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Unusual Materials
Path: MakingYourOwnEquipment   · Prev: MaterialBowls   · Next: SurfaceFinish
    Keywords: Equipment

Apologies where necessary, as this is my first edit.

This is intended to start a discussion of alternatives to the traditional materials used for go equipment. Maybe you have a unique aesthetic sense, maybe you can't afford a $3,000 kaya goban, or maybe you just don't want to be responsible for the deaths of all those trees and clams [1].

What about stones made from stainless steel? Or hematite? Tiger's eye? They don't have to be black and white, so long as they're easily differentiated. How about marble gobans, or metal? Discuss.

-StFiend


Towel gobans are possible, with stitched lines (preferably by someone who can sew better than me, as mine are rather wonky)- you need good thick thread for visibility, especially if using a sewing machine. The result is very portable (remember to roll rather than fold to avoid creases), useful on trains because the surface is less slippery than the vinyl portable boards you can buy, and also washable, but not very aesthetically pleasing.


I heard that on the set of the movie Pi the cast and crew played Go using bottle caps for stones.


HansWiezorke: There are Jade stones in China. They also make Junzhi (spelling?), stones made of some kind of stone. There is a guy on ebay selling them.

I think it most important in a Go stone, that the two colours make for a good contrast, that is why black and white are great, even for people who are colour blind. That is one reason, why a lot of two-person games (Chess, Go, Abalone, Reversi, ...) use black and white.

But why do you think you need a kaya goban and shell stones? A goban from plywood or cardboard can be easily made. And a set of cheap glass stones usually works fine.

StFiend: Simple, cheap gobans, especially for those just starting out, are nothing new; in fact I'm currently in the process of making one out of laminated pine. It just seems that the general consensus is that a high quality goban must be made of the traditional materials, with strict specifications of color, grain, feel, sound... and I haven't seen much dissension there. Granted, I may not have looked hard enough.

HansWiezorke: "Traditional" is avery relative term. :-) An article in Go World 62 mentions, that the oldest known japanese Go stones are ivory and jadeite.

I sometimes wonder, whether the praise for shell and slate maybe is a clever marketing ploy on behalf of the go stone industry. Definitely one for which I fell, having a size 36 Tsuki set and a nice Hiba goban myself :-O. Even though I really like this set, I already regret, that I sold my glass stones, because they are so much more handy in everyday play.

Niklaus: I think the word you're looking for is Yunzi, which is short for "Yunnan qizi (云南棋子)", which means weiqi stones from Yunnan province.


amc: I guess the problem with this kind of inquiry is what *exactly* is considered "high quality". Say, plastic stones with a kind of metal filling to give them weight would be perfectly fine for use, feel rugged on the hand to prevent slipping, feel satisfyingly heavy, etc. Plus the colors would be perfectly uniform. The board or table, made of equally modern materials, combining metal, glass, wood, and different "types" of plastic, could be equally perfect.

And it would totally suck, at least according to I'd guess 80% of all Go players.

You should read the page on WabiSabi. For asian players this is a given, and most westerners that reach Go motivated by a love of Japanese, Chinese, or Korean art and culture probably instinctively feel attracted to it. There is a *tradition* in Go, I think, and for most people that reach Go via Culture (as opposed to, say, mathematicians that came to the game out of a pure love of mental challenges) this tradition ends up catching. I would enjoy playing Go anywhere, but somehow, the feeling of playing it with natural materials, hearing the satisfying click of the stones, and feeling the "right" materials in my hand has an aestethic "peace" to it that I find pretty engaging.

I don't know, maybe I just read too much HikaruNoGo :)


BobMcGuigan: It's worth mentioning that green go stones are widely available in Japan. They are some kind of plastic, I think, and the light colored stones are a light green color. The idea is that the sharp contrast between the white and black stones may be visually tiring or disturbing for people with some eyesight conditions. The green-black contrast is supposed to be less tiring.


I can imagine a very nice go board made of brass or even un-dyed solid nylon.

To me, the strict adherence to a particular set of materials doesn't seem like the way to appreciate the beauty of things imperfect, impermanent, incomplete and unconventional.


[1] - Blake: Just a note. Clamshell stones don't kill clams; they pick up the shells on the beach, I believe. Or else they're going to be used for food anyway. In either case, Clamshell stones aren't evil. Unless you belong to PETA. In which case... well, let's not go there ;)



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This is a copy of the living page "Unusual Materials" at Sensei's Library.
(OC) 2004 the Authors, published under the OpenContent License V1.0.