard use, the coloring still looks as good as the day I got it, which is now almost 50 years ago.

There you go!

I think we can conclude that ebonized pieces do not suck.

I used to get either Ebony or Ebonsed pieces in the past. Now I have a proclivity for Brown to dark Brown pieces for black.

There is a lot of problems with the availability, quality and selection of chess sets. I will make any type of set you want but I will not sell ugly or damaged sets as "vintage". The pieces don't actually fight so should not be compromised in any sort.

Ebonized pieces suck but ebony ones crack. Between the devil and the deep blue sea!

Are they just not being made with the same quality as before?  I have an old staunton style set from the 70s and they have held up incredibly well.  Pretty sure it’s ebonized.    I’ve read a ton of threads about the black chipping off on new sets.

I will admit though that the black pieces on black squares are much more difficult to see.     But I don’t think the red or brown pieces would look right on my Beige and black table.    If I were to buy another board I would definitely go with Rosewood/Maple/walnut/ etc for dark squares for sure.

Do ebonized pieces 'suck' because of their poor quality or simply because they're black?

Personally, I've never experienced cracking with any of the ebonized sets that I've owned. In fact, I own an ebonized Dubrovnik set from House of Staunton that's of such high quality that you couldn't tell it wasn't ebony. After collecting a number of ebony and ebonized sets, I realized that I much preferred natural wood tones like rosewood, Sheesham, and padauk instead. So, though I may or may not sell my remaining ebonized sets, I won't be buying any more ebony or ebonized chess sets.

Typically I never liked ebony because it was so dark and I did not like the brown spots in it. I have liked ebonized oak for furniture for a modern look and like the ebony or at least the idea of it for chess sets because that's a popular use for it. I think sheesham means Indian rosewood in English and are the same wood. There are many woods that look nice in chess sets, I am not partial to a particular type. I would probably have an ebony and blood rosewood set,as they are the two woods for chess sets that are highly revered.