chips

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Qslave

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
This isn't a question about cue making but I was hoping someone here would be nice enough to answer a couple of general questions about an idea I had.

Recently I've been playing alot of poker and decided to buy some poker chips. I ended up buying several sets. But when I was on AZ in the Trade/Buy forum, and had poker chips on the brain, I was wondering why no one makes hardwood poker chips. They would look great and there should be enough distinct colored woods available (maple, ebony, purpleheart, bloodwood, pink ivory..etc). I thought they'd be heavy enough but I calculated that an ebony chip would be 4g and an average poker chip is around 10 or 11g. A poker chip is 39mm diameter and 3.33mm thick but I suppose they could be bigger to get the weight up.

I looked all over the net and didn't see any hardwood poker chips. I'm a little surprized that no one has done this, so I'm wondering if there is some reason that it won't work.
It seems simple enough. Even adding 'edge spots' that most chips have seems fairly straightforward. How much effort do you think it would be to make 200 chips with edge spots? As a price point of comparison, the top-of-the-line clay chips are over a dollar a chip so I think a novelty (but still functional) set of hardwood poker chips could go for 2 times that.
 
By the time you cut all of the pieces then cut and inlay dots both sides on 200 chips. Yikes if you were bored I guess have 100 hours in making them. Plus the programming on the cnc. At 20$ an hour that is 2000$ If you wanted to pay that. Just a guess. Kind of depends on the inlay too. Not to mention how would you index the dots. I count 5 jigs to make them. Damn maybe 2000 isn't enough.
 
Qslave said:
This isn't a question about cue making but I was hoping someone here would be nice enough to answer a couple of general questions about an idea I had.

Recently I've been playing alot of poker and decided to buy some poker chips. I ended up buying several sets. But when I was on AZ in the Trade/Buy forum, and had poker chips on the brain, I was wondering why no one makes hardwood poker chips. They would look great and there should be enough distinct colored woods available (maple, ebony, purpleheart, bloodwood, pink ivory..etc). I thought they'd be heavy enough but I calculated that an ebony chip would be 4g and an average poker chip is around 10 or 11g. A poker chip is 39mm diameter and 3.33mm thick but I suppose they could be bigger to get the weight up.

I looked all over the net and didn't see any hardwood poker chips. I'm a little surprized that no one has done this, so I'm wondering if there is some reason that it won't work.
It seems simple enough. Even adding 'edge spots' that most chips have seems fairly straightforward. How much effort do you think it would be to make 200 chips with edge spots? As a price point of comparison, the top-of-the-line clay chips are over a dollar a chip so I think a novelty (but still functional) set of hardwood poker chips could go for 2 times that.
Click to expand...

I'm not going to make what would be essentially inlayed rings for 2 bucks.

To compare something that is extruded by the thousands with a very thin individually made inlayed piece of wood is not fair in my opinion. The difference in material cost alone would go from a couple of pennies with the clay to maybe one dollar with the inlayed ring.

To make them 1/8 inch thick would be very difficult and they would not be very durable at that thickness. Once the ring was made it would have to be sanded and finished. Lots of them would break and the labor would be cost prohibitive.

Another reason is that the wood could easily be counterfitted.

Just my 2 cents worth
 
RocketQ said:
By the time you cut all of the pieces then cut and inlay dots both sides on 200 chips. Yikes if you were bored I guess have 100 hours in making them. Plus the programming on the cnc. At 20$ an hour that is 2000$ If you wanted to pay that. Just a guess. Kind of depends on the inlay too. Not to mention how would you index the dots. I count 5 jigs to make them. Damn maybe 2000 isn't enough.
Click to expand...

(sorry my terminology may be off here)
I wasn't thinking of using inlays for the edge spots. (maybe for a chip denomination "$1" in the middle but as you are saying, that would really be cost prohibitive.)

Couldn't the edge spots be made like some of the rings on a cue are made?
From a 1.5"x1.5"x18" piece of, say ebony, cut a small strips lengthwise and glue in strips of, say pink ivory. (or 2 or 3 woods glued together for multi-edge spots).
Then turn it down to 39mm and just snip off 3.33mm chips and sand them.
Don't know if they would have to be finished or not? They'd look better but they might be too thick with finish and not stack as well.
Does this make sense?
 
Arnot Wadsworth said:
I'm not going to make what would be essentially inlayed rings for 2 bucks.

