Keepsake Box - Ebony/Maple

This box was a gift for my niece (Andrea). The overall dimensions are 9 3/4 inches by 7 inches deep by 3 1/4 high. The top front & back are all “tiger-striped” maple. I was really pleased with the grain in the top. The picture doesn’t show it very well, but as light angles change there is an incredible amout of depth to the stripes. Short of having a one piece top, my one wish though would have been to have bookmatched grain in the top pieces…the glue line is a little too obvious as it is and a little distracting.

The sides and inlay are gaboon ebony. The ebony was actually purcahsed from a luthier’s supply company, and was sold as a blank for a fingerboard…a wide fingerboard. It worked perfectly for this project though, and I was fortunate to have purchased several of these fingerboard blanks which all had nearly zero white streaks in them.

The ebony inlay was a little tricky, with ebony being so brittle, when dealing with such an intricate inlay. It’s all one piece and the font style for the “A” was downloaded from one of those “free font” sets you can get online. The piece I inlaid was actually the second try, since the first one broke apart while I was scrolling it out…it was nearly completed too.

I used a router/jig for the box joints which are 1/4 inch wide and deep. Like several of my other keepsake boxes I strived for a glass-smooth finish on this one. Using two very closed grained woods like this made that a little easier. If I recall correctly I believe I wiped on 8 coats of poly/oil blend after a sealer coat. The final coat was sanded up to 1500 grit and polished with Behlens buffer’s polish after allowing it to cure for a week or so.

The top is rabbeted into the sides. The base is red oak and is also rabbeted into the sides. Black felt covers the base inside and out. An 1/8 inch round over bit was used on my router/table to smooth all the edges. I used a solid brass latch and a 95 degree stop piano style hinge in back. Notice that since the stock is only 1/4 inch thick, and since I mortised the latch into the front, I had to form and glue backing supports for both the upper and lower pieces of the latch to accept the screws that hold the latch in place.

-- Martin, Kansas