Help with staining chess pieces

Depends on the kind of finish you already have/want on the pieces. If they were originally stained/dyed then the best bet is probably vinegar/steel wool & tea. If they were painted with laquer then auto spray paint may well work but it can be difficult to get an even finish that way. My favourite Chavet set was cobbled together from a number of sets and a few pieces I turned myself. In order to get them all looking the same I used the homemade stain as mentioned. To be fair I can no longer tell which black pieces actually started out as white ones or new turnings.  

Nice job! The set looks great!

Cheers cgrau. I'm fairly pleased with it given the starting point. I'm not an experienced turner so it took me ages (and about two attempts per piece) to turn the few pieces I needed but it was worth it in the end. The ebonizing was easy as long as you have the patience to allow the steel wool to completely dissolve in the vinegar (a week or two) and have felts ready to refelt it. 

Minwax wood finish ebony stain marker...

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B001VRQV5O/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pd_nS_ttl?_encoding=UTF8&colid=3P1A5LZETQJ1U&coliid=I3VZGST9TASBOX

@Audioq, what sort of finish did you use on the white pieces? I've fixed some chips on some white boxwood pieces on one of my sets using wood filler, but don't know what sort of finish to apply - is it varnish or wax or something?

Hi, the white pieces are natural boxwood finish. Most of the pieces were fairly old and probably exposed to light/handling etc so had acquired a honey patina. For the new white pieces I had to turn I gave them a dirty wash with coffee and a tiny dash of turmeric to match the rest of the white side. In terms of shine, european boxwood (buxus sempervirens) doesn't need anything other than a vigourous polish with a very mildly abrasive pad (1000+ grit and then a clean cloth) to buff up. I'm not so sure about the "boxwood" used by indian manufacturers however. I think they use calycophyllum multiflorum a different wood and this might need some form of finish applied to it e.g. woodturners finish, hard wax etc. I think in his video Alan Dewey uses shoe polish to get a good basic shine. I've never used it so I don't know but I'm sure Alan knows what he's doing so that may be a simple way to do it.

I've no idea how any of these will react with wood filler. I tend to use boxwood sawdust and super glue to build up any holes etc and then turn down on a lathe so I'm left with actual wood to sand/finish etc. Again I think Alan has some videos on this under the name chessspy on youtube (that's where I got the idea from). Really interesting videos, even if you're not into turning or repair work. Cheers. Let us know what you decide and how it turns out.

Thanks Audioq, I'll have a look at those videos tonight

Long over-due update: Decided to keep things simple, I painted the tops with black nail polish on the black pieces. It looks neat, will post photos soon.