I received an email through my website requesting a commissioned urn. She wanted an urn to hold the ashes of her departed son. When asked what aspects she was looking for in the urn she said that he liked working with metal. She also liked angles over curved surfaces. Early on she sent me a picture of him as a very young boy. She stated how peaceful those times were…that really struck me emotionally and the design work for “My Soft Underbelly” started.

The body of the urn is made from a piece of figured Claro Walnut I picked up on a trip out to San Francisco. The grain wraps around the box. The entire body is made using mortise and tenon construction. A lot of careful cutting and routing took place to get all the angles perfect. I made three routing fixtures to add the machined out detail to all four sides. The silver you see is aluminum tubing. I cut 55 pieces of tubing and filled them with a mixture of two-part epoxy tinted with India ink. I made two fixtures to sand them down to the same length and polish the ends. I made them flush on the body of the box. They strengthen the miter joint. The angled “bottom” of the box has eight tee nuts in it to attach the Claro Walnut Picture frame (that has Wenge splines to strengthen it). Behind the frame is the access to the ash chamber. The bottom is lined in black velvet. I wanted the urn to be something that is touched and shown. I made the inside accessible so it can hold memories and not just be put on a shelf to stare at. The inside is lined in red velvet.

The legs and the majority of the lid are made from the Claro Walnut also. The two panels in the lid are veneered with Amboyna Burl and Curly Maple. The brackets that hold the feet are made from African Blackwood and carved to look like hammered steel. Almost all the edges of the brackets, legs and lid have a .1” rebate on the edges to amplify the “machined” look. That took another three custom routing fixtures. I left the aluminum dowels proud of the bracket surfaces to represent rivets. You can see in the pictures how the legs are only mounted using the brackets. This gives them a floating look.

The key to the urn is to expose its “soft underbelly”. To do this you place the urn onto a mirror and a reflection of her son is shown. “My Soft Underbelly” was created to represent the vulnerability one has with love.

The twist to this story is the new owner shared the same last name as me…and her departed son and I have the same name…Jeff Baenen. This made it a very special build. The picture of him on the tractor was taken at a Baenen family reunion that happened almost 30 years ago..and I remember being there. It turns out we are distantly related cousins. She found me by Goggling her sons name. The world works in mysterious ways.

“My Soft Underbelly” is 12” x 8.5” x 7.5”. It was finished with four soakings of Danish Oil followed by two buffings of BriWax. The hinges were purchased from Ian Hawthorne ..they are awesome. I polished all the stainless screws prior to assembly.

Definition of “Spearhead”: a leading element, force, or influence in an undertaking or development

Yes…I can design a box around that word….and that’s how the design of Spearhead started.

The body of Spearhead came from a chance encounter with a beautiful piece of Maple Burl I purchased from LJ member Stockmaker. There was a bark inclusion running through the piece which severely weakened it. Knowing I wasn’t going to be able to cut it into usable pieces I got an idea and broke it into two pieces. Each of those two pieces was cut into four pieces. After creating a special sled I was able to cut all the miters and create the box bodies. It is capped with Gaboon Ebony. The legs are made from Red Heart. They were shaped using compound cuts on the bandsaw and then final shaping on the stationary belt sander. I applied a black maple veneer to the tops of the spear portions of the legs.

The lid is made from Figured Asian Satin Wood. A piece of Gaboon Ebony makes up the base for the Red Heart spear top.

Finish is four soakings of Danish oil followed by two buffings of BriWax. They are lined with red velvet.

Sizes are 2.875” x 2.875” x 12” and 2.875” x 2.875” x 13.5”

Hope you enjoy them…keep making that sawdust

The “Legacy” cribbage board/boxes were created in honor of the father of one of my best friends. A cribbage board was created for each family member, five all together, as a memorial of his passing. Joe Bernard was a great man and an amazing cribbage player. He was the sixth person to earn a Two-Star Life Master, awarded All American Team honors six times, and won 24 tournaments. His accomplishments with the game made naming the cribbage boards very easy.

Cribbage board bodies are curly maple with black walnut splines. The feet are made from Bolivian Rosewood. Two lid materials were used, Crotch Black Walnut and Leopard Wood.

The wooden plate with the dowel in the center is a spring loaded lift for the lid. The plate is made from Padauk. There is a button on the bottom of the box to push the lid up so you can remove it. You can remove the lid, flip it over and place it back in the box.

The box is 11.625” x 4.25” x 2.2”....so the board itself is 10.85” x 3.5” x .75”. The boxes where finished with three soakings of Danish Oil followed by buffing on a Beall buffing system.

