The sets were a bit of a challenge to make....64 individual chess pieces, three boards (I made one for myself), and two boxes. The dark wood is curley black walnut, and the light wood is birdseye maple. The finish is about 9 coats of lacquer, sanded after 3 and 6 coats to flatten the finish (eliminate orange peel) and hand rubbed to the final sheen using pumice stone. Another reason for so many coats of finish with intermediate sanding was to fill the walnut grain, which tends to be a bit coarse. All wood colors are natural....no stain was used.