Tamarack Box

This is my first box. It is made from reclaimed Western Larch or Tamarack. My Father-In-Law recently retired from the log home building industry in which he had a business since 1974. His company made custom hand crafted log homes (hand peeled and notched, not milled like lincoln logs). He was taking down a couple of old buildings, an out building and part of his mill which housed the huge circular saw. I didn’t realize how red the larch was, especially when it is this old. I grabbed a couple of pieces to “play with” and see what it would look like. It is 1/2” stock and the boards were about 12” wide and 5’ long.
Wow is this stuff hard. I couldn’t believe how hard and brittle it is, my FIL just laughed when I described having to resharpen my chisel a few times while making the dovetails. Apparently larch is tougher to work with than most house logs.
I rough sanded the boards before cutting the dovetails, then sanded a bit more with 120 grit. Then I just soaked it with BLO until it wouldn’t take any more. 3 coats of poly sanding in between and this is the finished product. It’s about 5”X5”X15”. I don’t know what my FIL will do with it but I hope he likes it.

-- Hutch ...Montana ___ Life is a mystery to live, not a problem to solve! ___