For Christmas I received the documentary “Note by Note – The Making of Steinway L1037”. If you have not seen it I highly recommend it. As a woodworker you will greatly appreciate the work that goes into one of these beautiful concert pianos. I had flashbacks of the documentary when I read that the Winter Awards theme was jewelry. I really wanted to design a piano theme into a jewelry piece. “Keys to My Heart” is the necklace design I came up with. I also came up with a pair of earrings that are called “Music for My Ears”. I know…I like naming things.

The necklace is made from African Blackwood and Holly. The keys are laid out and shaped exactly like a real keyboard. The “beads” where made from taking 10 pieces of African Blackwood. First drill a hole through the length of the part. Second, cut them in half on the scroll saw splitting them into two grand piano shaped beads. That makes them lock together perfectly. Third I tape them to a fixture and round over the tops on a belt sander. After that it is all rasps and sandpaper to round all the edges. All the individual pieces of “Keys to My Heart” were polished using a Beall polishing system. As a pretreatment I soaked the Holly in Minwax Wood hardener and let it dry to give it a clear sealer. I didn’t want to use anything that would yellow it.

I started the earrings by making a glue up of 11 alternating layers of Black Walnut veneer and creating a ¼” thick custom plywood. I then cut out the Treble Clef design on the scroll saw. I made a fixture to hold the earrings so I could create a radius on both sides of the earrings on the belt sander…basically making them fat in the middle and thin on the edges. After that I curved all the sharp edges using a rotary carving tool, rasps and sandpaper. I ebonized the earrings using India ink. Finish on “Music for My Ears” is hand wiped poly. They are actually very light and comfortable to wear.

I wanted something nice to display the necklace on so I picked up a black neck/torso stand from a craft store. I reupholstered it in gray fabric and made the Black Walnut cap to hold the earrings.

I need to thank three people who helped me during this process:

Joel Alonzo for taking beautiful pictures once again!

My sister-in-law Lynn for showing me the finer points of necklace and earring assembly!

The beautiful Olivia for posing with my creations….simmer down gents…she is like a daughter to me:-) She is now the new owner of both pieces. It makes me very happy that she loves them.

I took a couple pics while making the two pieces and inserted them below.

Now lets make some more sawdust!

It has been a while since I last posted on Lumberjocks. 2012 ended with a health scare and some life changes. Things are fine now and I am looking forward to starting over in 2013. I do want to thank fellow Lumberjock Grizzman for checking in on me and giving me a little nudge to get back on Lumberjocks.

So back to the cool stuff. These are kaleidoscopes I designed and crafted. I made two using Bocote and Curly Maple and two using Curly Shedua and Curly Maple. I called them “Escape” since that is what you get to do while looking through them. The kaleidoscope and stand started with glue ups of ¾” thick Curly Maple and a dark veneer. This gave me the thickness I needed. The final shapes of the kaleidoscopes and bases were created using compound cuts on the bandsaw, spindle sander and a lot of carving using a rotary tool and rasps. There are three face mirrors inside the kaleidoscopes and the oil filled wand supplies the eye candy. It is held in place with hidden o-rings.

Kaleidoscopes are a cool way to explore your creative side. It is also a fun way to show little kids what kind of toys we had when we were growing up.

Here is a link to Wood Magazines plan for a kaleidoscope.

I order kaleidoscope hardware kits from www.glasscrafters.com

Below are some “before finish” pictures.

I had received an email from my best friend containing some sad news about his father-in-law and a special request. Gene, or as we knew him Geno, had passed on and the family wanted to know if I would design his final resting place. Since this is a family who I love, and Geno was a man who I fully respected, I was truly honored. He will be forever missed by everyone. I was told simple would be fine since his ashes would be buried at a full military ceremony, but I still wanted something very majestic and fitting of such a man. The urn was named “Goodnite, Sweatheart, Goodnite” to mirror Geno’s love of listening to his old 45’s on the jukebox.

The body of the urn is made from hard Maple sourced from my parents property. It was very important for me to construct the body of the urn from a tree grown in Wisconsin…like being surrounded by your home. It uses a folded miter joint and the grain wraps around the urn. The miter joint is reinforced using a hollow dowel technique that I developed. (I will blog about this technique later since Wood magazine is actually going to publish it!!) This gave the dowels the unique “ring” look you see. The top panel of the box was made by veneering 1/4” baltic birch with quartersawn Walnut veneer on both sides.

The legs are constructed of Walnut and Mahogany. The first step was to create a block using an 1/8” thick piece of Walnut flanked by two pieces of 3/4” Mahogany. Once the blocks were dry they were squared off and a 1.75” square block of Walnut was attached to the top, while paying close attention to the grain direction. Once squared off again, centered slots were machined into the backs to add splines for mounting . The shaping could now begin. Initial shaping took place at the bandsaw using a compound cutting technique. That was followed by a combination of a belt sander and a Foredom carver.

