While I was over in Japan last summer, I picked up a set of size 28 shell and slate stones, and I'm pretty sure the shell is Jitsuyo grade since all the pictures I've seen of it look like my stones. I didn't get a board since I didn't want to risk it breaking on the way home...we all know how those wonderful baggage handlers at the airport treat our luggage after all! Would this be a suitable board for what I got? I'm not really looking for anything too fancy at the moment, just something that is a good enough quality to where I won't have to keep buying it.

And BTW, what should I use to clean the stones? I obviously haven't used them since I haven't gotten around to getting a board yet, but I was just wondering.

Mr. Kuroki told me: for the first few years, use a clean, dry, soft cotton cloth.
If they get dirty later on, just use a bit of water.
I read somewhere that it's not a good idea to use any kind of soap or detergent,
since the shell stones are organic (some kind of calcium carbonate?),
and soaps/detergents are designed to DISSOLVE organic materials.

(It's probably OK to use soap/detergent on the slate stones,
and if you keep a good habit of cleaning all the hands before touching them,
and otherwise take good care of them, they should last a very long time.)

Ok, thanks. I remember reading somewhere to clean them with an egg, so I just wanted to double check since that seemed kind of ridiculous.

Can someone answer my question about the board though? xD

It is ridiculous, unless you want your set to become a nice breeding ground for all kinds of interesting lifeforms.

I have tried the soaking dirty clam go stones in scrambled raw egg for some very old stones I bought from Japan. It does get some gunk off, but not everything. Of course I washed off the eggy solution with clear water thereafter. The stones are prettier than before but still looks a bit stained.

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http://tchan001.wordpress.com
A blog on Asian go books, go sightings, and interesting tidbits
Go is such a beautiful game.

Check out my post on this thread: viewtopic.php?f=19&t=3706 for info on cleaning shell stones. I wouldn't worry too much about using diluted mild detergent on the shell stones, as long as you take care to maintain the wax coating. I've had slate and shell stones for 50 years and washed the shell stones often using mild dish detergent with no adverse effects. There is a wax coating on the shell stones and dirt can become embedded in the wax in which case it is hard to remove simply by rubbing with a cloth. As I said in the other thread, just be sure to keep the stones wax coated.

The link indicates the product is sold out and you do not indicate which board you were looking at. Are you looking for a thicker table board? Portable or folding?
At Yellow Mtn's site, the shin kaya and hyuga kaya boards are probably available from KGT for less, even including a slow shipping method. 10,000JPY is about US$122 these days. Be sure to give Kiseido or Yutopian a chance to take your money. Their inventories were maybe acquired a few years ago, prices might be better for comparable boards.

The thing about having fine go stones is figuring out if you want to transport them to your game site or transport your playing companions to your stones' location. Having fine stones and a lovely board is meaningless if you do not play with them or you just use them to study by yourself.

david boise ID

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

So it seems. Oh well, YMI stocks this stuff all the time. I was just looking for a Japanese standard size table board that is thick enough to last a while, but I don't really want to spend too much on it.

Thick is a relative term. If your playing partners come to play with 1/2" folders, your 1" slotted board is imposingly thick.
Thickness does not include mass. I have a 1-1/2" board made of South American purpleheart. Thing weighs as much as a 4" agathis board.
[img]files.me.com/bogiesan/285bq6[/img]
[img]files.me.com/bogiesan/wvi9y7[/img]

http://www.google.com/search?q=purpleheart+wood&hl=en&client=safari&rls=en&prmd=ivns&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=dw27TdOoGpCWsgOzw8DGBQ&ved=0CCQQsAQ&biw=1450&bih=1068

david boise ID

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

That looks pretty cool. I would want one if it wouldn't be so much to ship because of the weight. Am I right in looking for a shin kaya board though? I read that some wood is harder than others, so I don't want to crack the stones or anything.

Is there a reason people prefer 2 inch boards vs. 1 inch boards beyond, basically, "bigger is better"? Is the sound different, or do standard-sized stones look too thick on a 1-inch board or something?

Yes. It's a matter of aesthetics and taste; things have to match.
If your table is too high already, then a 2-inch board may be too much
and you'd want a thinner board instead. Or if you have the flat and
thin clay stones, a very thick board would not work, either.
A nice set of slate and shell stones also would not go well
with plastic bowls and a paper board. Things have to match.
It depends on your whole set up.

I suppose you could damage ceramic, glass, or even slate stones if your playing surface was granite.

I do not take my shell/slate stones to club play simply because the floor is concrete.

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

As noted, aesthetics are important.

My research and experience indicate there are clearly many levels of quality in each of the many types and families of go equipment. Some class distinctions are easily apparent and you will get what you pay for. Sometimes bargains are just too good to pass up even if the item is not quite what you were hoping for, quality-wise.

A fine two-inch board is an unwieldy mass. A really nice two-inch board requires thorough protection if you are transporting it to club sessions. You will not want to drop it on one of its corners in the parking lot. You may not want the clumsier players even touching it. However, good go equipment is useless if you're not playing on it. Besides, showing it off can be a ton of fun even if it cannot improve your game.

david boise ID

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

The go board is quite big, so unless it's 2 inches or more it looks disproportionately thin.

That seems like an unlikely explanation to me; tournament-sized chess boards are even larger (18 in x 18 in, usually with an extra border around it) and yet I've never seen a chess board even thicker than an inch! I think what makes the difference for Go boards is that wood grain is so important for Go, and a thicker board means more wood grain to admire on the sides. Except that since table boards are usually made of several pieces, the wood grain doesn't look that great on the side, in my opinion, different grains all jutting up against each other...

The real question to ask yourself when choosing a go board is:

"Does this board make my stones look fat?"

Maybe 2 reasons: chess pieces are usually much taller than Go stones, and culture & history.
Compare: Chinese chess (Xiangqi) and Japanese Shogi (both variants of chess, and both usually have flat pieces) --
Xiangqi is also usually played on thin boards, but Shogi boards come in all thicknesses, just like Go boards.

Fine chess sets have a very different aesthetics - for one, chess boards tend to have a frame around the playing area. A go board is just a block of wood, and should look like a block of wood, not a piece of plywood.

A thin, framed go board doesn't look so bad either - have a look at http://www.igocustom.com/wp-content/upl ... 0_0829.jpg (except on that one the stones look like they're falling off...). But a thin, frameless one seems incomplete.