I was asked to make 3 small boxes to be used as urns for a family. Walnut was the wood choice and I picked Cottonwood Burl for the tops. The lids will fit very snugly. They are only 4” x 4” x 3” tall. The Walnut came from Ira (Rustfever) in Modesto. A few soakings of Watco Natural Danish Oil, a few days to dry, and they are in the mail.
I have 20 boxes on my work bench to do final sanding, but I stopped and got these done. It’s not that I dislike sanding or anything!

When I was asked to make a cutting board with a ranching family’s brand and using wood from their ranch, the customer also asked for a cash box for her sister to use at the Farmer’s Market. I was given a dirty and rough piece of oak that had been in a barn for a long time. I made the box sides with it, but decided the top needed some help. I have some Black Oak with a little spalting. I seems to work. The inside dividers and coin slots are Walnut from the ranch and was left over form the cutting boards as are the miter keys. The bottom is some 1/4” luan plywood. I cut the scooped part for coins on the bandsaw and cleaned it up on the spindle sander. I borrowed the idea of a finger cutout from boxguy and others. Did that on the spindle sander. I put a small ogee edge on 3 sides of the lid, top and bottom and a bevel on the outside box edge. A couple of coats of Watco Danish Oil and it is done. It sure is nice to be out in the shop in beautiful weather. No heater, gloves, hat, or insulated worksuit.

I made these identical boxes for 3 former students who are now in 4th grade. They are best friends and some of the best students I have known. They come to visit occasionally from down the hall. They have admired my boxes from time to time. I will retire before they graduate from 8th grade, so I made these boxes for them. The mother of one of them is currently an Aide in my classroom. It’s a small town! I used Walnut from Rustfever in Modesto and some Cottonwood Burl that RockB sliced for me on his bandsaw mill. The tray and dividers are Curly Ambrosia Maple and Walnut, except one tray bottom is Camphor from Chico, CA. It was a handy size!! I super glued a small block of Cottonwood burl to the back as a stop for the lid. Watco Danish Oil for a finish. They are about 10” x 8” x 6”. The girls should enjoy these for a long time. They will get them on the last day of school.

I had a request to make a guitar shaped cutting board for a friend’s granddaughter. She had seen the fiddle I gave to another friend’s daughter. She is in college and she can take this back to school. My friend wanted some ‘wow’ wood. I thought some curly Maple and Walnut would work. The body is about 14” x 12” with the whole neck being 14”. It is about 1 1/4” thick. Mineral oil and wax for a finish.

I made this table for my wife to replace an old, round, particleboard table with a glass top. It had 3 rickety, screw in legs. This has 4 legs of Lyptus that are mortised into the apron. The angles for the mortises and tenons on the round edge was tricky, but it worked. Nice to have a mortiser that tilts! I used a tapering jig for the table saw to make the legs. The aprons are also Bubinga- her favorite wood. Tung Oil finish.

Sometimes I find a piece of wood that I can’t turn into a box or a cutting board. This piece of Lacewood was just too nice! I glued up two pieces for the top, added a little edge treatment with the router. The apron is Lacewood. The legs were glued up from some Peruvian Walnut and Purpleheart. Then I turned them on the lathe. It is put together with mortise and tenon joinery. The top attaches with some wood blocks that have a lip that goes into a groove in the apron. It is 22” square on the top and 22” tall. The couch looked unbalanced, so I made another table. This one has a top of Lyptus with legs of Purpleheart and Yellowheart. I got smart and used some of the figure 8 metal washers to attach the top. Much easier. I used Tung Oil finish on these. Thanks for looking. And Yes, I need to paint my porch- Again! Darn snow and ice!!

