Walnut Blanket Chest

This walnut blanket chest was a back burner-type project for me. I worked on this in between projects for everyone else. I began this project by hand selecting the boards for grain and color. I knew I couldn’t find a 20” wide board to cut into six pieces, so I found some with similar grain and joined them together.

Each side of the box is made of two or three boards butt joined together with just wood glue. I gave the joints a little spring, but there are no biscuits or dowels here. I jointed the boards using my hand planes and very carefully glued them up.

After I let the panels sit for several months (due to other projects having priority), I noticed the larger panels were starting to cup. That’s when I decided to add the oak ribs to the front and back. The ribs are set in tapered dovetail dados and secured with a single set screw in the back.

The dovetails are super thin so there is no mistake they were made by hand.

Finish is boiled linseed oil and oil based polyurethane.

Since these photos were taken, I installed a safety lid support and now it’s my daughter’s toy box!