Yew

[marcros]

Had a little project that has been dropped on me with a deadline of the end of the coming week.

I need to make an 80th birthday present so am going to do a lift off lidded keepsake box.

I have some seasoned yew for the sides, if I remember correctly it is a mix of subtle colours with a little pale sapwood in it. The base will be mdf, covered inside and out with a lining (rather than veneer, I prefer that pigskin makes it nice and soft to place down)

Any ideas for a nice contrasting timber for the top- I have no idea what would look good and have not used yew before. It can potentially be solid or veneer- I may need to purchase something either way.

 

[Random Orbital Bob]

Rosewood looks nice with Yew

 

[tobytools]

+1 rosewood, any darker wood IMHO, laburnum, walnut, stuff like that, look forwards to pics, I love yew.

Here is a nice pic of some beautiful yew wood.
http://www.ktproductions.co.uk/blog/?page_id=27

Cheers
TT

 

[Phil Pascoe]

The wood doesn't stay that colour, unfortunately. Nicely made saw though, he took care with sides - look at the softwood/hardwood split.

 

[Glynne]

Saw a black walnut and yew table at Artifex which looked surprisingly good. Struggling to post a link on the iPad but have a look at other tables on their site.
Glynne

 

[marcros]

the walnut combination does seem to work well, and I may have an off-cut that I could use- not sure on the size.

The other things that may work well would be something like a dark corian, if i can get a bit, or a gloss black shellac top.

I have a design in mind for walnut, but am a bit nervous about seasonal movement. That design wouldn't easily work in veneer.

 

[Random Orbital Bob]

You could always ebonise some oak if the exotics are either in short supply or too expensive.

 

[marcros]

that thought had just occurred to me actually Bob. Ebonise or fume it. Using something that I dont have does reduce the time available a fair bit. I need to look at the yew this evening, and see exactly what I have in terms of heart/sap and how the oak grain works with it. Also what veneers I have in my little stash and the size of the walnut pieces.

 

[Random Orbital Bob]

there you are you see...great mind think alike

(and no....small minds seldom differ would be wholly inappropriate in this case

 

[rafezetter]

Had a little project that has been dropped on me with a deadline of the end of the coming week.

I need to make an 80th birthday present so am going to do a lift off lidded keepsake box.

Is that a euphamism?

Sorry bad form, BAD Rafe! MY macabre SoH

 

[Random Orbital Bob]

:twisted: =D>

 

[Tetsuaiga]

Sounds difficult to recommend anything as to me Yew is the kind of colour that's inbetween everything, unless talking about the white outside.

I'd probably say something ebonised or very white like Holly or Sycamore.

 

[marcros]

I have gone with walnut. This was mainly because it looked good and I had a decent sized piece. This saved a day of bookmatching and waiting for the glue to dry as well as waiting for something to arrive in the post. air dried walnut, really nice to work in contrast to the kiln dried black walnut I have used before.

I have been playing with my new table saw tonight for the first time. I have got everything cut to size and will be sanding things tomorrow, and putting a coat or two of tru oil on components before glue up. Probably glue up Wednesday night, wax it Thursday and line it Friday. There was no sapwood on this yew that I am using- the slice before it has more but that was a bit thick for this box. Nice to work but marks easily are my comments so far.

 

[Nick Gibbs]

Sounds great, Marcros. The yew will go a gorgeous deep brown colour. I wouldn't have thought it's an easy species to find a pair, and I'd favour matching it with an English species, perhaps bog oak, which would be good contrast without too much figure. But walnut will be great I'm sure. Good luck. Yew can tear and chip.

 

[marcros]

you are not joking about it chipping, Nick. If i was to do another i would make a few changes to prevent this, but there is no time on this one to do so. I had not thought of bog oak, i imagine that it would work very well with the yew, but is rather ££££££ too!

The jointing is a simple rebate, which looks better in real life than the picture. It wont impress a woodworker, but my theory is that the vast majority of recipients dont care about what joint is used, as long as it is nice and tight. Therefore on quick projects such as this, there is no need to use anything complex. I dislike mitres because with my current system of clamping- ie a band clamp, they are a nightmare to glue up. I need to sort out some clamping cauls I think for doing that joint (easy enough from the plans that I have seen). I hope that this encourages people who would like to make a gift for a friend, relative or partner- dont be put off by the thought of the corner joint having to be intricate. This one was cut on the table saw, but equally it could have been done with a router or various methods with hand tools.

There is a walnut corner strip to fit to each corner to cover the exposed end grain. I am going to dowel the joint, probably with some 2mm bamboo skewers, and then put a decorative square walnut peg over the exposed end. I need to have a look this evening, but the only dowel that I have in walnut is 6mm I think, which may be a touch big.

 

[Nick Gibbs]

The jointing is a simple rebate, which looks better in real life than the picture. It wont impress a woodworker, but my theory is that the vast majority of recipients dont care about what joint is used, as long as it is nice and tight.

I hate the idea of people being discouraged from making projects because they think they'll be judged by other woodworkers, when in reality everyone else will think you are amazing! The walnut works well with the yew.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

The jointing is a simple rebate, which looks better in real life than the picture. It wont impress a woodworker, but my theory is that the vast majority of recipients dont care about what joint is used, as long as it is nice and tight.

I hate the idea of people being discouraged from making projects because they think they'll be judged by other woodworkers, when in reality everyone else will think you are amazing! The walnut works well with the yew.

This is a problem we have as makers - I've made stuff that other people have looked at and told me how beautiful it was etc. when all I've seen is a collection of faults.