Introduction: How to Make a Konane Game Board

About: I am a EHS advisor by day and by night I make and fix things. I prefer to work with wood but will give anything a go. I also enjoy gardening and an kept busy by my young son..
This project brings together my love of playing board games  with my passion for wood work.

Konane is an ancient game from Hawaii that is played on a grid. The grid can be of any size, I have chosen to make my board 8x8.  The idea of the game is to jump over your opponents pieces and remove them form the board. When one player can no longer jump any of the opponents pieces the game is finished and that player has lost. (See full rules and end of instructable)

 

Step 1: Tools and Materials

Tools
Automatic center punch
Router
Round nose router bit (I used 12.7mm)
Round over router bit
Pillar Drill

Materials
200x200x18mm piece of wood
64 x 16mm marbles 32 of each colour
Board template (attached as pdf)
Varnish, Oil or stain to finish the wood

Step 2: Marking and Drilling the Board

Place the template over the board and using the center punch mark each center dot. I used and automatic punch as you only have to press on it. If you are using a punch and hammer I would suggest taping the template to the board.

Once you have the board marked it can be drilled. I mounted the round nose router bit in the pillar drill and set the depth stop on the drill.  I would suggest practicing on a similar piece of timber to set you drill to the correct speed to achieve a nice finish with the bit.

Step 3: Finishing the Board

Once all the holes were drilled a then used the router with the rounded edge bit to add some detail to the outside of the board.

Then give the board a good sand down and I chose to finish mine with linseed oil.

Once dry its time to play

Step 4: How to Play

1. The game begins with all the pieces on the board  arranged in an alternating pattern.

2. Players decide which colour to play.

3. The starting player must remove one of their pieces from the "middle of the board", or from one of the four corners of the board.

4. The other player then removes one of their pieces orthogonally adjacent to the empty space created by the starting player. There are now two orthogonally adjacent empty spaces on the board.

5. From here on, players take turn capturing each other's pieces. All moves must be capturing moves. A player captures an enemy piece by hopping over it with their own piece similar to draughts. However, unlike draughts, captures can be done only orthogonally and not diagonally. The player's piece hops over the orthogonally adjacent enemy piece, and lands on a vacant space immediately beyond. The player's piece can continue to hop over enemy pieces but only in the same orthogonal direction. The player can stop hopping enemy pieces at any time, but must at least capture one enemy piece in a turn. After the piece has stopped hopping, the player's turn ends. Only one piece may be used in a turn to capture enemy pieces.

6. The player that can no longer make a capture is the loser, and the other player is the winner.