Project Information
I bought a board of wenge at The Woodworking Show this past January. I had never worked with it and the beauty of it just called out to me. I recently saw a rerun of a Classic Woodworking episode in which, Mike Pekovich joined Tom McLaughlin and they made a tea box from wenge. The die was cast. I went through my back issues of Fine Woodworking and pulled out issue #269, Aug 2018. An article on Pekovich's build of the box was there but not complete plan details (e.g., size and layout of dovetails and pins).
Besides the wood itself, the key feature of this box is the proud hand-cut dovetail joinery. I'm still not a fan of making hand-cut dovetails but I am getting better at them. Since I had some birdseye maple on hand, I followed Pekovich's lead and used it for the tea box lining. I wandered from Pekovich's design in two areas. First, I did not make the clever magnetic corded clasp and secondly I did not incorporate the added texture Pekovich designed, using a wire brush on the box and leaving tooling marks (for example band saw roughness).
The box measures out at 10-3/8 inches long by 4 inches wide by 5 inches tall including the base. The lining is joined via mitered corners held by glue alone. The dividers get beveled ends that fit into milled v-grooves. The lining fits snugly in the box and registers placement of the lid.
As I noted above, wenge is a beautiful species on its own. Apply a finish to it and BAM, it really comes to life. While appearing a milk chocolate color pre-finish, it turned to a deep, dark, rich chocolate color. I tried to capture the difference in photo #6 but I don't know if you will be able to detect the variance. I went with 3 coats of aerosol shellac on the interior. The exterior got 2 coats of shellac followed by 2 coats of Deft aerosol satin lacquer. I then applied Howard's Feed N Wax inside and out using 0000 steel wool.
Besides the wood itself, the key feature of this box is the proud hand-cut dovetail joinery. I'm still not a fan of making hand-cut dovetails but I am getting better at them. Since I had some birdseye maple on hand, I followed Pekovich's lead and used it for the tea box lining. I wandered from Pekovich's design in two areas. First, I did not make the clever magnetic corded clasp and secondly I did not incorporate the added texture Pekovich designed, using a wire brush on the box and leaving tooling marks (for example band saw roughness).
The box measures out at 10-3/8 inches long by 4 inches wide by 5 inches tall including the base. The lining is joined via mitered corners held by glue alone. The dividers get beveled ends that fit into milled v-grooves. The lining fits snugly in the box and registers placement of the lid.
As I noted above, wenge is a beautiful species on its own. Apply a finish to it and BAM, it really comes to life. While appearing a milk chocolate color pre-finish, it turned to a deep, dark, rich chocolate color. I tried to capture the difference in photo #6 but I don't know if you will be able to detect the variance. I went with 3 coats of aerosol shellac on the interior. The exterior got 2 coats of shellac followed by 2 coats of Deft aerosol satin lacquer. I then applied Howard's Feed N Wax inside and out using 0000 steel wool.
