Onitama Board

Board for the Onitama board game. Or any tile-based game with adjustment to the color and number of mosaic tiles being used.

I had a few glass mosaic tiles left over from another project, waiting to be used. One of my colleagues mentioned Onitama, and when I checked its board, I immediately thought: "I have the materials to make one of these".

Tools

No power tools required, but cutting the plywood to size is easiest with a circular saw.

• wood saw
• straight edged chisel
• (wooden) mallet
• wood files
• sandpaper
• something sharp and pointy, like a knife

Materials

• plywood, the size depends on the mosaic tiles being used
• square mosaic tiles in 3 different colors, 1-1 piece of two colors, 23 pieces of the third, totaling to 25
• wood finisher
• wood glue
• rag

Any kind of wood could be used for the board, but I strongly recommend plywood. Go to step "Make the Hole" to see why.

The board will have 5 by 5 square mosaic tiles, margins on all sides, so you have to calculate the size of the square plywood base as follows: (height of mosaic tile) * 5 + 2 * margin. Since the mosaic tiles and the plywood will be square, height and width will be the same. The thickness of the plywood is not important, just needs to have a few additional layers to those being removed.

After deciding the required size of the plywood, mark and cut it.

Mark the board on the plywood. Using your mallet and chisel, go over the markings: holding your chisel straight up to go deep, the straight side of the chisel facing outwards. You don't have to go very deep, but have to break through at least one layer of the plywood.

Here comes the part requiring the most work: you need to remove layers of the plywood's center to create room for the mosaic tiles. This is why plywood is used as it makes it easy to create a flat surface after carving out a hole. Depending on the thickness of your mosaic tiles, you can remove more or less number of layers, I removed two. Using the chisel and small wood files, remove the center, while keeping the inner edges as intact as possible.

Arrange your tiles, paying attention to the colors, try to fit them, and widen the hole as necessary. The tiles should fit tightly, without producing any bulges. Use sandpaper to round the outer edges of the wood. Use your choice of wood finisher on the plywood, I used lacquer. Let it dry for at least a day.

After the wood finisher dried, fit your tiles again to make sure. Keeping the board and tile arrangement that you just verified to work, start gluing. I do not recommend superglue because it dries quickly, and if you need to adjust previously glued pieces to make room for a piece touching an edge, you would be unable to do so.

Cover your board with a piece of rag to avoid scratches, then put something flat and heavy on it to introduce some pressure for the glue. Leave it alone for a few hours.

If you see any dried glue in the cracks, carefully remove them with a knife. Use a rag to wipe clean the mosaic tiles and you are done.