Well the most recent project has yeilded a shadow box for a guidon to be placed in it as a gift. I did some different things with this project than previous ones. First, I used Jatoba as the main lumber for this and I was very pleased with it. Second, I did the splines out of cherry in the center with paduak on both sides of the cherry. I am not sure why I did this but I did. That alone took me all day with a dozuki saw, glue and a bunch of blue tape to make the paduak and cherry splines and then fit them in the slots cut for them. I have mixed feelings about the look they gave me and I am not sure if I will do it again. I also put a paduak border around the front to give it a little wow factor as paduak stands out from the jatoba. Overall a simple project that the SgtMaj we gave this to really enjoyed, which is always the goal. And I can’t forget to mention my nosey companions that jumped in the pictures because they thought what was on the chair was for them to chew on.

This is the most recent gift I have built for one of my good friends that was leaving us. He is moving on to Marine Corps Recruiter School and in turn upon graduation be responsible for getting the fine Americans into the United States Marine Corps. As a former Drill Instructor I can say we can’t make them if they don’t send them. So he is off to bigger and better things.

Anyway, this was also for an ammo tech guy so we made an ammo can. Seems fitting, right?

I tried to start a blog on this project and did not spend enough time following through with it. I would like to have documented more of my progress then I did, which was really not much.

This ammo can was made out of paduak and has cherry splines in the joints. It is fully functional. It has solid brass metal for what could not be wood and it also gives him something to shine. Marines love shining brass. Desert Marpat utilities were used for the bottom of the ammo can as with the first one.

Please excuse the dates on the photos as my photograph capturing device is not calibrated as it should be.

Questions and comments are more than welcome.

This is a version of my simple box from some plans I found in a magazine. I made this for my wife for Chirstmas. It is made out of walnut sides and a quartersawn oak lid. The keys for the spline joints are out of maple. Because I did not want to give her an empty box, I made a small heart out of the same oak the lid is made out of with walnut joining the two halves. And yes box making is addictive because I want to make another small on with hand cut dovetails next. Oh joy!

This was my second chess board. I made this for my brother as a gift. I did not turn the pieces myself as that is something I do not have the skills nor the tools to do just yet. I made this one out of rosewood, maple, and a small strip of walnut. All of the accents are from laminations of the woods. I think if I was to do this again I would make it out of a quilted maple. Any comments or suggestions are definately welcome.

This was the first shadow box I ever built. I made this one for ny Dad who was in Vietnam. He did not have anything like this so I felt compeled to make one for him. It was my way of saying thanks as I am in the military also. I also learned from this shadow box that teak is not that easy to work with my skill set at that time. But it came out nice and survived a trip from San Diego to Florida on a plane as a carry on. I did not run into hard times until we tried to hang it on the wall and it fell off. Luckily it broke two of the joints but not the glass. We were able to save it and get it back together and we hanged it better the second time. The picture of me and my Dad was after we fixed it and you can tell I was not a happy camper. But it did all work out in the end and it gave us memories I will never forget.

This shadow box was a going away gift for our Major in my section. I wanted to do something different so we got the glass etched instead of putting a metal plate inside. It is made out of Cherry and has brass pins in the top securing the sides. I finished this in tung oil with a couple coats of paste wax. I also did something different with the challenge coin and placed it on a walnut pedastal at a 45 degree angle. Overall this is a rather simple shadow box but is not the same as the run of the mill shadow boxes.

This one is a shadow box I made for the Guest of Honor for our last Marine Corps birthday ball. It has a flag that has flown at Officer Candidates School (OCS) Headquarters. All of the enlisted chevrons and officer insignia represent what ranks we have at OCS. I built the shadow box out of walnut and cherry. The sline joints are alternating, cherry in walnut and walnut in cherry. One thing I wish I could get better at is folding the flag so all of the stars are pararrel to the deck. That was the hardest part. These pics do not show it but I did get the flag sqaured away later. The Staff Sergeant in the photo sent me the pics of the General and us. He really liked the gift and he knows he has a one of a kind. The joy of woodworking!

This was a going away gift for one of my Marines. Another one of my Marines came up with the idea to build a wooden ammo can because the Marine leaving was an ammunition technician. I did not come up with the design but I helped the Marines out in getting this one built. I am very fond of the choice of wood, curly cherry. The ammo can is close to scale and beside the top handle, it is fully functional. I finished it with high gloss lacquer and a coat of paste wax. Most of the joinery is with brass pins as well, which complements the brass rod that is used for the handles and the latch. This was a difficult build but we now have learned a lot from it and are looking foward to building another one.

This is a going away gift for a Captain in my unit. The idea behind it was he never received a gift from his last unit for whatever reason so we incorporated it in this one. The paddle below is representing the past and the paddle on top is representing this unit. Overall this was a simple yet nice gift for the good Captain. The mounting board is made from red oak. I stripped it into five equal pieces and flipped the grain from one piece to the next. I did not make the paddles, they were bought. The wrapping on the handles was done by another Marine but I have since figured out a basic way of doing that also. This was a fun build and it breaks up the same old trend of just building shadow boxes as gifts.

This is the first chess board I ever built. Before building this I had a few picture frames under my belt and that was about it. I did not want to spend a lot of money on this in case I made a fatal mistake. So I built it all out of scrap lumber. It is primarily oak. But there is mahogany and walnut trim in the case. I am not sure what type of wood the dark squares are, but they serve their purpose. There really is no style that I followed, I just went with it to prove to myself that I could build it. With all projects, this one taught me things not to do ever again and things to improve upon for the future.