Project Information
These boxes are for my two daughters, 5 and 8 years of age. My wife calls them Jewelry Boxes but I call them Keepsake Boxes. I don't have to fill up Keepsake Boxes!!!
I normally don't worry about making identical projects. I usually avoid it so there is only one of anything I make, unique and individual. The girls are somewhat competitive and a slight difference will inevitably cause the whine of, "Her's is better than mine" or "Mine is better than your's", etc, etc.
The body is walnut with ash details. I fell the walnut trees several years ago and the ash a little less than two years ago. This ash tree is where I learned the attributes of ash!!! Excellent hammer and chisel handles. Very stable and it turns nicely along with excellent strength.
The lid lifts off and the two interior trays lift out with the top, smaller tray sliding on top of the middle one. There are rails for the middle tray to rest on for storage in the bottom of the box.
The finish is almost all plane and scraper card. I lightly sanded with 150 and 240 at the end just to be sure. The coating is two layers of BLO. I learned a lot about plane use and card sharpening on this project. I did set up a cross grain situation on the corners of the main box. Just hoping it holds together for the long haul. If it fails, I now know how to mill new corners to accomodate the grain. The base and lid corners are oriented with the ajoining wood. The lid border, the ash and walnut outer band are tounge and grooved around the free floating center panel.
It feels great to be in the shop doing woodworking instead of carpentry. This was a fun project.
Thanks for looking! Critiques and comments are welcome and appreciated. This is how we learn.
BTKS
I normally don't worry about making identical projects. I usually avoid it so there is only one of anything I make, unique and individual. The girls are somewhat competitive and a slight difference will inevitably cause the whine of, "Her's is better than mine" or "Mine is better than your's", etc, etc.
The body is walnut with ash details. I fell the walnut trees several years ago and the ash a little less than two years ago. This ash tree is where I learned the attributes of ash!!! Excellent hammer and chisel handles. Very stable and it turns nicely along with excellent strength.
The lid lifts off and the two interior trays lift out with the top, smaller tray sliding on top of the middle one. There are rails for the middle tray to rest on for storage in the bottom of the box.
The finish is almost all plane and scraper card. I lightly sanded with 150 and 240 at the end just to be sure. The coating is two layers of BLO. I learned a lot about plane use and card sharpening on this project. I did set up a cross grain situation on the corners of the main box. Just hoping it holds together for the long haul. If it fails, I now know how to mill new corners to accomodate the grain. The base and lid corners are oriented with the ajoining wood. The lid border, the ash and walnut outer band are tounge and grooved around the free floating center panel.
It feels great to be in the shop doing woodworking instead of carpentry. This was a fun project.
Thanks for looking! Critiques and comments are welcome and appreciated. This is how we learn.
BTKS