Veneered Chessboard

It’s easy to create a veneered chessboard with an inlay accent, using a minimal number of tools.

- Scott Grove

Everyone loves a beautiful chessboard, and this project makes a perfect gift for playing or a fun charcuteries board. Plus, it’s a great adult-child project. You can also use these skills to increase creative possibilities in any woodworking project. In this article, I will review this easy process, walk through it step by step, and show how to avoid and overcome possible pitfalls.

Overview
The chessboard pattern uses eight strips of contrasting veneer. Typically, a board is 12" x 12" square and each check is 11/2". Eight 11/2" squares equal 12". Often there is a perimeter border to frame in the field of play.

The board is made by cutting and seaming eight strips of veneer together and alternating the contrasting colors to a 13" x 13" panel. (I make the board oversized first—more on that later). Then I recut the striped panel into eight more pieces at 90° to the seam. Retaping the newly cut pieces and rotating every other strip 180° yields a chessboard. Viola! Add some inlay and a perimeter veneer border with a waterfall edge and you have a woodworking project that is truly spectacular.

Why Veneer?
Wood veneer has many advantages over hardwood:

• Typically, when a highly figured tree is discovered during the cutting (felling) process, it’s sent to the veneer plant because it will yield a higher price. For example, an average 17" diameter by 10' long log yields approximately 200 board feet. That same log cut into veneer generates 10,000 square feet.