18cm Floor Board - Shin-kaya - Shihou-masa Cut - Paulownia Lid - Cloth Cover - Free Airmail Shipping - #127633

This incredibly thick goban set includes an Alaskan Spruce board, a cloth cover, and a paulownia lid. The go board came to Baduk Club from a private home of a go player in Nara, so it is about as close to a like-new board as one can get without buying one directly from a board maker.

The go board is 18cm thick, which is very large. It stands about 30.5cm tall with legs on. It looks like Shin-kaya with a Shihou-masa style cut. This cross-cut is the highest-regarded cutting style, because it provides parallel lines on all 6 sides of the board without cross-grains. Such a cut is not normally possible with Kaya, except in the case of the thickest trees, but it is more common with Shin-kaya because Alaskan Spruce grow faster and larger. The board weighs 14.5kg. 

The corners and edges are quite clean, so it is in excellent shape. Some white wax residue on the endgrains and underside is a good sign that the board has been cared for, but a new paste-wax coating will help it adjust if your climate is less humid than Japan. Visit my  Care Instructions   to learn more about caring for this board.

The legs are a bright orange color, and are probably Katsura.

A yellow cloth cover is included, which provides a layer between the board and the paulownia lid. It is clean and without tears or stains.

The paulownia lid does appear to be coming apart a little bit. There is evidence that it was reglued previously, and still needs to be reglued in spots. This is quite common for paulownia, which is lightweight like balsa wood.

This is a Vintage  product.

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Shipping Details: 

FedEx International Priority shipping from Japan (to everywhere) is already included in the purchase price, a service that reduces the actual transit time to only 5 business days. This is more than half of the overall cost (about $300), but necessary to provide sufficient room for padding. The actual value (for Customs Declarations and VAT) will not include this shipping fee.

Downgrading to Japan Post Seamail is possible, if you want to save on the shipping cost. This is not recommended, as damage is more likely to occur, but we leave it up to you. Before contacting us to request this, please check the Japan Post website to verify that your country can receive Surface Parcels from Japan. 

In either case, please allow 1 week for the board to be packed and to clear Customs, then a tracking number will be provided that you can  use to sign up for notifications.