I call this kind of box a “Schrodinger’s Box” as a reference to the fact that it’s made as one large box, and until you slice off the lid, there’s just no telling WHAT might be inside… Maybe even Schrodinger’s Cat
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schrodinger’s_cat
Ususally there’s just sawdust, but you never know….
The dark wood is walnut, the top is quilted maple with a walnut stripe.
It didn’t start out to be round, or oval I guess, it started out as a regular square box, but I thought it was a bit too chunky or something, so I decided to round over the corners at the bandsaw.
The main body of the box is Kingwood, one of those dense, oily tropicals that doesn’t take a film finish well, so it had just one light coat of Danish Oil finish, and some furniture wax.
The lid is cherry, with two slightly curvy strips of walnut running through it. It was cut from a larger piece that I did a while ago just as a proof of concept for a future project, which turned out to be this one.
Here’s a new, small-ish box I made from lacewood and figured bubinga, of which I only have a small bit, and it’s not cheap, so I’ll be using it sparingly like this.
The box is about 4″ x 7″ by 5″ tall, and is finished with Danish Oil Finish and some paste wax, which is my go-to finish these days.
This box is pretty similar in size to the canarywood box I made a while back.
I made a tiny little box today, just for kicks. It’s quite small. I measured it, and it’s about the right size to hold a tape measure.
The box is 3 inches by 4 inches by about 3 and half inches tall. Lacewood sides, Zebrawood on top. Tiniest hinges I’ve ever seen, but they seem fine.
I really like the look of Lacewood’s endgrain, so I left the end grain showing on the front and back, as a feature, rather than mitre the corners like I might normally do.
Recently I made a couple of Cheese Boards, and then I discovered I had one kit left for a Cheese Plane, so I thought I should get to it. The wood on the Cheese Plane is called Pau Ferro.
Octagonal Cheese Board, originally uploaded by rgdaniel.
This cutting board is billed as a cheese board here, if only because that’s how it was requested, and because it’s a good compact size for that, about 8″x12″. It’s an inch-and-a-quarter thick, so the finger recesses leave ample room for even my giant fingers to slip underneath and lift it easily.
The wood species (from the outside edges) are maple, purpleheart, cherry, and walnut. For food-safe reasons, it’s finished with mineral oil, just the kind from the drugstore.
This one is spoken for but there’s another exactly like it, except it’s 14″ long, that is available. As always, just holler.
A while ago I built a footstool with an upholstered top. This time around it was pretty much the same design, except this time a hardwood top was requested. The lid is made of bookmatched walnut with a zebrawood feature stripe. The top opens on two brass hinges, with room inside for a few magazines or a pair of slippers.
A small elegant box, the sides are canarywood and the top is purpleheart. First time I’ve built anything with the canarywood, I was quite impressed, I must get more of this. The box is about 5″x7″ and about 4″ tall.
Canarywood Box – closed
Canarywood Box – open
I made a couple of these just over a year ago, and then realized the other day I still had one clock mechanism left. It wasn’t doing anyone any good sitting in a drawer, so I made the clock to go around it. This one is purpleheart with curly maple.
This is one of the older ones I did. Pretty much identical except for the wood choice (wenge and curly maple).
From a design by The Wood Whisperer.
Just finished the third of three large jewelry boxes, which have occupied most of my summer and fall, off and on. Also included here is a tiny little box that took only a day to construct (but then some time on the finishing and flocking). The large box is finished just in time to qualify for free shipping to the client (my wife is driving down to the city next week).
As always, click any photo to view larger on Flickr.
“Say hello to my leetle friend”
A tiny bit larger than the last two large jewelry boxes in this series, this one measures about 9″ x 15″ and about 5″ tall.
Two pieces of bookmatched quilted maple, divided by a walnut strip, make a simple lid design that lets the wood do the talking.
Lots of scope with this large box containing 30 separate compartments of various sizes. The blue flocking sets it off nicely.
Shown here with the upper tray removed.
About 4 1/2″ square by 4″ tall, with the lid. From a test piece I cut while building the larger box, I thought this would make a sweet little box of its own.
Zebrawood lid is just rabbeted to fit, shown here removed to display the blue flocking inside.
All of my recent boxes have employed mitred corners with mitre keys for style and more importantly to improve the glue bond at the corners. Other similar construction techniques were used on all of them, like the way the lids are made, and the way the hinges are attached. Think I need to shake things up for the new year, but not sure how yet.
Thanks for looking! And remember, click any photo to view larger on Flickr.
