White House Workshop
Established Member
These two were made mostly from recycled bits hanging around the workshop. The tops of both boxes came from resawing - one a piece of cherry and one an off-cut of black walnut. Both were ends of long boards that I couldn't use in the larger projects, and both box shapes were defined by the bookmatch shape on the walnut and cherry boards - I didn't square them up, but used the shape to define the box.
I had some spalted maple lying around that went well with the spalting on the cherry. The clear maple around the lid provides an interesting contrast. The cherry legs are mounted off the box on brass spacers. This box has my first attempt at french polishing on the top; it's not brilliant, but it does have a nice deep shine. The sides and legs are finished in clear acrylic lacquer. The inside tray has 2 coats of lacquer that have not been smoothed to a shine, but left matte. The spline holding the lid surround together is black walnut.
I agonised for weeks over what wood to use for the sides of this box, until I thought of trying the two different types of walnut - american black on the top and english for the sides. The english walnut was recovered from what was left of a worm damaged Victorian day bed - I still have quite a bit of it left, but not too much without worm holes! Again I used clear maple for the top frame. The base was milled out of a piece of pine as an experiment -- I transposed the shape of the top onto the pine, cut it out and milled a dado round the edges to hold the side pieces. Unfortunately I milled too close and it wasn't stable, so the end result is a rabbett instead. It still looks nice. This box is going to be a gift for the daughter-in-law to keep her make-up in as she leaves it lying around the bathroom!
The finish on this box is wax on the black walnut, tung oil on the english walnut, pine and maple, and once the tung oil has soaked in a full coat of gloss lacquer. I'm concerned about the stability of this box and am making sure the pine base is completely sealed so that ti doesn't move.
Incidentally, the box sides are all end grain to end grain...
For a look inside the boxes click here and they are the last 2 on the page:
http://www.managementtectonics.com/woodwork/objets.html
I had some spalted maple lying around that went well with the spalting on the cherry. The clear maple around the lid provides an interesting contrast. The cherry legs are mounted off the box on brass spacers. This box has my first attempt at french polishing on the top; it's not brilliant, but it does have a nice deep shine. The sides and legs are finished in clear acrylic lacquer. The inside tray has 2 coats of lacquer that have not been smoothed to a shine, but left matte. The spline holding the lid surround together is black walnut.
I agonised for weeks over what wood to use for the sides of this box, until I thought of trying the two different types of walnut - american black on the top and english for the sides. The english walnut was recovered from what was left of a worm damaged Victorian day bed - I still have quite a bit of it left, but not too much without worm holes! Again I used clear maple for the top frame. The base was milled out of a piece of pine as an experiment -- I transposed the shape of the top onto the pine, cut it out and milled a dado round the edges to hold the side pieces. Unfortunately I milled too close and it wasn't stable, so the end result is a rabbett instead. It still looks nice. This box is going to be a gift for the daughter-in-law to keep her make-up in as she leaves it lying around the bathroom!
The finish on this box is wax on the black walnut, tung oil on the english walnut, pine and maple, and once the tung oil has soaked in a full coat of gloss lacquer. I'm concerned about the stability of this box and am making sure the pine base is completely sealed so that ti doesn't move.
Incidentally, the box sides are all end grain to end grain...
For a look inside the boxes click here and they are the last 2 on the page:
http://www.managementtectonics.com/woodwork/objets.html
