I was asked by a friend to make a box for his mom to hold cards that are very special to her. I put together some ideas in Google Sketchup, and asked some fellow woodworkers for their input using Google Wave. It was an interesting experience to get real time input online.
Here is the design that I settled on:
The woods it will be made out of are Butternut and Walnut.
I’ve been practicing my handcut dovetails for awhile in preparation for this project, and finally felt like I was up to the task yesterday. So I got the dovetails all cut, then used the router table to cut a 1/4″ groove in the sides for the bottom. If I had a hand tool option for making the groove, I would have used it, but I don’t yet. I then cut the bottom of the box to size and used a skew plane to cut the rabbet to fit it into the 1/4″ grooves. After assembling the box, I made the walnut bull nose moulding and attached it to the bottom.
Here is the progress so far, I wiped it down with mineral spirits to show closer how it will look when finished (the finish will probably be linseed oil and bees wax):
I still have to make the lid and apply the finish. I will be sure to post updated pictures when I do.