Life In 19x19

I live in a cold dry climate and my board is on 5+ years and still looks awesome. You have to take care of any board though, leaving in the car is very poor. Inside car temperatures are only less extreme than oven.

Mine got a huge crack in it this winter, but I take part of the blame because I think I left it standing too close to the radiator whenever I came home from go club.

I heard you should fill in the crack with candle wax. Has anyone tried this or have other ideas for damage control/repair?

I was concerned about the cracking issue since I live in a desert climate so I contacted YMI and asked them about it. They recommended light use of a furniture oil such as Murphy's Oil Soap or Old English to protect the board from drying out, particularly when it is being put into storage for any length of time.

Since I use Old English on my wood goban and it has survived being in storage for nearly 25 years I think this is probably sound advice.

I've had the 3/4" bamboo goban from YMI for most of a year at this point. The surface does have a kind of dark finish, and is a bit shiny, as others have said. I've seen others that have developed scratches in the surface, but I haven't had too many problems with that. I keep it in a felt sleeve that YMI had for around $5. The sound is also not spectacular, but for a cheap durable board, it's hard to beat.

I would be reluctant to get one that's much thicker, though, as bamboo is HEAVY.

skydyr wrote:
I would be reluctant to get one that's much thicker, though, as bamboo is HEAVY.

The thicker ones aren't actually solid, they have hollow places inside. This makes it lighter than a solid board would be, and also gives you a much louder click playing on some parts of the board than others.