There were some complications during a recent move, and what was supposed to be in boxes only for the moving truck ended up in a storage unit for over a year. Unfortunately this included by go board, a nice kaya table board I bought back when I had more time and money. It came out slightly warped - it is usable, but doesn't sit quite flat and the surface is visibly not level. Is there any practical way ( I'm in Chicago ) to get the board repaired? I don't imagine there's a huge demand for goban repair around here, but maybe there's somewhere within reasonable shipping distance. Any ideas?

I wish I knew of a place in the U.S. that could help you. The only company I know of that has experience with Kaya and international customers is Mr. Kuroki's shop.

http://www.kurokigoishi.co.jp/english/

His old Japanese site used to have rates for repair and restoration work with prices between $200 - $500 depending on how many sides (and legs) you wanted done and whether the grid needed to be reapplied. It's worth contacting him.

It would probably cost about $150 - $200 to ship the board to Japan and around $300 - $400 to have it returned to you.

Thanks. That's actually where I bought the board from in the first place. It's about the same price to send it back to be fixed as to buy a new board from them of similar quality. I'm hoping someone knows of a more efficient option.

If its not major warping you could just live with it & put some card under a foot to stop the wobbling. Or you could also get someone to plane the surface flat (Im thinking using a router and levelling jig), then a screen printer to reapply the grid - could ruin the board though. Or you could sell the board on and put the money towards a new board.

_________________
I am John. John-I-Am.

You might try putting heavy weight on the board and leave it for a long time (one year?) to see if it would remove the warp of the board. Wood naturally responds to temperature and humidity changes so maybe you could use that to work for you.

One possible way to make the board usable if the warp is to visible and annoying could be to use something soft under the board that would disguise the warp. I use a small mat under the board on the table; a heavy flannel cloth might do the trick.

wouldn't you just plane the bottom of the board, so you wouldn't have to reapply the grid on the top?