Combination Plane Blade Box

Well, I have added a #45 combination plane to my #044C plough plane. So now I have another bunch of cutters that need a storage box. They came in their original cardboard & pine box but at some point it looks like the cardboard lid got wet. This has caused some damage to the cutters, pitting and such. Not a big deal, just time at the water stones to clean them up.

But I decided not to store them in the original box. Instead I’ll make a wooden box. Dug through the scrap pile and came up with a bunch of left-over poplar from my Shaker step-back cupboard build. It was all different colors and kinda ratty looking. So I decided to make a small box with a press fit lid but then veneer it with something else. Turned a simple project into a more complicated project but one where I get to practice some new techniques.

The poplar I ripped, resawed and planed to about 1/4”. The box itself is joined at the corners with 1/8” finger joints. Pretty darn strong. The top and bottom are just simple glue joints. Plenty of long grain to glue to. The box was assembled whole, then cut apart. I fitted more 1/4” poplar inside for the lip. Didn’t bother with mitering the corners, just wedged the pieces in with a drop of glue on their face. The center of the box was then filled up with a block having two very wide dados. This forms slots to drop in the blades, similar to the original.

Before cutting the box apart, I cleaned up the surface and veneered it. The veneer is white oak and let me tell you, I don’t recommend you learn using that stuff! Chippy and stringy. But it was part of a grab-bag of veneer I got to play with.

Oh, and I decided to go all out on the veneering and used hot hide glue and hammered the veneer. Kinda worked for me but I did have to spend some time afterward popping bubbles and re-seating the veneer with a clothes iron. Again, more learning. :) The finished box is about 8” x 5” x 2-1/4”

Lots of fun! Next I need to make a larger storage box to hold the plane, all its accessories and the blade box.

-- Don't sweat the petty things and don't pet the sweaty things.