Marble goban

[alexbobp]

I have been engraving gobans on marble flooring tiles. They look great!

Warning: if your stones are also real stone, you might not like the sound they make on this board. (starch stones from Yellow Mountain Imports work great, though)

Here's the production process, and some pictures of gobans I made:
https://imgur.com/a/XZZxo

Here's an ebay listing:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/251013918001

If you really want to get a board from me, but the ebay bidding went out of control or the listing closed, don't despair! I have more boards and we can probably work something out. You might want to email me at alexbobp@gmail.com in case I forget to check the forum.

[barakameek]

can you make the board with out the white lines (looks like damage but is not) that are seen in ebay photo?

[barakameek]

im interesting in byuing your 19x19 size but i would like to know if the board is the one in the photo or a different one? plus im in australia what would the the cost in post/\?

[alexbobp]

The board is the one in the photo, of course, but I have others.

Only that one black style of marble has the big white streak. (look at the other boards in the imgur link)
I haven't gotten a hold of any tiles that are a clean black marble with no streaks, but maybe some day I will find such tiles. (I'm also hoping to get a hold of large granite tiles)

However shipping to Australia is going to be quite expensive. Honestly, for the money you'd spend to do that, you should pay for a month of membership at your own local hackerspace and laser-engrave your own tiles...
I think it would be over $100 to ship that far!

[barakameek]

ok thanks...your right it would cost too much

[bogiesan]

> I have been engraving gobans on marble flooring tiles. They look great! <

I'm sure they do.
Instead of buying precut tiles from a home center, talk to a stone countertop supplier in your area. They are left with cutouts for every sink they install and these pieces are waste although many of these shops think they have tremendous value so you may need to do some negotiating.

The selections of beautiful stone resources from all over the world cannot be easily described.

Might be a bit more expensive than mass produced tiles but your market could change dramatically by carefully selecting for pattern and color.

[daniel_the_smith]

Huh, those look really nice. But they are a little smaller than a full sized board, right?

[daniel_the_smith]

Hm, I guess my estimation of the relative sizes of an 18" tile and a go board was incorrect...

[phillip1882]

man i must confess i am sorely tempted to buy one they look awesome.

it looks like your previous one sold for 41 dollars. would you be willing to sell me one for about that price? how much is shipping & handling? (i'm in the Florida area)

[shapenaji]

Huh, those look really nice. But they are a little smaller than a full sized board, right?

According to Invitation to Go by John Fairbairn the (Japanese) standard size for the actual board is 406 x 450 mm.
The 19x19 board is stated to be 18'' x 18'' which equals 457 x 457 mm.
Do you mean something else by "full sized"?

Wait... square board? that ain't right...

[bogiesan]

Wait... square board? that ain't right...

Chinese boards are often square. The reason Japanese boards are not square is lost in legend but it is not to correct for optical distortion any more than the incised pyramid somehow changes the tone.

If one is inclined to craft go boards, one designs and builds go boards however one wishes. Tradition, meh.

[xed_over]

Wait... square board? that ain't right...

Chinese boards are often square. The reason Japanese boards are not square is lost in legend but it is not to correct for optical distortion any more than the incised pyramid somehow changes the tone.

If one is inclined to craft go boards, one designs and builds go boards however one wishes. Tradition, meh.

the optical distortion does exist (though may, or may not be the original reason), and can be noticed when viewing the board from the sides rather than from the ends. haven't you ever looked at the distorted signage painted on roadways? they are highly distorted for just that reason.

[bearzbear]

The problem with marble and other stone surfaces is hardness.

It can shatter glass stones, and destroy real slate and shell stones.
This may be the main reason that boards have traditionally not been made from either stone nor metal. The technology to make both has been around for a long long time.

I would advise caution using hard surfaces.

_-_-

[bogiesan]

the optical distortion does exist (though may, or may not be the original reason), and can be noticed when viewing the board from the sides rather than from the ends. haven't you ever looked at the distorted signage painted on roadways? they are highly distorted for just that reason.

This is fun argument that we're not going to solve. Westerners tend to look for a technical explanation where none is necessary. The Japanese board is oriented so the longer dimension extends between the players. The optical suggestion is not that the board is now square because the eye level of the player is sufficiently above the board. If Japanese board makers were deliberately correcting for the phenomenon of foreshortening, the board's shorter dimension would extend between the players. That is, an object that is further away needs to be larger to appear to be the same size. The lines on a go board are parallel so they're the same size at both ends so the illusion is that the opposite edge of the board is further away that it really is. You are confusing anamorphosis with foreshortening.

It's counterintuitive but any text that explains the differences between the different types of mechanical drawing, perspective and projection can be used to satisfy the curious about such phenomena. These links lead to exercises designed to create flat drawings of three dimensional objects such as planes and cubes.

http://brigettemora.deviantart.com/art/ ... s-25760582
http://danielmaidman.blogspot.com/2011/ ... fraid.html
http://www.khulsey.com/perspective-foreshortened.html
http://www.idrawdigital.com/2010/04/tut ... ng-tricks/

I know people who work in the sign shop at the Idaho Transportation Department. There is no deliberate foreshortening on any highway signs they produce; it's all right angles. Signs painted on the street are a different matter but not directly related to the go board because of the scale and the ratio of the viewing angle to the length of the object viewed. A "right turn only with an arrow" painted lane marking extends forty or fifty feet away from the eyes of the driver which are five feet off the ground, that's roughly an 8/1 ratio comparing the length of the object to the elevation of the point of view. The go board extends only 2 or 3 feet away from the point of view of the players, an elevation of two to three feet, roughly a 1/1 ratio. Anamorphosis, a fascinating topic all on its own, does not apply at that scale.

http://mathsyear7.wikispaces.com/Anamorph