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Building Devi's Box - A Game of Tak

Something I've wanted to build for a while was the board game, Tak*. This is featured in the King Killer Chronicles by Patrick Rothfuss and I built it for my wife's birthday present in 2016.

The finished box and inlay

I've produced a series of videos, that you can see in the playlist below, that chronicles (get it) the build process, but isn't a "How to" video by any means. 

The materials used in this project are:

  • o Maple for the board squares
  • o American Black Walnut for the Box and board surround
  • o Walnut real wood veneer for the board square details
  • o Mahogany for the outer board surround and "Dark" playing pieces
  • o "Possibly" a light oak for the "Light" playing pieces**

 

Part 1 covers the cutting and gluing of the main board, and the "light" pieces.

Part 3 covers the construction of the board edges, re-sawing and gluing up the bottom of the board. My re-saw capability was pushed to the limit on my teeny-tiny band-saw ... it wasn't happy!

Part 4 covers the gluing up and rabbeting the base of the box. Warning, there's lots of sanding ahead ... but not as much as to come! There is also the work needed to miter the mahogany edge pieces around the board. 

Part 5 covers the rabbeting of the box to accept the board, sanding (lots of sanding), gluing it all together and finishing.

Part 6 covers the cutting of the remaining "dark" pieces and finishing. I didn't video the turning of the capstones, so I may redo those in the future with a supplemental video.

Note: Copious amounts of sanding, preparation and cups of tea were omitted from these videos. If there's enough demand, the full 42 hour video can be made available ... snore.

* A donation was made to Cheapass games for the idea and for their development of the game
** The dowling used for the "Light" pieces was an old curtain pole. It's hardwood, but am not entirely sure on the species.

Watch the videos (a YouTube playlist)

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