The bottom of the urn is attached using brass screws.

“Goodnite, Sweetheart, Goodnite” is 12.75” x 10.25” x 6.25”. It was finished with three soakings of Danish Oil followed by two buffings of Briwax.

Thank you for looking! Now it is time to make some more sawdust.

Having a very small shop to work in, every bit of free space has to be used. I noticed all this wasted space under my Delta Unisaw and decided to utilize it for better purpose…storing hand tools to protect them from dust.

The carcass is made from 3/4” oak faced plywood. Internal supports are pine and the face frames are constructed out of poplar. Finally got to really use my Kreg pocket hole jig and man, is that thing amazing. Really speeds up the building process.

Drawers are constructed of 3/4” plywood also with 1/2” plywood bottoms. I know that seems overkill but I knew I was going to be filling the drawers with heavy objects. I used a lock rabbet joint to construct the drawers. All draw glides are full extension Accuride. The two large drawers use 26” full extensions…that is a big glide! The company I work for switched buildings and they were throwing out boxes of Accuride glides…the small drawers ride on those. Since they were smaller I designed two drawers that come out the back also. Drawer fronts are Maple that has gotten pretty chewed up by powder post beetles. A couple more years and the wood would have been useless.

The body was painted black to match the saw but the drawer fronts have been polyurethaned.

The last picture shows this mornings work. All the hand tools are in their own place. I used Kaizen Foam to give each tool its own spot. I can’t stop opening this drawer up and just staring!

Well, back to the basement. This cabinet has set me back a bit on other projects! Time to make some sawdust!

Stormy Night in the Mountains started life with an email conversation between a friend and I. He was looking for a special birthday gift for his girlfriend and wanted me to design a jewelry box for her. The fact that they live in Colorado and are big “outsiders” played a large part in the design.

I had picked up some beautiful ,mineral streaked, birdseye maple on a motorcycle trip up in Northern Michigan. To me it looked as if there was a storm going on in the wood with all the mineral streaks and figure. Thank you Bell Forest Products! I knew right away I wanted to use it on this project. The main body is made up of this birsdeye maple with Black Walnut end caps. The joints are strengthened with handmade dowels of three sizes.

The lid frame work is made from quartersawn Black Walnut. I used a Bridle joint to construct it. The floating panel center is made from self made veneers, using the “stormy” birdseye maple, with a 1/4” baltic birch core. It is pinned in using brass rod. The brass rod is 1/8” in diameter which matches the diameter of the dowel that would have went in that location.

The main part of the legs are made from Jatoba. They have Black Palm caps and a Black Walnut foot. On the tall legs the Black Palm caps are removable to reveal two secret compartments.

The removable tray is made from Birdseye Maple and uses 1/8” handmade black walnut dowels to strengthen the joint. The dividers are also made from Birdseye Maple.

The design goal was to have the main body “float” in the legs. The main body represented the encompassing storm and the towering legs represented the mountains.

Stormy Night in the Mountains was finished with three soakings of Danish Oil followed by two buffings of Briwax. It is lined with dark purple faux suede. Dimensions are 22.25” x 7.75” x 5.25”.

Critiques welcome. Time to go make more sawdust!

I was very lucky this summer to have toured Frank Llyod Wright’s Taliesin in Spring Green, Wisconsin. The house and property are absolutely breathtaking. While on the tour of the main house I noticed a very unique box sitting on one of the tables and asked the tour guide about it. She said it was made for Frank Llyod Wright, by one of his students, to hold the architectural medals he had won. Now this was a fairly simple looking box that didn’t have a lid or any finish on it but I loved it and was inspired to design “For Frank”.

The five lift off boxes and the base in “For Frank” are made from Black Walnut with a Black Walnut Dowel used to strengthen the mitered joint . The large horizontal portions are made from bookmatched, quartersawn white oak. They are not hard mounted to the box sections, they actually “float”. I designed a way to allow this float, to handle temperature/humidity changes, using a grove in the box and a spline to capture the panel. I will post a picture if I get a chance. The square holes where first cut with a mortiser. After that came the very time consuming action of rounding over all the edges. Thank god for rasps and detail sanding sticks! The vertical inlays are made from quartersawn Bocote and African Blackwood. The grain of the Bocote is continuous all the way up the box.

The base of the lid is made from quartersawn white oak. The top adornment is made from Bloodwood, Wenge and Curly Maple. I designed the pattern myself. Frank admired Japanese architecture so the large red “sun” worked nicely. I related dimensions mathematically where I could to make everything complement itself (1/2” wide pice, 1/2” wide space, 1/2” wide cutout, etc.).

