Boxes

Added 10 April 2022

My daughter asked me to make this keepsake box for a friend of hers, to contain memories of someone very special. Boxes are not really my thing, but I enjoyed making this, and I have made one or two over the years. This one is 14” x 10” x 4" and is mostly made from Maple and Iroko. The latch and buttons on the mounts were made from Boxwood, the fittings from brass, and the inside base is birch plywood lined with red baize. It actually has some woodturning on it, but you'd hardly notice, and the dovetails are hand sawn.

Added 9 November 2014

This is an 18” x 15” x 3.5” Cherry display case commissioned to house a rare book. It may seem to be a little out of place on a website dedicated to turned work; however in my defence there is a bit of turning on it in Partridgewood and brass.

The main body (lid and base) is in Cherry and the floor in Oak-faced MDF, which was chosen for its stability. The lid and base were made as one finger jointed and mitred assembly with the oak floor loose fitted into a routed locating groove, and then the lid was carefully sawn off. This ensures absolute physical alignment and grain matching of lid and base. The 4 mm tempered glass in the lid was retained with Yew and the red book-rest was felt covered MDF. The combined latch and ring handle was turned from Partridgewood. I bought the brass butterfly hinges, lid-stay cables and brown felt feet, but turned all the other lid stay-cable and latch fittings from brass rod. I did draw up a design for wooden hinges with brass sleeves and silver-steel pins which I started to make but finally rejected it because of durability concerns with the weight of the lid conflicting with my desire for something with a low profile. The lid opening angle was constrained to 92 degrees; sufficient to remain safe when opened, but not so great as to put undue strain on the stay cables from the heavy glass. The stay cables were looped around stainless steel cap head screws and secured by doubling the cable through tiny brass rings secured with medium CA+.

The job was finished with Chestnut Finishing Oil and Microcrystalline wax.

Added 6 February 2014

7" diameter face-grain Iroko box with a threaded lid. I made this as a test piece for the thread cutting tools I have made which are described here.

Added 30 November 2013

2.9" Partridgewood box. This is a very dense and fine grained timber that can be polished to a high gloss. It also appears to be dimensionally stable, making it suitable for boxes with close fitting lids. It blunts tools very quickly and one should shear scrape with care so that extremely fine sanding is all that is required, rather as for Lignum Vitae.