I was asked to make a big cutting board for the sister of a local person. She brought me a piece of walnut from a barn on their ranch. 2” thick x 48” x 14”. I made two boards, adding some Curly maple on edge to match the thickness. Really nice Walnut. The two boards are different. One for her and one for the sister. They have the family cattle brands on them. It’s a surprise so I hope nobody local sees this and tells!! They turned out to be 1 3/4” x 14” x 18”, with cutouts on the bottom for hands. I used a small V bit on a router to make the brands and dyed the groove. It withstood the mineral oil soaking so it should not bleed out.
I have space for this photo of the last Carob and Walnut board I made. Someone looked at a similar board at a show and returned to get it. She got to watch someone else walk off with it, so I made her another. 14” x 18”
I really like Carob. It is hard and really pretty. Rustfever on LJ’s got me hooked on it and now tells me I can’t have any more!! He only had a small amount to start. Hope to see what he uses the rest for. The Walnut came from him too.

Another box I just completed. These were started before I had cataract surgery on my right eye. I have 2 more to make trays for and finish, but I go for the left eye Tuesday. Then 5 days with no sawdust! I have to make some small cutting boards also so I can do finishing out of the shop. The box sides are Peruvian Walnut. The top is Peruvian Walnut framed with Curly Maple. The tray is Curly Ambrosia Maple. I bought quite a bit of this and since it is soft, i resaw it into tray parts. I will have to try Boxguy’s idea of looking for venetian blind slats. A lot less work. But this wood is pretty. The box is 11” x 6” x 7”. Watco Danish oil as a finish. I can see the inside around the dividers needs attention. It is hard to get the excess oil off. Thanks for looking.

I delivered some items to The Brown Dog Gallery in McCloud, Ca this summer. While I was there I asked the owner if her husband had any scrap wood. She has told me he has stacks of wood from their days in Mendocino. He makes furniture and I thought he might have interesting scrap pieces. He came over and bought me a box of wood and a few boards of Redwood. One he called Waterfall Redwood- 6’ x 8” x 3/4”. NICE SCRAP!! Here is the box I made from half of the board. Watco Danish Oil- a lot of it. I may try some wipe on Poly on a piece to see if it enhances the color. Curly Redwood and Redwood Burl on the top and tray. The box is 11 3/4”L x 7”T x 9 W. Now I have to decide what to do with it. Probably too nice for the shows I usually do. Maybe take it to a gallery in Mendocino where the wood came from.

I used some Figured Maple and almost lavender Purpleheart for this box. The Purpleheart has dark lines of grain in it. When it was in my shop and got dusty, it looked like corduroy fabric. They disapper when sanded and oiled. The Watco Natural Danish Oil darkened the color. I may have to try some water based poly to try to keep the light color. 11”x 10” x 6”

I made this jewelry box out of Padauk and Maple Burl. I really like the orange color in this piece of wood and decided to try rattle can Shellac to try to keep the color. I am not sure I like how shiny it is, but the color is great. Two different customers loved the design and size, but asked me to make it in Walnut. The customer is always right? Someone will have good taste and buy this one! I will make two more out of Walnut. 12” x 10” x 6”

My son and I found a nice, curly and burly Myrtlewood board in a hardwoods store. 8’ x 10.5”x 3/4” It was definitely worth getting. I was making some boards for shows and decided to whack off 18” and add some Curly Maple edging. The rest will be for boxes, I think. This is really in the ‘too nice to cut on’ category. The second board is some Claro Walnut and Maple, 10” x 13”x 1”. The last is some Carob with Claro Walnut, 18” x 12” x 3/4”. The Walnut and Carob came from a trip to visit Ira (Rustfever) in Modesto recently. My friend and I had a great visit and got some pretty wood. Mineral Oil and Wax finish.

I just made some boxes for a show and thought I would share a few photos of the woods used. The first is Birdseye Redwood with a top of bookmatched Redwood Burl framed by some old figured Redwood. about 6” square and 6” tall. The second is Redwood Burl with Birdseye maple. The top is the same, but a different batch of burl. 6” x 5”x 5”.
The third is Curly Maple with a top of Walnut crotch wood framed by Curly Maple. 10” x 5” 4” All with Watco Danish Oil. The second and third boxes left with happy owners. The first is on my desk at work.. My 2nd graders are quite impressed!! I made about 10 others of various woods. Now I have 8 larger jewelry boxes to finish sanding for Christmas shows. And I have rough cut wood for more of these smaller boxes. Having fun in the shop!!!