There is no stain on the box. All the quartersawn white oak pieces got fumed using a homemade chamber and 26% ammonia. After 28 hours of fuming they were attached to the box sections and the entire box got three coats of clear Danish oil with 0000 steel wool in between. After two weeks of drying it got buffed twice with BriWax. The boxes are lined in a Cherokee Red fabric. This was Frank Llyod Wrights favorite color that he used on many of his homes. “For Frank” is 10” x 10” x 17.5”.

Thanks for looking!

“Faster” started as a need for a simpler box that still closely followed a design aspect. It is the first in a series of boxes based on speed.

The body is made from East Indian Rosewood. I used a rabbet joint to form the box. I then put a 45 degree chamfer to blend in the joint. The grain wraps around the box as good as it can. Once you think about how the box is made you will understand why it is hard to perfectly wrap the grain.

I made four boxes with a quartersawn sycamore lid and two with a birdseye maple lid. The top pull is made from quartersawn walnut. It is held in place with an internal spline.

The “Faster” boxes where finished with four soakings of Danish oil followed by a three step polishing using the Beall polishing system. They are lined in black velvet and are 3.75” x 3” x 4.75” in size.

Overall these where very fun to do and I foresee the next in the series might contain Cadillac fins, chrome exhaust pipes, etc…let the mind wander!

Happy Holidays everyone! Now its time to go in the basement and make more sawdust!

While working on a larger boxes I like to squeeze in smaller boxes whose designs constantly bounce around in my head. “Pinch Point” was one of those. I main idea of the design was to have a lift off lid that was turned and was held in place just by two points. I also wanted the lines to be very clean and blend in to themselves. I made one box with a Figured Asian Satin Wood lid and two with an East Indian Rosewood lid. The bodies are constructed from curly maple with handmade black walnut dowels. The legs are constructed of quartersawn black walnut.

“Pinch Point” is 5.375” x 3.5” x 5.625”. It was finished with three soakings of Danish oil followed by two buffings of BriWax. The lids were buffed out using a Beall Buffing System.

“Pinch Point” has really inspired a series of boxes for me using the main design aspect of a turned, lift off lid. So one design out and at least five new ones bouncing around in my head. Time to make more sawdust!

Just wanted to add that Allen at Milwaukee Woodworks was the provider of the beautiful piece of curly maple. Great guy to work with!

It’s hard to even pick a starting point to talk about “Talon”. It is a commissioned box for a very patient gentleman. When starting a box I ask questions about colors, interests, what is it holding, etc. This was designed to be a men’s jewelry box. The answer given to the interests question was Griffins. For all that do not know a Griffin is a mythical animal that is half Eagle and half Lion. Okay…I had my work cut out for me…but I love the challenge! Concept wise I was going for the top to have the attributes of an eagle and the base I wanted the curved look of a lions claw or teeth.

The body of “Talon” is constructed of Wenge. While still in its square form I placed in all the handmade dowels (made of maple), milled the pockets for the back hinge plates and milled the pockets for the feet. The dowels are three different sizes and follow the curve of the box. The back hinge plates were needed since once I shaped the body I needed a flat surface to mount the back hinge to. Once the pockets were milled I made an insert that fit perfectly into the space. I did this by using a handmade fixture to first mill the pocket and then use the same fixture to create the insert. To shape the body I used a combination of a belt sander and a handplane. I made a template out of 1/8” hardboard that I could hold up to the box to see my progress in shaping it.

The feet are made from Birdseye Maple with a piece of Rosewood veneer separating them. The Rosewood veneer draws the eye all the way to the tip of the foot. It took three fixtures to make the feet and mill the pockets in the main body but I wanted the look of feet being part of the body design and not just added on. It took allot of time but I love the way it looks.

The main part of the lid is made from Wenge also. I used a sliding dovetail joint to construct it. The floating panel was made from a glue up of Birdseye Maple. From the outside it is impossible to tell it was a glue up. Not wanting it to be a normal floating panel I also made a fixture and dished out the inside. I then used a block plane to curve the outside edge. The beak is made from a piece of Birdseye maple. There are two dowels that hold it to the lid. The nostrils are actually handmade 1/8” Gaboon Ebony dowels. The hard part about them was I had to drill and insert the dowels before I started carving. To do this I have mathematically layout all the angles and set up the drill press correctly so that when I went to carve the beak the nostrils would be in the correct position. I actually had to cut flat spots with a chisel first since it was at such an extreme angle.

