Backgammon board

[MaxyG]

First time I have posted on a public forum so please bear with me. I am a cabinet maker and have no real experience of working with leather but have a commission to make a backgammon set out of walnut with a leather board surface. I therefore have a number of questions:

1. What would be the best type of leather to use to get a nice even surface using three different colours (one background colour and two colours for the alternating spikes). 

2. Do I need a splitter or should I be able to buy the three leather colours in a uniform thickness?

3. What is the best glue for gluing the leather to an mdf substrate

4. I want to get very precise cuts for the alternating spikes (basically elongated isosceles triangles) and was thinking this might best be done with a shaped cutter. Does anyone know where I might buy such a shaped cutter and, if not, does anyone have any recommendations as to how I cut the triangles and get nice neat points at the top of each so that I end up with tight fitting joints and a uniformly flat surface?

5 what would be a good finish for the leather which I guess needs to be relatively hard wearing to allow for the counters to move over the surface and for dice to be constantly thrown on it. 

As you can probably tell from the questions, I really don’t have any prior knowledge of working with leather so any help would be most welcome.

Max

 

[Northmount]

I would use vegetable tanned leather, 7 to 8 oz (7/64" to 8/64").  I would do it as a single piece and do a bit of tooling to lay out the lines, then dye the spaces the colours you want.  Glue it down to the MDF with a good grade of contact cement.  There are various lacquers available for sealing and protecting leather.

Clicker dies can be made to order for any shape, but that adds a lot of expense to a one time project.

To tool the lines, you dampen the leather, allow it to return to about normal colour, then scribe the lines with a ball-point stylus (not sharp!).  Could use an old ball point pen that is definitely out of ink.  Various leather dyes are available at Tandy, or Springfield Leather, and other suppliers.  I would use spirit based dyes.  They must be allowed to dry for about 24 hours and well buffed to prevent smearing when adding the finish.  Finish could be sprayed using an air brush.  Reduces the chance of smearing. 

You can research more info on each topic above for more details.  Good luck with your project.  I've been thinking of making a round pedestal game-board/table for checkers and chess for some time.  When I do, I will inlay the leather so its edge is even with the wood.

Tom

[fredk]

I make game boards covered in leather. I have made a few backgammon boards in my time.

1. Make sure your base wood board is sound and well seasoned. Any shakes, wind or not being well seasoned will leave you with a leather covered piece of firewood

2. Veg tan leather, minimum of 2 to 3mm thick

3. Normal contact adhesive. Put onto wood base mostly, use very, very little on the leather. Too much on the leather and it will seep thru. I seal the wood / MDF with PVA glue first

4. Apply leather to wood base and roll over it with a rubber brayer. Press just hard enough to get the leather stuck down, not too hard or the leather might stretch - which you do not want. Work from centre outwards, towards corners and edges

5. Allow the board / leather glue joint cure for at least 36 hours.

6. Draw the gaming area directly onto the leather using templates and a sharp pencil. You need 12 points down each side, separated into 6 + 6 with a 'doubling' bar in-between plus a bar between the opposing 6s

7. I use a wood carvers V chisel along with a guide to gouge out a V line between the points and the other leather. For backgammon points, make a small indentation at the apex of the point first, then the chisel will stop at it and not over run leaving you with a cut X at the apex. I use a steel ruler as guide and I do one line at a time, doing all lines which lie in one direction, then the other direction, I never do one full point, then the next etc.

8. I use regular alcohol based Fiebings dye to dye the points. I thin the dye 1:1 and use a small paint brush to apply the dye. Several coats are usually needed to build up colour depth. After application of the dye and a decent drying time ~ about 48 hours ~ I apply several coats of Resolene to the coloured points. Its up to you if you want to dye the doubling bar as well. I do it a 'natural' colour darker than the rest of the leather - next step

9. With the points done and dry I wipe on 'antique-ing' cream dye, then wipe off the excess, leaving antique in the V grooves. I leave this to dry for about 3 to 7 days. The antique finish gives the leather a nice toned colour. It is the favourite of my buyers; they don't like the too even coverage of dye. The resolene on the points protects their colour from the antique-ing. The same basic process for applying a dye

10. After the 3 to 7 days [7 days cos I just might forget about the board] I apply a beeswax-neatsfootoil mixture. Its a hard mix with carnauba wax in it. I apply this and heat melt it in then buff the leather up with a buffing brush and rag.

Job done

My son still plays chess regularly on a board I made him about 15 years ago

Edited October 27, 2018 by fredk

[Northmount]

@fredk I like your idea of gluing the leather to the board before doing any work on it.  Good solid base.

Tom

[MaxyG]

@Northmount and @fredk - thanks so much for the advice - lots for me to go on there. I think I will experiment with your suggestions and see how I go. Thanks so much for your help. 

[robs456]

19 hours ago, MaxyG said:

I really don’t have any prior knowledge of working with leather

From reading your post it seems like you should find a proper leatherworker to handle the leather portion of the project. The cost should be about the same or less than all the specialized tools you need to procure.

Unless you see this as a chance to get into leatherworking big time, of course.