I live in the UK, and I'm looking for an inexpensive board. No painted wood, no veneer, and dimensions matching Japanese dimensions, not Chinese ones (meaning those bamboo boards are out). Most importantly, I'm looking for engraved lines. The board in the link looks absolutely amazing:

viewtopic.php?f=19&t=6708

It was bought from Hebsacker Verlag, which is where I was actually looking to buy a 30mm Shin Kaya board from anyway. The picture looks as if the board has painted lines, but it's possible the site admins are using an inaccurate picture. Can anyone who's bought from there recently comment on whether the boards have engraved or painted lines? Otherwise, could anyone point me to an alternative vendor that does sell what I'm looking for?

There's this guy on ebay.uk

http://m.ebay.com/itm/Go-Weiqi-Spruce-4 ... 0942531175

You're welcome.

My Board is a 30mm Shin Kaya Board from Hebsacker. No engraved lines but i like it. I can make a picture if you like

Thanks, that looks really great, except the dimensions are Chinese: 44 x 47 x 4 cm. I'm specifically looking for Japanese/Korean dimensions ^^".

Why? There isn't that much of a difference.

one is square, the other is rectangular

Ah,well. I personally don't care for that sort of trivial matter. I'm more of instant appearance like wood color and the like. It's a pretty good looking board. And if the shipping wasn't so high to USA, I would've taken it.

I would also be interested in a board like that sold in the US, both in terms of the etched surface and Chinese dimensions.

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The Master said, To stuff oneself with food all day without worrying about anything, is difficult indeed! But what about weiqi players then? It is better to be one of them than to do nothing!

Well, it seems the board is veneer, anyway?

viewtopic.php?f=19&t=8292&start=0

Not sure though. Actually, if I could get some solid info about whether the board is veneer or not, I might end up getting this one.

You can ask at:

customerservice@zenminded.co.uk

Please share the answer with us here!

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The Master said, To stuff oneself with food all day without worrying about anything, is difficult indeed! But what about weiqi players then? It is better to be one of them than to do nothing!

Inexpensive and engraved lines are non-compatible. Regardless of the board's wood materials and construction, you must pay a craftsman to engrave 38 lines and add 9 hoshi which are non-trivial operations. Even if you will accept alaser or CNC'd board, someone still had to program it and refine the files and supervise the operations.

The referenced image seems to have embossed lines, the do not appear to be engraved. It is a simple matter to use a press to embed lines, much line pulling a silk screen to print them. It is quite another to engrave them.

While I wish you luck in your pursuit, I do not understand why we think craftsmanship in go boards should not be rewarded by appropriate remuneration for the skills and the experience of the artists and craftsmen.

As a professional photographer, I don't give anything away.

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David Bogie, Boise ID
I play go, I ride a recumbent, of course I use Macintosh.

Excuse my ignorance, I'm just your average clueless guy. Actually, I wouldn't have minded an embossed one either, but in the end I went with a standard go board with painted lines.

Fortunately, a commercially manufactured goban could be easily "engraved" (read: cut) very precisely with minimal blood, sweat, and tears using a milling machine. There is also the laser cutting option, as mentioned. Given economies of scale, the result of either process should be quite affordable.

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The Master said, To stuff oneself with food all day without worrying about anything, is difficult indeed! But what about weiqi players then? It is better to be one of them than to do nothing!