Gluing, cutting, wrapping it up...

After we finished carving and cleaning all the game pieces, all that was left was to insert the pins used to keep the pieces on the board. We ended up using regular finishing nails since brass nails didn't offer many size options. I glued the nails in and realized that the round pieces would need to be braced so the nails would solidify in a moderately upright position...

 This took quite a while and the glue seemed to have a reaction with the stone and pushed out, making a bit of a mess. After pushing all the nails back in, I left the pieces to set overnight. The next day, we met up and set to cutting the nails down to size. Again, the dremel tool came in handy and a cutting disc made quick work of the nails. We then had to use a blade to cut away access glue from the base of the pieces so that they would sit on the board in a level fashion.

 Once the pieces were all ready, we wiped them down with grapeseed oil to shine them up and make them all pretty like.

 And then...it was done. We soon discovered that the pieces were incredibly soft and were easily scratched in transport, solidifying our thoughts that soapstone probably wasn't historically used because it would be damaged quite easily.

Ooooohhhh, pretty!