Pipe Humidor

You always hear about the high cost of smoking, but I didn’t realize they meant the “good life” accessories. Being who I am, I simply resolved to make my own. I found a couple of photos of an old Dunhill humidor on eBay once, and set about duplicating it. The component of this piece I find most interesting is the coopered lid; edges of the individual staves (6 if I remember correctly) were all planed to an angle, edge-glued together, and then the seams planed to make the rounded effect. After the lumber was dimensioned from raw flitchs down to 1/2” using a table-saw and thickness planer, all other work was done neander-style: using hand tools only. The only thing I regret—and I don’t know what I was thinking—was the use of brads to help support the assembly while the glue dried. What I learned was how much linseed oil will make a brad head scream at you in walnut. Exterior, as noted, is in walnut, interior is Spanish Cedar. There is a cool secret compartment underneath the humidor (that is no longer secret.) What is really strange is that soon after completing the project (several years ago) I stopped smoking. Note the dust (and the clever use of a white sheet as background!)

-- There's no tool like an old tool...