The hinges…what a labor of love they were. I now know why people carve things out of bass wood:-) The hinges are carved out of rock hard Birdseye Maple. I started the design of them by getting a copy of “The Illustrated Bald Eagle” by Denny Rogers. Amazing book for anyone interested in doing anything artistically based on a Bald Eagle. I carved them to be as realistic as possible….carving even the bottoms even though they would be hard to see. I knew from the start I wanted the talons to be made from Gaboon Ebony so I had to devise a way to attach them. in the end I used a .093” diameter brass rod and epoxy in each talon. To make it look even more alive I had the talons touch down on different surfaces of the lid…the top, side and floating panel. Each talon started on a scroll saw and was then hand craved to fit the individual “toes”. Next was coming up with a way to pivot the hinges but also make it serviceable. I used a removable dowel pin for the pivot. I made Gaboon Ebony end plugs that contain rare earth magnets so they are naturally attracted to the dowel pin…it works great. There are three positioning dowels in each section of the hinge. This lines everything up and makes it possible to only use one attachment screw if needed.

The trays and cufflink area are made from quartersawn Sycamore. I just love the snakeskin appearance it gives. The trays where constructed using a box joint and every single divider has two dowel pins strengthening the joints. The top tray was designed to hold bracelets in either a folded or round configuration. The middle tray was designed to hold rings. It also has a covered area for holding something special. The lid is made from Leopard Wood. The holes to grab it were designed/carved to look like an eagle talon had scraped and pierced down into it. The bottom is the cufflink area. It can hold 24 pairs of cufflinks. I used two different densities of foam to make them. All trays where lined with a blue/gray suede fabric.

All together it was a five month build totaling around 300 hours. Overall dimensions are 14” x 13.25” 10.25”. Finish is Danish oil and wax and also the Beall three step polishing system on the talons.

A big thanks goes to Bell Forest Products picking me out some beautiful Birdseye Maple that was destined to be a hi-end guitar neck and Joel Alonzo for once again taking some beautiful pictures.

Well enjoy and keep making that sawdust! Comments and critiques are welcome. Sorry for the wordiness again…I just love talking about this one!

For a look at another very inspirational eagle design check out Little Paws Valentine Feather Box

Every once in a while I actually design something that isn’t a box. I was asked by a good friend to make a table for his newly installed restaurant booth area in his condo. The booth design was a collaboration between him and I and the table design started out the same way. Once of his hobbies is diving so “Manta” was a perfect name for the table!

For the main table portion he wanted a fairly thick slab. I started with 2” thick, rough cut, black walnut lumber. All but the two inner most pieces were 6” or less wide so I could flatten them on the jointer. For the inner pieces I leveled the boards on a flat surface and then screwed flat runners onto the sides. I then ran them through the planer to get one side flat. After that I removed the runners and processed them normally through the planer.

I wanted to make the grain look as if it was pulling your eye into the corner of the booth so board direction went from “corner to corner”. To enhance this effect even more I put a large taper on the two inner boards. That made all the other boards look as if they were angled. That is the main reason this build was so difficult. I laid out all my boards in a drafting program before starting so that I would get the least amount of waste. In the end it was a massive glue-up of twelve boards. Once all glued up I had to flatten this beast. I purchased a Lie Nielsen No.7 jointer plane to take care of this…wow is all I can say. I watched a video (three times) to learn about proper plane setup and went to town. A lot of muscle and sweat later and this thing was dead flat. Flattening something that you’re going to cut a 4’ x 4’ table out of is no small deal. Very, very impressed with the plane.

After flattening the table I was able to cut out the shape and start on the inlays. The large inlays are quilted maple with a African Blackwood boarder. I did this by inlaying the maple into the blackwood, flattening that in a drum sander, and then using a large circle template routing the round inlay shape out. The straight line inlays are ash flanked by African Blackwood. The curvaceous circle inlays are spalted quartersawn sycamore. The sycamore had a very distinct color variation in the board so I cut out pieces so darker wood would end up by the large inlays and the lighter wood would be in the middle. Gives it more of a 3D affect. Like it going under the large inlays.

I finished everything off with a large 0.7” chamfer on the bottom edge and a 3/8” chamfer on the top edge. I put four soakings of Danish Oil on and let it dry for a month. The reason for the long dry time is that I wanted to use a wipe on Polyurethane finish. I usually don’t use Poly but this is a table and not a box.
“Manta” is 48” x 48” x 1.75”.

We designed a stainless steel base for the table. The base in the pictures has actually been swapped out already.

I put three pictures of “in process” to give you a better idea of what I wrote. One picture shows me flattening with the plane, one of the lumber rough cut in pieces and the last picture of me doing the inlays.

Well, all comments welcom. I actually finished this project up five months ago but was waiting for better pictures. The last five months has been spent making a new box named “Talon”....putting the final touches on that in the next week! keep making that sawdust!

Even when I am in the middle of one box build my mind is going crazy with other box designs. I use the “down” time (glue drying, finish drying, etc.) on the big builds to work on smaller boxes. “Haven” is a result of this. I wanted to design a box that was contained within its legs but yet an integral part of the overall box. I played with the main shape and the negative space for a while to come up with a design a liked.

