Octagonal Keepsake Box

Box is ~ 8” o.d. and ~5” tall. Stained red oak. I made this in the summer of 2009 for then girlfriend/now wife. At the time I wasn’t overly pleased with the results, but revisiting it after a couple years has increased my appreciation for the piece. 3/4 red oak throughout seemed a bit bulky at the time, but it does give it a nice heft. While it is rather simplistic in design and execution, this is one of the first pieces I did in my own shop from nothing but my own ideas after several years where I hadn’t made anything. My tool selection at the time was pretty bare bones (I don’t think I used anything other than a tape measure, table saw, and a sander, which was about all I had) and this project definitely suffered from some growing pains (i.e. I found my miters were just a hair off on the sides because the installed tilt gauge isn’t accurate) and getting the octagon shape for the top and bottom required an immodest pile of “oops” pieces before I managed to find the right jig online. Overall, not my prettiest work, but a solid jump back into the shop.

-- "We don't make mistakes here, we only have happy little accidents." - Bob Ross