To compare something that is extruded by the thousands with a very thin individually made inlayed piece of wood is not fair in my opinion. The difference in material cost alone would go from a couple of pennies with the clay to maybe one dollar with the inlayed ring.

To make them 1/8 inch thick would be very difficult and they would not be very durable at that thickness. Once the ring was made it would have to be sanded and finished. Lots of them would break and the labor would be cost prohibitive.

Another reason is that the wood could easily be counterfitted.

Just my 2 cents worth
Click to expand...


Not sure what you mean by conterfeited but the durability is one of the problems I was worried about. How thick would they need to be?

I did a rough calculation of material costs and figured about 10 cents a chip for ebony. Is this not right?
 
Would have to have some type of finish. It will harden and protect the wood. Done like billets would greatly simplify things but even dollar inlays or whatever you have 200 pieces to do both sides of. The chips would have to be at least 0.200" thick if not .250" for durability. Woods Ebony, Bloodwood, PH, Maple. As far as stacking using an oil finish they should stack fine. You still are looking at a serious amount of work.
 
take a look at prather site. They make pre made bushka rings for cuemaker ebony with 8-10 white stripes around the edge like a poker chip. The price is about 60$ per 6 inches. Give or take and that would make 25 chips or less.

If you are looking for nice chips I have a set of clay chips I can sell. Nice wood box just like casino clay. I have alot. They are like the 1$ or more chips you can buy online. Top quality.
 
I thought about doing this myself, but found it expensive personally!
18" ebony will only produce about 35-40 chips, depending on thickness of cutoff tool. That's over $1.00 per chip, w/o other woods/veneers inlayed on the outside (like a checkered deco ring)!

You're probably looking at a minimum of $3.00 per chip to have them made, if you want the maker to get a little something out of his/her time.

Obviously the price would vary a little depending on type of wood(s) used.

Suggestion for you (or those that want a set):
Find a cuemaker to make a simple set without anything on the faces, unfinished. Then find a local engraver (jewelry store, engraving shop) and see what they would charge to engrave your initials or something on the faces of each one or find a printing place that could print a logo or initials into a decal for each one.


Zim
 
RocketQ said:
Would have to have some type of finish. It will harden and protect the wood. Done like billets would greatly simplify things but even dollar inlays or whatever you have 200 pieces to do both sides of. The chips would have to be at least 0.200" thick if not .250" for durability. Woods Ebony, Bloodwood, PH, Maple. As far as stacking using an oil finish they should stack fine. You still are looking at a serious amount of work.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the replies.

So even without inlays and using a billet method to make 50 at a time, you are saying that it would still take a long time?
Well, I guess that's what I was looking for. How do you think they would look? What if more figured woods like amboyna were used.
You think a set of 200 would be worth $500 or $600.

Do you think anyone here would be willing to make 10 or 20 to see how they turn out?
 
dave sutton said:
take a look at prather site. They make pre made bushka rings for cuemaker ebony with 8-10 white stripes around the edge like a poker chip. The price is about 60$ per 6 inches. Give or take and that would make 25 chips or less.

If you are looking for nice chips I have a set of clay chips I can sell. Nice wood box just like casino clay. I have alot. They are like the 1$ or more chips you can buy online. Top quality.
Click to expand...

Thanks, I'll check out the prather site.

I have bought a bunch of chips already. It kind of turned into a compulsion:>
I got some of the Paulson classics. Also, some brass Tangiers, and some ceramic....

What kind of clay chips do you have? Paulsons classics?
 
Zims Rack said:
I thought about doing this myself, but found it expensive personally!
18" ebony will only produce about 35-40 chips, depending on thickness of cutoff tool. That's over $1.00 per chip, w/o other woods/veneers inlayed on the outside (like a checkered deco ring)!

You're probably looking at a minimum of $3.00 per chip to have them made, if you want the maker to get a little something out of his/her time.

Obviously the price would vary a little depending on type of wood(s) used.

Suggestion for you (or those that want a set):
Find a cuemaker to make a simple set without anything on the faces, unfinished. Then find a local engraver (jewelry store, engraving shop) and see what they would charge to engrave your initials or something on the faces of each one or find a printing place that could print a logo or initials into a decal for each one.


Zim
Click to expand...

So my estimates were off. I must have seen the cheap ebony on the web and I didn't factory in enough for the thickness of the cutoff tool.

I could live without any denomiations on the chips. But as you are saying it looks like this is going to be a little too much money.
 
Qslave said:
Not sure what you mean by conterfeited but the durability is one of the problems I was worried about. How thick would they need to be?