The main body is made from Quartersawn Black Walnut. All edges are Wenge. I built a sled that held the main body at a 45 degree angle to the table saw. I then ran it through the table saw cutting away all but 1/16” of the miter joint. I then glued in a 1/8” thick piece of Wenge. When that was dry I sanded flat and then lined the top and bottom with Wenge. After that I started the shaping.

The legs are made from Curly Maple. I use a 45 degree chamfer bit to chamfer both edges on one side of a board making a 45 degree finished angle. I do this to four pieces and when I attach them together they make the ”+” shape you see. I also cut spline areas into the 45 degree finished angles and then use small squares of wood as splines to reinforce the joint. Of course there was alot more shaping involved to get the final shape you see. All four legs actually have a knife shape to them.

The top is made from Leopardwood and Curly Maple. The spike is made from gluing a solid brass rod into a copper tube. I then chuck it in a drill and spin it on a progression of metal files. When I reach the shape I want I start using sand paper to smooth it all out and the final step is to polish.

The inside dimension of “Haven” 2.375” x 2.375” x 2.375”. The overall outside dimensions are 7.5” x 7.5” x 7.25”. Finish is four soakings of Danish Oil followed by two buffings of Briwax. Lining is fabric.

Now hopefully my power will come back on so I can make some sawdust…I am going through a major woodworking withdrawal right now!

The design for “Aspire” was spawned from the strong feelings I had following a public art exhibit I participated in. It was such an amazing night of art and community I knew I wanted to capture some of that energy in a new piece…the design work for “Aspire” shortly followed. It is meant to pull your view up and up as would aspirations in your own life. Starting from a central starting point of awareness our aspirations will grow and make us who we are today and who we want to be in the future.

The main body was constructed of quartersawn curly black walnut using a rabbet joint. The joint is further enforced using (20) 3/16” diameter handmade gaboon ebony dowels. Once together I cut the 10” radius top and bottom. 1/8” pieces of crotch walnut where put into the box to support the tray. Using more QSBW I made a frame that inserted into the bottom of the box. That created a flat on the bottom. I made a fixture and used a 60 degree sign making bit to route the shallow “rays” into the box sides. The center of the “rays” is actually the center of the 10” radius on the lid. There is a large rabbet for the lid to fit.

The base is constructed of black walnut. It was roughly cut to size and then veneered in a manmade black/white ebony veneer. The veneer just added a vertical movement that really complemented the shape of the box. It was also designed to leave a 1/8” shadow line when the body of the box was sitting in it.

The tray is made from curly maple using the same rabbet joint design. The 10” radius cut was put in and then I started forming the handle. The handle actually has the same 10” radius. I soaked a piece of curly maple in water and then placed it into a clamp to let it try with a curve. After that I cut off a piece, sandwiched it between two pieces of rosewood veneer and then clamped it into a fixture to dry. All radii where formed from rasps and files. Those small Japanese rasps with milled teeth are awesome! The handle portion has two 1/8” diameter hand-made maple dowels to hold it in. All joints on the tray where reinforced with 1/8” diameter hand-made black walnut dowels.

The lid started life as a 2” thick piece of curly maple. It was cut into four pieces and a thin piece of black maple veneer was glued in place. The veneer matches up perfectly with the “rays” in the box body. After getting the rough lid to fit into the box I made a hardboard guide to cut the 10” radius into the lid and body. Once that was cut I marked where the 10” radius was on the body and where the 1.5” circle of the spire would be…then started the shaping of the top using a Foredom and cabinet rasps. the base of the spire was turned out of black and white ebony. The spire started life as two equal pieces of QSBW with a thin piece of black maple veneer between them. I turned just the bases of them on the lathe and the rest was formed using some compound cuts on the bandsaw, guide hole on the drill press and then LOTS of shaping with the Foredom and rasps.

Woods used were Quartersawn Curly Black Walnut, Crotch Black Walnut, Curly Maple, Black and White Ebony, Gaboon Ebony, Rosewood, Man-made Black and White Ebony Veneer and Black dyed Maple Veneer. Finish is four soakings of Danish oil followed by two buffings of Briwax.

I actually made two of the boxes at once and lined each one with a different Asian inspired fabric.

Overall dimensions: 8.8” x 5.5” x 13.4”

I know…a bit wordy. I do have pictures throughout the build but finding time to post will be hard. maybe sometime in the future. Well, back to the basement. Keep making that sawdust.

