Executive Block Set

I cut a set of blocks for my almost-two year old nephew over the summer. (Have you ever priced those things?!) Turns out adults like to play with them, too. Somewhere in my websurfing I stumbled across a set of “Executive Blocks.” It seemed like a good gift for our pastor. We envision him sitting in his office trying to write a homily and suffering from writer’s block. So he can play with these to exercise the other side of his brain. And if he doesn’t care for the blocks, he can use the box to store his collar tabs, or all the other junk his parishioners give him.

The box is Cherry, to match the pews in the church. The blocks are all sorts of stuff: cedar (left unfinished), walnut, oak, maple, lacewood, some scrap stuff I have no idea, and olive. The black ones are ebonized mystery wood, stained with india ink. I used General salad bowl finish, since I had plenty left from my nephew’s Christmas projects.

I cut a slit in the wood, then cut off half of that on a bevel. I shimmed the bevel with some .020” styrene and glued the piece back in. The rest is pretty standard, a rabbet for the bottom, mitered corners, sand and partially finish. Then I carefully sliced through the sides to the slit to free up the top. Then the rest of the finishing. The mitered edge keeps the top centered, doesn’t need hardware. I cut it using a thin kerf blade on my micromark miniature table saw.