Lyptus Fireplace Match/Candle Holder

A little earlier I posted a Lyptus Bread Box. When you make a project that big using a band saw, you end up with a pretty good sized core that is cut out of the drawer. I had this core that I knew was more than big enough to turn into a box of its own so I held on to it.

I was scanning through some old band saw books and found this design. It was first intended to be a candle holder. I thought it would be great to hold the long matches used for lighting fires in the fireplace. There are any number of long items that could be put in a box like this. I believe the original design for this box was shaker inspired.

Since the block was already laminated all I had to do was get to work on the drawer. In a standard band saw box you cut the front and back of the drawer off and then cut the core out for the drawer bottom. In this case I had to cut the sides off and then cut the drawer shape out from the side instead of the front. The biggest challenge I had on this was shaping the inside of the box and the drawer so the drawer could tip out without binding up or hitting something. It took some time and patience.

I finished it off with 3 coats of thinned poly and lots of time with 0000 steel wool. The knob is a little brushed pewter one from Lowe’s. The dimensions are 10” tall, 4” wide, and 4” deep.

-- Behind the Bark is a lot of Heartwood----Charles, Centennial, CO