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K back on again and started cutting with my test 9*9 as a proof of concept ‘and’ (in the grand tradition of things) making stupid mistakes. I am going to post updates on my blog as they are fairly detailed. When eventually (hopefully successfully) complete I will also stick pictures up here.
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Nice post. I like watching people doing jobs! 
I didn’t understand why you decided to do sections.
You could’ve cut the lines in a single square board, couldn’t you?
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the table saw and thicknesser and drill press would not cope with even a full size 9*9. If you look at the pictures you can see the table saw size compared to a single strip. Admittedly you could remove the fence but then have to consider how much weight of the piece is unsupported and the fact the cross cut tool cant extend much past the base of the board and you never want to hold a piece free hand and push it into a table saw blade (beyond anything else it would not be accurate and is dangerous).
A free standing table saw could (I do have one but its broken now). Also most drill presses would not have the reach so you would have to drill free hand with hand held drill. Finally I have a bigger thicknesser which could cope with a 99 but definitely would not with a 1919.
Going small requires accuracy but thankfully these tools are highly accurate.
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You’re right I didn’t pay enough attention to the pictures. I’m used to those youtubers with table saws two meters wide. 
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Almost done with the prototype board and there have been lessons to learn (there always are…)
Now considering a 19*19 and thinking about wood choice. My current thoughts are
American White Oak
European Oak
European White Beech (possibly steamed though that may be too dark).
Any thoughts on the above? The oaks would provide a far more visible grain whereas the Beech would be much less visible - if noticeable at all. The unsteamed beech is quite light though (the steamed is more pinky and closer to the American cherry used for the 9*9.
I have traditionally used Cherry, Beech (and Holly) a lot mainly as their grain looks good at ship building scales. I don’t need to worry about accuracy at scale for a Go board though 
I did consider some of the African hard woods which often have rather nice colors (yellows especially) such as Itoko or Obeche but those woods have more potential health implications (beyond the fine dust of all woods) so I want to stick to less potentially re-active wood types.
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I used red oak for mine, and if I could go back in time I would have certainly picked the white oak. I think that all of those options are pretty feasible though. Good luck! 
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If i were given the option between oak and some other tree, i would choose oak. ^___^
Except maybe birch, that feels and looks great too, but maybe bit hard to work with a scalpel xD
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What about kaya? 
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I’ve actually gone for beech mainly because my process involves essentially laminating the squares together. Too much grain and I have to consider pattern matching otherwise it would look weird.
As a plus my Chinese stones just arrived and the measurements were correct and ‘worked’ so hurrah for that.
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It would be a wonderful experience to just touch that type of wood…
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Next post is up on my blog https://sardonicrejoinder.blogspot.com/2019/11/a-goban-prototype-99-part-two.html#more
The proto-type board is done but several mistakes were made for which procedural changes were needed. I have an order of beech and black walnut arriving today so I can start on the 19*19
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First post on my 19*19 is now up on the blog.
it is quite long so only one for woodworking fans I feel…
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And done. Here is the final section leading to the completed board.
thanks all for anyone who manages to get through all that.
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I enjoyed your posts thankyou and I particularly liked the picture of you using your goban in costume.
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lol, that is an L5R picture from FFG
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Wow! That is really awesome!
I work in forestry and can cut up anyone some healthy chunks of trunk and heartwood.
For a nominal service fee.
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Very cool. I like the corner joint detail
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