I did a rough calculation of material costs and figured about 10 cents a chip for ebony. Is this not right?
Click to expand...

I thought you were asking about poker chips. If you were using $100.00 poker chips that could be made for say $5.00 a piece don't you think you would have to deal with counterfeit chips someday?

Good Ebony cost about $2.00 per inch today. You will only get a maximum of 3 to 4 pieces per inch so I don't know where 10 cents per piece came from.
 
Arnot Wadsworth said:
I thought you were asking about poker chips. If you were using $100.00 poker chips that could be made for say $5.00 a piece don't you think you would have to deal with counterfeit chips someday?

Good Ebony cost about $2.00 per inch today. You will only get a maximum of 3 to 4 pieces per inch so I don't know where 10 cents per piece came from.
Click to expand...

This would be just for a home game. I'm not worried about my friends counterfeiting my chips:>

Just back of the napkin: I saw an 13.5" maple cue blank on the web for $12 and thought that could yield 100 chips. I think the ebony was about 20 cents in my estimate but your saying that its more like 50 cents / chip for the ebony.

I appreciate the response. This is the kind of information I was looking for.
 
QSlave-
It sounds like you want a set for you personally, right? Maybe be used at the house or a friends house in a friendly game, right? If this is the intended use, counterfitting shouldn't be an issue. But, you probably want something pretty nice, something to talk about while playing poker and for you buddies to talk about after they've left!

Zim
 
Qslave said:
Thanks, I'll check out the prather site.

I have bought a bunch of chips already. It kind of turned into a compulsion:>
I got some of the Paulson classics. Also, some brass Tangiers, and some ceramic....

What kind of clay chips do you have? Paulsons classics?
Click to expand...

yes they are just like the paulson clay chips. i have around 500 chips in a wod box. indivigually numbered. casino colors 25$ green ($900) 5$ red ($400) and 1$ whites (350$).
they ready argousy casino ,indiana. i deal poker in atlantic city and the are just like the trop or taj chips (only cleaner)

looking around the paulson chips would run atleast 600$ for 500 chips and a box
 
Zims Rack said:
QSlave-
It sounds like you want a set for you personally, right? Maybe be used at the house or a friends house in a friendly game, right? If this is the intended use, counterfitting shouldn't be an issue. But, you probably want something pretty nice, something to talk about while playing poker and for you buddies to talk about after they've left!

Zim
Click to expand...

Exactly. Plus I really like the exotic hardwoods. I have a small cue collection with cues of amboyna, olivewood, desert ironwood...

This was just an idea and I was wondering why no one had done it before.

The thread had 2 purposes: 1) chips for me and 2) if this was cost-effective then someone could make and market handmade hardwood poker chips (in a fancy wood case) as a niche/novelty item.
 
Qslave said:
This would be just for a home game. I'm not worried about my friends counterfeiting my chips:>

Just back of the napkin: I saw an 13.5" maple cue blank on the web for $12 and thought that could yield 100 chips. I think the ebony was about 20 cents in my estimate but your saying that its more like 50 cents / chip for the ebony.

I appreciate the response. This is the kind of information I was looking for.
Click to expand...
You have to also take into consideration this:
the EBONY will cost you one price, the other wood strips to make the notches will cost you another price, then you have labor. A good piece of 18" ebony will cost you around $35-$50 shipped, which will produce about 30-40 chips. Now add in the 2nd, 3rd or 4th wood for the notches... you're probably going to be paying a good price; however, this will be a custom poker chip set for you! Is it worth $300-$400 for a 200 chip set, that can only be answered by you (or the person buying them)!

Zim
 
i dont think wood chips are a good idea anyway. without a finish who knows what will happen. amboyna burle would almost deff break if you can even part it. looking at alot of waste i think. can be done but just not worth it.
 
dave sutton said:
yes they are just like the paulson clay chips. i have around 500 chips in a wod box. indivigually numbered. casino colors 25$ green ($900) 5$ red ($400) and 1$ whites (350$).
they ready argousy casino ,indiana. i deal poker in atlantic city and the are just like the trop or taj chips (only cleaner)

looking around the paulson chips would run atleast 600$ for 500 chips and a box
Click to expand...

If they'd matched my set of paulsons I'd have been interested, but I really don't need another separate set of clay chips.

So you are in Atlantic City. I just moved up to DC and have been thinking about driving up there some weekend to play. What's it like? I'm not sure its worth the drive.
 
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