Life In 19x19

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.
(More below)

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

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!

Welcome to the forum and thanks for the post.

As for the bottom of the board:

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

Beautiful old board.

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

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. )

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!

EdLee wrote: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. )

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.

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).

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

EdLee wrote: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).

Thanks, mymicrometereye.