Aloha Desk Boxes

I’ll be honest and say I can’t take complete credit for these boxes (this was a group project) but I did probably 95% of the work. These were commissioned as going away presents for guys transferring off island. We started out with an order for two, but as more people wandered in it grew to four and then two more after these were completed. The laser engraving was done in house and two of the boxes were made with commemorative coins inlaid in the fronts. Overall dimensions are about 5” tall by 11” long by 7” wide. The tops are book matched koa, the boxes are koa as well, grain matched as well, and the edging is East Indian Rosewood. The bottoms are made from teak slats cut from boards that were used as decking in submarine battery wells. As such they are soaked in boiling paraffin wax for two days. Finishing for the teak is simply using a torch to melt the saw marks out of the surface. The rest of the boxes are simply sanded down to 2000 grit and finished with wax and polished.

I wasn’t a big fan of Koa before I started this project, but afterwards I went out and bought some for my own use. I was fortunate and we picked up a board in the discounted shorts bin that was nicely figured and had great color. Even halfway through the sanding, the koa had started to take on an amazing sheen. Finishing it with the feed n wax was just icing on the cake.

P.S. Painful mistake to share: Koa doesn’t like to be planed! At least the curly stuff.

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