64 Great Chess Games - Board Numbers 4 thru 9

Series Title: 64 Great Chess Games (Chess Boards)

Background:
Having finished boards 1-3, it was time to turn my attention to boards 4-9. Naturally these will be a little different than boards 1-3. :-> Boards 4,5,6 are PurpleHeart/White Maple for the squares and boards 7,8,9 are Mahogany/Walnut or Ipe/Mahogany for the squares. The purpleheart/white maple combination is turning out quite nice. I will probably use this combination in the not too distant future.

Ipe is a really, really hard, dense and heavy wood. It's at the top of the chart on the Janks Hardness scale. Ipe adds some real weight to the board too.

As you might imagine, chess boards involve a lot gluing. Each Chess board I make goes through 8 separate glue-ups. Glue ups #1-4 are for gluing the 64 squares. Glue up number 5 is the bottom of the board. I don't put felt on the bottom of my chess boards. I use another hardwood for the bottom, typically cherry, oak or mahogany, that is pretty light in color. I do this so I can write a bunch of stuff on the bottom, specifically all the chess moves from the board from the Famous Chess Game your board is named after. Glue ups #6-8 are for the 3 borders that are found on each board. Each border is glued up separately and is successively thicker than the previous border. The outer most border is mitered (45 degree angles) on the corners.

Starting with board #10, I will start making the Chess boards tournament legal. Currently boards 1-9 are made with approximately 1 3/4" squares. Starting with board #10 in the series, I will make the squares 2 1/4" inch.

How to tell if you just bought the 100th Enumero Cribbage Series Board

Hopefully, the person who purchases the 100th series board will notice that instead of conventional brass pegs, their board has come with a set of Austrian style Cribbage Pegs. They have finally shipped and should be arriving at the Enumero Cribbage World Headquarters soon. They will be included in lieu of the normal cribbage pegs at no charge. I will also write a little something on the bottom of the board as well to denote this milestone as well.

We picked up a new link - Cribbaholics Unanimous.

If you check out the FAQ (question #4) you will see I have made or will be making (eventually) 19 types of Crib and Chess Boards. Chess boards only account for 2 types of boards, the other 17 types are cribbage boards.

Just for fun, I added a new section highlighting some very interesting Cribbage Patents.

My inbox is catching a lot more SPAM these days. Google mail is really good at automatically filtering out the junk mail, so my inbox stays clean and I can eagerly anticipate incoming board orders.

If paying with Paypal is not your thing, I will gladly accept a Personal Check or USPS Money Order. Just email with what you'd like to buy and I will set your board(s) aside. And don't forget - I will gladly ship outside the US of A.

The Apollo Lunar Modules - 9 Boards

Series Title: The Apollo Lunar Modules - 9 Boards

Background: I did a series on the Apollo Moon Landing Missions, so as a follow up, I'm doing a series on the Lunar Modules, the very thing that carried 2 astronauts to and from the moon. The full LEM was actually quite heavy. The ascent/descent modules together weighed over 32,000 pounds. The most famous of the LEM's was probably Aquarius (aka LM-7) from the Apollo 13 Mission. Aquarius was the life raft that enabled NASA Engineers to get the 3 astronauts home by sling-shooting them around the moon and back to earth.

9 Boards:
LM-3 Spider, Apollo 9
LM-4 Snoopy, Apollo 10
LM-5 Eagle, Apollo 11
LM-6 Intrepid, Apollo 12
LM-7 Aquarius, Apollo 13
LM-8 Antares, Apollo 14
LM-10 Falcon, Apollo 15
LM-11 Orion, Apollo 16
LM-12 Challenger, Apollo 17

8000 Meter Peaks Series II

Series Title: 8000 Meter Peaks Series II

Background:
The original 8000 Meter Peak Series I had 12 boards and were all made from a single piece of wood. I wanted to make all 14 boards from this single piece of wood, but I simply ran out. So...I finally got around to finishing the peaks with these 2 boards.

2 Boards:
K2
Gasherbrum II

A Seven Course Meal of Extinct Candy Bars

Series Title: A Seven Course Meal of Extinct Candy Bars - 7 Boards

Background:
The title of this series is probably a little confusing at first glance so allow me to explain. These are pretty big (and heavy) boards. They are Pedalis style boards made from at least a board foot of cherry or walnut lumber. The pegs for these boards (Miller Dowels) that come with the boards are made from the same woods as the board is - Cherry, Walnut, Purpleheart, Ipe & Mahogany. Before I drilled the holes, I thought they looked quite a bit like a big chocolate bar. So...I thought of Candy Bars. But not just any Candy Bars. I chose extinct Candy Bars (those that are no longer manufactured), that you could make a 7 course meal from.

7 Boards:
Brown Pudding
Chicken Dinner
Club Sandwich
Cold Turkey
Denver Sandwich
Lobster Patty
Milk Shake

Updates & Changes as I Approach the 1 Year Anniversary of Selling Boards

There are a few updates & changes as I approach the 1 year anniversary of selling boards on the Web. I'm really close to my 100th series board, so to celebrate the milestone, I will be doing something a little special for that board (assuming the Austrian Jeweled Cribbage Pegs I ordered ever show up!)

A quick summary:

• Curto Style Board Introduced (a very small board with a small price- $10.00). See the "Fictional Elements of the Universe Series I".
  
• I've settled on 19 styles of Crib and Chess Boards. (see FAQ - Question #4). Not all of them have been made yet.
  
• I accept checks or USPS Money Orders. Not everybody likes to use Paypal and other forms of payment, such as a Check or USPS Money Order are fine. Hopefully, the Nigerian Scammer crowd doesn't play cribbage. Email if you want to pay Check or USPS Money Order and I can set your board(s) aside till payment arrives.
  
• I now charge a reasonable amount for shipping/handling and packaging of boards. $6.00 for 1 board, $8.00 for 2 boards, $10.00 for 3 boards, etc.
  
• I ship internationally.
  
• Paypal now supports a myriad of different shipping options. Shipping will NOT show up in the cart, unless it's a Chessboard. Shipping charges will show up at the final checkout, similar to the way 99.9% of other Web Vendors work.
  

Fictional Elements of the Universe - 10 Boards

Series Title: Fictional Elements of the Universe - 10 Boards

Background:
I usually make big and/or fairly heavy cribbage boards. This series is a slight departure and is a series of smaller boards that are fairly small and fairly light. This series is also a new type of board, "Curto", which is a Latin approximation for shortening or abbreviating. So you can play a very abbreviated game of cribbage if you want! I considered naming the boards after small sub-atomic particles, but that seemed a little heavy handed. I came across "Fictional Elements of the Universe" on Wikipedia and that just seemed right!

10 Boards:
Bazoolium: Doctor Who - A gold-coloured metal that can predict the weather.
Beerium: From the movie "Young Einstein"
Froonium: Farscape - A substance created by series producer Richard Manning while he still worked on Star Trek to represent any esoteric material. Appeared in Farscape as an in-joke in several episodes. Manning's Fandom nickname is "Froonium Ricky".
Handwavium: From bad science fiction
Impervium: Donald Duck [Magic: The gathering]
Jumbonium: Futurama
Kryptonite: DC Comics
Nitrium: Star Trek
Randomonium: Scooby Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed
Unobtanium: The Movie The Core (2003)