“My Tell-Tale Heart” box series was designed and created to celebrate my younger brother’s wedding. Right from the start I knew I wanted to make them a special box. They got married on Halloween which was a big influence on the design. Taken from one the most famous pieces of gothic literature, The Tell-Tale Heart by Edger Alan Poe, I translated the beating of the heart in the floor boards to something a little more cheerful….the sounds of their hearts beating for each other. Since you can’t really do the sound part in wood I represented the heart beating with morse code. Looking at the boxes you will see there are four separate stands, each containing a different style of box. The four styles represent the word “LOVE” spelled out in morse code. One pictures shows the “L” boxes off their stand and how the stand itself contains the dots and dashes needed to signify the letter “L”.

L : ..-.
O:—-
V: ...-
E: .

The main bodies of the “L” boxes are made from East Indian Rosewood. The lid has a floating panel of quilted maple and all the edges are lined in curly maple. A miter joint was used. The grain of the rosewood is continuous around the box.

The “O” boxes are made from quartersawn sycamore and bocote. I used a mortise and tenon joint along with handmade 1/8” ebony dowels to make it. The lids are held in place using brass pins. The shape of the box was made using a drill press, bandsaw, oscillating spindle sander and hand rasps.

The main bodies of the “V” boxes are made from curly maple using a miter joint. Black walnut splines where used to strengthen the joints. The lids are made from ziracote and curly maple handles turned on the lathe.

The “E” box is made from a lamination of wenge/bloodwood/wenge. I used miter joints. I did the shaping on an OSS. I loved how sanding into the box exposed the bloodwood. The lid is made from wenge. Hard to see but it has a very asian inspired shape.

All the bases are made from black walnut. After constructing them I ebonized them using a steel wool/vinegar mixture. After that I texturized the angle cut sides using a 3/8” router bit on a Foredom, which exposed fresh black walnut. Finished with that I then stained them with a dark reddish mahogany stain. It made the ebonizing even darker and the carved areas became a mixture of dark red and black. All the stands are lined in red velvet to really make the morse code pop out. Items can also be placed in the stands since the boxes all lift off.

All the boxes are lined in black velvet. Size wise I tried to keep everything in a 2.5” scale meaning the dot boxes are around 2.5” x 2.5” x 2.5” and the dash boxes are 5” x 2.5” x 2.5”. The boxes and stands all got 3 soakings of Danish oil. The boxes where polished using a Beall system and the bases got a liquid wax applied. Overall there is over 5 feet of boxes! Crazy enough I actually made two sets of these. ..it was quite the build time. Six pictures is definitely not enough to describe/show the boxes.. I have more pictures and will see if I can load them on. I also know there were different morse code systems out there so this may be different than one you have seen elsewhere.

I hope you enjoy it! Let’s keep making that sawdust!

Well Christmas has come and gone so I can finally post the most recent box without giving away the secret! “For Kjærlighet” , which means “For Love” in Norwegian, was a commission piece for a friend’s wife. I thought it should be named for the same reason it was being crafted. It began as conversations about what she liked; colors, woods, ideas, etc.. He said that she had stated at one point that she wanted to start collecting Norwegian art. We both started our research and at first came up empty handed. With more digging we found, as if it was sent to us, the classic Norwegian Tine boxes. What could be more beautiful. The only problem being that with the wanting of a drawer and a hinged lid the traditional design would have to be changed. What you see is my representation of a classic Tine box.

The main body is made from a piece of curly cherry. I went through the entire bin at the lumber store and at the bottom I found this board that was so crowned I didn’t think I would be able to use….but looking at the grain I knew I had to try. Luckily I was able to make the straight cuts, get the best grain in front and save the board. The grain wraps continuously around the entire box. The carved design on the front of the box represents the way the traditional boxes used steam bent wood that overlapped itself. To represent how these overlapping pieces were sewn together I used self-made 1/8” diameter black walnut dowels in a crisscross pattern at the corners of the box. The dowels also play a part in securing the miter joint by extending through one piece into another (except on the drawer portion where they are only for visual affect).

The main body of the slide out drawer is made from curly maple. I used a blind dovetail for its joinery. The drawer slides on maple runners that are slot jointed into the inside of the main body. The front is of course part of the same piece of wood as the front of the box. I used the thinnest kerf blade I had to cut it off as to not disturb the grain pattern.

The legs are made from quartersawn curly black walnut. I researched swans to get some inspiration and while looking at pictures that I printed out I drew out the shape you see. After that I made copies and did a compound cut using a combination of the scroll saw and bandsaw to get the rough shape. Then came all the hand carving using chisels and rasps….and a lot of hand sanding. They are held onto the body using a long slot/spline joint. This allowed me a bit of height adjustment when attaching them. Original Tine boxes would sometimes have animal shaped carvings at the ends of the boxes that acted as the locking method and legs. The swan legs are my representation of those.

