Hopefully this is allowed or else I’ll take it down if it isn’t. I sell woodworking items on Etsy under the name Colorado Wood Worker and I’ve mainly made chessboards the last 10 years. I recently had a customer request a Go board so I built him one. Since then I have been getting into the game a bit and trying to make better quality boards. If you are interested in one or just have feedback on the boards I already have made, I would greatly appreciate it! Message me if you have any questions. My Site
I’m not sure what it is with western woodworkers but nearly every single one I’ve ever seen make a board as a present for a friend or set up a shop like yours engraves the lines into the board. I dunno about the rest of the players here, but that’s a very undesirable trait in a board. It’s much more pleasant to play on a smooth surface.
The question coming to mind is durability. If you draw a line not engraved, it can disappear and if you reinforce it, it won’t be smooth anymore. So the logic could be to engrave and then fill the hole.
If they were inlaid that would be fine. That’s also a lot of extra work and expense I’m sure they don’t want to add. In any case, I’ve had two chinese spruce boards for over a decade with printed lines that have held up just fine. Still looks the same as when I bought them in that regard.
It can vary a lot, according to the usage you have with. I owned many go boards, mostly not engraved and I encountered both problems, lines being a bit too high for stability on a japanese one, or lines disappearing on some local European products. I dunno if it’s how your Chinese board is but they cover the board with some protecting varnish at times and that’s not always what we enjoy.
Filling engraved fine lines with ink may be something difficult to accomplish like the traditional Japanese way with a sword so it could be the reason why they just engraved and stop here!