This Sea Chest was commissioned for a retiring Navy Chief Warrant Officer. Dimensions are 18.5” tall, 37.5” long and 19.75” deep. Wood is Makore or African Cherry. Thickness is .75” for all stock except the cleats for the beckets. Finish is four coats of hand rubbed oil finish ARM-r Seal semi-gloss followed by two coats of hand applied fine furniture wax. The beckets, the rope lid stay and the turks head rope covers for the lid knobs were all hand made by Mr. Roy Chapman of Coupeville Washington. The box lid and bottom are lined with a blue felt cloth. The lid is designed to hold a 5×9 flag, various medals and accoutrement from his naval career.

I learned how to use my Porter Cable dovetail jig, the 4212 to dovetail a board of infinite width. The 4212 will only work on boards up to 12 in wide which wouldn’t work on this project. The manual is here; http://www.rockler.com/tech/RTD10000211AA.pdf. It’s very straightforward and easy to accomplish. I was very concerned at first, but it came out perfect.

The brass hardware comes from Lee Valley. I really like the handmade beckets, they are rated in excess of 5000 lbs! Amazing!

A Christmas present for my wife. Big Leaf Maple for the top and legs with some Eastern Maple and Black Walnut for the stretcher. The top just on loose mortise and tennons and the stretcher is held in place with the two tapered pegs. No mechanical fasteners on this baby. It’s gotta have room to move and breath!

I make shadowboxes for fellow service members upon retirement. Made from Walnut with a Maple tour of duty plate.

Salvaged Old Growth Western Red Cedar. Got the wood from a friend. The barn the wood once made up was built sometime in the late 1800’s. No telling how old the tree was when it was cut back then. The owner was burning the wood in a scrap pile when my friend rescued it! Shame shame!! Check out the magnificent tight uniform grain. The barn once stood in the foot hills of the western Cascade range.

Live edge Western Red Cedar salvaged from a tree cut that was too close to a home. Saved it from the firewood mongers!

Pagoda boxes made from recycled Mahogany, Big Leaf Maple and Rosewood. The Mahogany came from pallets! Glad I could do something useful with it.