Accidental 4 corner grain match

BB1 · Feb 21, 2016

Beauiful box. Yes - please explain.

WoodTooling · Feb 21, 2016

First you take a 4/4 board and resaw it on the bandsaw into two 1/2" boards. It could be a thicker board if you want just resaw down the middle to get equal thicknesses. Take your two (now bookmatched) boards and plane them smooth. The side you plane smooth will be the outside of your box. Its important that they are on the outside to get the best grain match. You will cut side 1 & 2 out of one board and side 3 & 4 from your other board those pieces will naturally match very good but since you bookmatched the board now pieces 2&3 will match and 1 & 4 will match as well making a 4 corner match. I understand this may be a little confusing if theres anything thats not making sense let me know.

RobEk · Feb 21, 2016

4 matching corners is not so hard. Lets say you are making a box that is 5" W x 10" L x 3" H and you want it to be 3/4" thick.

1. You need to start with a board that is 3" H and slightly longer than 15" L and slightly thicker than 1 1/2"... Think of the two ends as end A and end B.

2. You need to rip the board into two strips (book match it). So now you have two boards, both have the same A and B ends.

3. The two outside sides of your original single board are the inside of your box, and the book match sides are now your outside 4 corner matching sides.

4. You just need to make sure before you book match that the board is the right length, to include the amount you will lose for cross cuts…

Make sense?

WoodTooling · Feb 21, 2016

I concur. And its not hard once you understand it but it can be confusing for someone who didnt know it could be done. I just couldnt get any detailed info on how to do it when i was trying to figure it out i wound up just resawing a board and marking lines for my sides until i understood and figured it out.

JakeBrain · Feb 21, 2016

newTim has a good 5 part blog on box making and has some very good photos of each step. His blog is http://lumberjocks.com/newTim/blog/17630. I have also used his method when I make my boxes.

Tooch · Feb 21, 2016

Nice box, Andy. Love the spline on top of the miter joint

BB1 · Feb 21, 2016

Thanks for explaining. I now understand the concept but am thinking how I could accomplish that first rip cut to create the book match as I don't have a bandsaw. Guessing it would be possible but more challenging with a table saw?

WoodTooling · Feb 21, 2016

I have done it on a table saw and it works pretty good but you want as thin of a kerf cut you can get because the grains can get mismatched slightly. I have yet to get a box yet where theres not a little mismatch somewhere anyway. Give it a try itll work fine, good luck.

majuvla · Feb 21, 2016

Beautiful colours for this box. Interesting solution with back spline on top of the joint.

BB1 · Feb 22, 2016

Thanks Andy - this will be going on my list of projects! Thanks again for taking the time to explain the process.

jbertelson · Feb 22, 2016

I like your box, and your hinging method. Thanks for the post.
Sometimes the explanations on LJ's are the best, and sometimes FWW magazine does a good job. Here is an article I used for making a box. It describes the way to match the grain around a box quite well:

"Secrets to flawless mitered boxes" from the April 2015 FWW magazine.

helluvawreck · Feb 22, 2016

It's a beautiful box. Nice work.

helluvawreck aka Charles
http://woodworkingexpo.wordpress.com

UncleStumpy · Feb 23, 2016

I have to admit that I have never seen a spline on the top of a miter before, but I really like the effect.
I am going to steal your idea, if it's ok!

WoodTooling · Feb 23, 2016

Go ahead and do it thats why i post my projects, to give all of you ideas to make something yourself. But be careful cutting them splines like that if the wood is thin the table saw can throw your whole top corner in the shop floor! It happens.

Accidental 4 corner grain match

Project Information

Gallery

Comments

BB1

WoodTooling

RobEk

WoodTooling

JakeBrain

Tooch

BB1

WoodTooling

majuvla

BB1

jbertelson

helluvawreck

UncleStumpy

WoodTooling

More in Projects

More in Projects