These are some new instrument shaped cutting boards. I have a show this weekend and have sold all of these I had made. I used some old Figured Maple for these, plus some Walnut, Mahogany, and a little Purpleheart. I also added a bit of Maple Burl below the ‘neck’. The ‘strings’ are Soft Curly Maple. They are about 10-12” wide and 20” long by 1”thick. These are fun to make and I don’t have to worry about how they sound! Mineral Oil and Wax for a finish. I also made another Carob and Walnut board-about 20” x 12” x 1”. The last one was gone quickly. I have to see if Rustfever(Ira) has any more of the Carob. It is really pretty and hard. We need to have another tool and wood swap at Woodcraft in Sacramento!!

Along with the Zebrawood box, I made these 2. The first is a Beeswing Eucalyptus box with some Curly Redwood in the top. The Eucalyptus came from Rustfever when Woodcraft in Sacramento had a tool and wood swap. Thanks again Ira. the wood is really beautiful. The bottom divider s and the tray are Quartersawn Sycamore. the second box is quilted Maple with Rosewood accents. The top is Maple framed with more Rosewood. I had never used Rosewood before. this was scrap wood given to me by RockB in Redding. The tray and dividers are Maple I did a wash of BLO on the Maple and then Watco Danish Oil on both boxes. Thanks for looking.

I spent some time this week to make some jewelry boxes for an upcoming art show. This one has Zebrawood, some Mystery wood that looks sort of like Walnut, and some black Walnut for the legs. I wanted to do something different (for me) so I added the legs. Nothing fancy, but they add a lot to the box. I framed the Mystery wood with some dark Purpleheart. Watco natural Danish Oil fro the finish.

Elm Crotch wood on a Cherry box 9” x 4” x 6”
Redwood with some curl on a Redwood box. Whoever buys this will get a surprise because the bottom is Birdseye Redwood. 9” x 5” x 5”
Walnut Crotch wood on the top with a Spalted Maple Box 8” x 5” x 6” All with Watco Danish Oil.
Now to take some photos of the 8 cutting boards!! Going up to South Lake Tahoe for the 4th-8th. I have about 35 boards and 34 boxes. Today I am going to start another tumbling blocks board. I liked DeGoose’s solid color blocks and want to try it.

I wasn’t going to post these because they are just boxes made to sell at a show. But Dennis hunter keeps calling and telling me about his boxes. He has done some good work with nice woods. So I decided to share these. No abstracts or live edges. The beauty is in the wood as usual.
Redwood Root Burl top on a Walnut box with Maple miter keys. Watco Natural danish Oil darkened the Redwood a lot. the red color is gone. It looks like Walnut in color now. 7” x 5” x 5”
Padauk box with a Maple top and Redwood Burl lift. 10” x 5” x 6”
Lacewood box and top. the top is framed with Purpleheart 9” x 6 1/2” x 6”
3 more to share in the next post.

A friend near Chico, Ca gave me a piece of this wood. He says it’s Redwood, but it could be Fir. Whatever it is, It has great figure/ grain to it. I made this box with some Curly Redwood for the top. These are some pictures I took while at a blue grass festival where someone bought the box. I was in a hurry to finish some boxes and did not take good photos at home. The box is about 6” tall x 9” long x 5” wide. Watco Danish Oil for a finish. I have enough of this wood for two more boxes, but my friend says he has a little more. The depth in the curl is really amazing, especially in the bright sunshine. The box is nothing special in design, but the wood sure is. I gave some to Dennis Hunter and he used it in our contest box as a contrast to the other Redwood.

I was waiting for glue to dry on my boxes for a Blue Grass Festival and thought of making these for as well. The wood is Big Leaf Maple that Dennis Hunter and I got from a guy who had it in a storage container for 15 years. The wood is about 1 1/2” thick. The fiddle body is 12” x 11” plus a 7” handle., Kind of squished looking for more cutting surface. the Mandolin is 13” x 12” with a 7” handle. I routed an edge on each one. I have included pictures of each side because the wood is really pretty. Lots of mineral oil and later some wax.