# Camelot



## Tom Smart (Nov 21, 2014)

Camelot is a 1930's era Parker Brothers board game I never heard of. An older gentleman had approached the local Woodcraft gang and asked if one of them might be able to reproduce the board for the game in wood. They noodled it and didn't come up with a good way to do it. I happened to wander in a few days later and they knew I putzed around with end grain cutting boards and asked if I wanted to take a stab at it. I contacted the guy and said I was game (pun intended) and asked his expectations. He was pretty open to most anything.

I don't have a picture of the original game board, but googling it produces a bunch of information.

I wasn't happy with my first attempt. It's hard to see here but things just didn't line up correctly (walnut, cherry, maple and inlaid African Blackwood and padauk).





So I made another.





I used a different method and sequence to glue it up which basically made it a puzzle and much harder than it needed to be (my normal method of operating). But, I was much happier with the results. This is walnut, cherry, maple and the dots are inlaid white holly and African Blackwood.

Reactions: Way Cool 18


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## Mike1950 (Nov 21, 2014)

Cool!!!


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## barry richardson (Nov 21, 2014)

Winners!

Reactions: Agree 1


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## manbuckwal (Nov 21, 2014)

Man Tom u have some patience . Hats off to ya !

Reactions: Agree 1


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## Tom Smart (Nov 21, 2014)

Tom, thanks. Yeah it took awhile, especially to do 2 but I learned a lot while doing it. The guy just wanted it by Christmas so I had the time to work through it.

I should have also mentioned that it is 100% end grain, even the inlaid dots, which were made from pen blanks. Anything else is cheating.


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## ripjack13 (Nov 21, 2014)

Nice job. It looks real good.


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## Schroedc (Nov 21, 2014)

I happen to have one of the 1930's version of the game and I have to say that board makes the original look like a cheap knock off. Now you just need to turn/carve a set of pieces for it

Reactions: Agree 1


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## Tom Smart (Nov 21, 2014)

Colin, I don't even know what the pieces look like.


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## David Seaba (Nov 21, 2014)

That is Great looking. You did an awesome job Tom.


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## ripjack13 (Nov 21, 2014)

https://www.vintagetoysillustrated....E_BOARD_GAME_OF_KNIGHTS_AND_MEN_RED_WHITE.JPG

4 knights and 10 men/pawns...times 2. They could be turned or carved. Depends how detailed you wanna get. Sounds like fun either way...


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## Tom Smart (Nov 22, 2014)

Ah so, and yep that's the original board. Thanks, Marc.

Reactions: Like 1


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## Kevin (Nov 25, 2014)

I'm glad this finally popped up on my radar. Excellent job Tom - that wasn't your normal end grain project that took serious planning and you pulled it off beautifully.


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## TimR (Nov 25, 2014)

Very cool. Count me as another who never heard of the game. This is a beautiful board. I have always had in my mind the notion of building a nice game board, of some type. Would you mind sharing some of what you learned, relevant to most game boards?


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## DLJeffs (Nov 25, 2014)

Beautiful game boards Tom


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## Tom Smart (Nov 25, 2014)

Sure, Tim. I'll offer a few thoughts and then you can fire away with any questions you have. 

These are essentially end grain cutting boards. If you are not familiar with building an end grain cutting board, there are a lot of how to's on YouTube. Start there, especially look for things from MTM. He has wonderful videos that are easy to follow. Watch close because the little things he does make a difference. He makes it look easy but he has a shop and equipment most of us don't have access to. Still, it's doable. 

Pay attention to detail. Say you are making a checker or chess board, make sure the long pieces that will eventually become the squares on your board are all the same size on all four sides. I do this using a drum sander. This also helps to ensure your glue surfaces match without gaps. That's important, to me anyway. 

One of my problems with the first board was that I made the dark (walnut) portions the same size as the playing area pieces and glued them up all at the same time. Then I couldn't line things up with the second glue up (something wasn't straight someplace) and the dark/light contrast exaggerated the errors so the visual line between them was not straight. My wife said, hey I don't see it, but to me it was way off. 

The second try I glued things up in stages. The center playing area first and then adding the parts on the ends with the fewer squares. I then had to do the contrasting walnut almost piece by piece which made it tough matching the glue surfaces. If one is off it magnifies any problems with the next, adjoining piece. This method took way longer because I usually let glue-ups sit overnight. 

I started off at someplace between an inch and 3/4 thick so I could sand down to the final thickness of about 5/8, again using the drum sander. Each of these bowed a bit as they thinned. I clamped them to the work bench over night and they flattened out. 

Probably more than you were looking for, Tim. If you have questions, ask away.


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## frankp (Dec 10, 2014)

I see what you're talking about with the first attempt but I actually like the color pattern better than the second. Either way, both are excellent results compared to the original game board. Well done.


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## Tom Smart (Dec 10, 2014)

Frank the color difference is from the different finishes. The first is spray on lacquer and the second is mineral oil. Wood is from the same boards.


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## frankp (Dec 10, 2014)

Tom, I actually meant the peg coloring but the different finishes makes sense.


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## Tom Smart (Dec 10, 2014)

Ah, I put the white in because that is color on the original game board.

Reactions: Like 1


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