The lid is made up of a book matched piece of quartersawn black walnut, curly cherry and the top carving was a piece of Black Walnut crotch. The curves around the perimeter of the black walnut lid are traditional to what was on the original Tine boxes. All the curves where done with a block plane. The curly cherry oval insert represents the original oval shape of a Tine box. The insert was shaped with cabinet rasps. It is actually a floating panel in the lid. I cut slots into the lid pieces and a slot into the insert. When I joined the two walnut pieces the cherry insert is captured. I used a doweled joint to strengthen the joining of the walnut pieces. The top carving was done using a compound cut on the scroll saw followed by power carving and rasps. It uses dowels to attach it. This design is reminiscent of the crowning designs on traditional Tine boxes as is the overhang of the lid from the box body(I did 1/4”).

The interior tray is made from curly maple using a spline/miter joint. The divider in it was designed to split the interior of the tray into the shape of the flag of Norway.

The divider at the bottom of the main box compartment is made from quarter sawn black walnut. I used a small mortise and tenon joint for the center horizontal pieces and a butt/dowel joint for the verticals. The small cover is made from spalted maple and stays hidden under the tray. I used a spindle sander to made finger positions to remove it.

All the removable dividers where made from quarter sawn sycamore. I used a combination of dado joints and half lap joints to construct them.

The box was lined with red velvet throughout. Finish is three soakings of Danish oil followed by two buffings of BriWax. It is roughly 17” x 9” x 11”.

I was very excited to deliver this box I was lucky enough to have them over Christmas night. There is nothing more satisfying than seeing the tears of happiness come from the new owner.

I know…a bit wordy. Now back in the basement to make more sawdust! Oh…and a big thanks again to Joel for shooting the pics…beautiful again!

To see some Tine boxes that inspired me check out:

AuroraWoodworks

J.Anderson

This is one of those projects that was just fun to do from the start. The spoon was designed and crafted for Guy Fieri. I have always liked watching his shows and thought it would be cool to make him his own personalized wooden spoon. I was about to start on a spoon for a friend and thought…why not do one for Guy also. I had a blast designing, carving and wood burning the spoon. It started life as a 3” x 3” X 16” piece of hard maple. After some intricate compound cuts on a bandsaw the carving began. It was finished with three soakings of mineral oil while being wet sanded with 400 grit sand paper….it felt like velvet in your hands. I shipped it off to his company “Knuckle Sandwich” two weeks ago and this Friday I received a hand written thank you letter from Guy himself…awesome! I was pretty blown away. I want to thank Lori at Knuckle Sandwich for taking the time and helping with all of this. Great company full of very nice people. This letter is definitely going to be framed!

I had stated earlier that I designed and made two pencil boxes at the same time with different handle designs…well here is Conjoined ’s cousin.. “Dorsal”.

Like “Conjoined” I wanted all aspects of the box to follow the same curvature. The body of the box was also constructed the same with a bent/warped look to it. The dorsal fin idea has been bouncing around in my head for a while and I had so much fun with it I know I will be revisiting it again.

The main body of the box is made from quartersawn Shedua. A box joint was use for the construction.

The main portion of the lid is made from Curly Shedua. The handle supports/dowels are quartersawn Shedua turned down on the lathe. The handle is made from two pieces of curly maple with a piece of black veneer in-between. It was made by a series of compound cuts on a bandsaw followed by rough shaping on a belt and oscillating spindle sander. After that it was time for the rasp and then final shaping/sanding.

Finish on “Conjoined” is fours soakings of Danish oil followed by two buffings of BriWax. It is lined in cork. It is roughly 10” x 4” x 4.75”.

Critiques welcome. Now let’s keep making sawdust!

“Conjoined” started life as a promise I made to my budding artist niece. I had gotten her a set of pencils for drawing and I promised here I would make her a box to hold them. Now I know it is not the classic design for a pencil box, like Rogers beautiful box, but it is my take on the subject.

My main design goal was really to design a box that, when first looked at, would look fairly easy to make. Then, upon closer scrutiny, one could start to understand the difficulty in making it. There was definitely a step-by-step procedure. The look I was going for was that of a warped/curved piece of wood. I wanted all aspects of the box to follow the same curvature.

The main body of the box is made from quartersawn Shedua. A box joint was use for the construction.

The main portion of the lid is made from Curly Shedua. The handle supports/dowels are quartersawn Shedua turned down on the lathe. The handle is made from Birds-eye maple. It was made by a series of compound cuts on a bandsaw followed by alot of hand shaping.

Finish on “Conjoined” is fours soakings of Danish oil followed by two buffings of BriWax. It is lined in cork.

Critiques welcome. Now let’s keep making sawdust!

FYI…I built two boxes at the same time but designed different handles. I will be loading “Dorsal” on in the future.