Refinished Goban (edited for smaller images)

[mymicrometereye]

New to the forums.

I posted a refinished goban in r/baduk and it was suggested I post here as well.

A little backstory. I played Go a few times back in the early 2000s and then it was forgotten about. I recently picked it back up -- and as expected -- I'm horrible because I'm a beginner; but hey, we all start there.

That being said, I found this guy on Ebay (NZ/AUS???) living in Japan who sells -- among other things -- gobans. They tend to be well used, so I picked this one up for $95 (I think) plus about $100 for shipping. It also came with slate and shell stones (yes, a complete set too).

The bottom of the board has some Japanese writing which I had translated (see images).

It arrived in early April, but I was working from home due to COVID-19, so I wasn't able to come into the office until June 1st and *finally* get to see this thing.

I knew the condition wasn't great, but it was usable...then I got the bug.

There were a few decent cracks, gouges, etc.; the finish wasn't in great shape and the lines we a bit wonky, so I said screw it and decided to refinish it.

A very quick overview of what I did:
* Sanded it down with 150 grit sandpaper (the wood smells something like cinnamon and camphor -- so it *could* be Kaya).
* Made it nice and smooth with 320, then 400 grit sandpaper.
* Used some of the leftover sawdust to fill some cracks, dents, etc and put a few light coats of water-based polyurethane on it.
* Stenciled in the lines with pencil
* Finished up the lines with a 1.0 mm microline pen
* Used a washer with a 5.0 mm inner diameter -- which when using the pen -- made perfect 4.0 mm star points.
* Another couple coats of polyurethane on top of that.
* Waxed with Renaissance wax.

Original condition

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IMG_6925.jpg (428.06 KiB) Viewed 12831 times

After the initial sanding

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(More below)

[mymicrometereye]

EDIT: Those images were prohibitively large, so I've edited this post to supply much smaller images.

Sadly, I didn't take any pics of the lines being removed, but it doesn't really matter.

Here are some images of one of the player sides:

Before sanding / after sanding and filling the crack with sawdust (from the sanding process).

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And these are the images of the "finished" project:

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Now, I said "finished" because -- as you may have noticed -- the grid layout was WRONG. At first I was going to leave it as is, but once it was pointed out to me, I couldn't take it, so I'm in the process of refinishing the top with a corrected grid.

[Galation]

Hi,
it's soo ligneous, soo sturdy!

I usually would say tha cracks rouins all the effect, but you did a great work.

I used Reinassance wax too on my new japanes goban as a conservative treatment to prevent damages and worked fine.
What I don't really like of it, is that the wax have not the shiny polished finishing as other waxing have (e.g. carnauba or similar) and as the goban have when I bought it from Kuroki Goishi.

What do the writing on the bottom of your board says? I'm really curious.

Thank you for sharing!

[bogiesan]

Welcome to the forum and thanks for the post.

[mymicrometereye]

As for the bottom of the board:

IMG_7027.jpg (346.01 KiB) Viewed 12678 times

[bogiesan]

Here's the bottom of my 30-40 year-old, 2" Katsura board, purchased off Ebay. The green felt patches were in place to compensate for a slight warp and crack but I removed them to find mortises for feet that were lost long ago.

https://imgur.com/gallery/u2WzzJl

[Erythen]

Beautiful old board.

[goTony]

Well done indeed! And your explanation will be useful for others. : )

[EdLee]

Hi mymicrometereye,

Congrats on your goban.

Perhaps a slight mis-translation of the calligraphy?
昭和 五拾貳年 三月 之作 --

五拾貳, by itself, is fifty two, 52; not 51.

貳 is two, 2; not 1.

( Unless there's some special rule concerning the counting of 51st or 52nd of Showa that I'm not aware of, which is entirely possible. )

[mymicrometereye]

Could be a mistake by the translator as 51 is 1976 and 52 is 1977; and obviously, they wrote down 1977.

Either way, I learned something new!

Hi mymicrometereye,

Congrats on your goban.

Perhaps a slight mis-translation of the calligraphy?
昭和 五拾貳年 三月 之作 --

五拾貳, by itself, is fifty two, 52; not 51.

貳 is two, 2; not 1.

( Unless there's some special rule concerning the counting of 51st or 52nd of Showa that I'm not aware of, which is entirely possible. )

[mymicrometereye]

Just a little update on things.

As mentioned, I decided to redo the playing surface; however, a couple of things happened:

1. As I was reinking the lines, something weird happened to my pen and the lines started getting different weights (i.e. I think it's running out of ink)
2. I haven't had the time to work on it
3. A little frustrated, so need to get a bit more zen before I start again (as I will need to order a new pen and sand the surface again)

That being said, I'm still glad I'm doing it correctly -- and with things being the way they are -- I don't have anyone to play against anyway, so no rush.

[EdLee]

Hi mymicrometereye,

Could be a mistake by the translator as 51 is 1976 and 52 is 1977; and obviously, they wrote down 1977.

...slight confusion... I thought the translator was you...?

The bottom of the board has some Japanese writing which _I_ had translated (see images).

[mymicrometereye]

"Which I had translated [by someone else]."

Hi mymicrometereye,

Could be a mistake by the translator as 51 is 1976 and 52 is 1977; and obviously, they wrote down 1977.

...slight confusion... I thought the translator was you...?

The bottom of the board has some Japanese writing which _I_ had translated (see images).

[EdLee]

Thanks, mymicrometereye.