Bob Easton

Walnut. 2 and 3/4 inches in diameter. 3 and 3/8 inches tall. The grain matches from container to lid. This is the first container turned on the treadle lathe, and my first turned container in about 30 years. Coins in the photo are for size reference, a 2 Euro (Italian/Dante) and a US Quarter (Indiana/Indy 500 – we used to live 1/2 mile from there.) The pig is an Austrian good luck charm. Turning and carving details follow these photos.

Having watched half a gazillion YouTube videos about container turning techniques, I did this one a bit differently than what I saw in any of the videos. Being of Scottish heritage and a bit “thrifty,” I haven’t yet bought one of the 4-jaw chucks we so often see used for this type of work.

Instead, I sandwiched the walnut blank between two pine waste blocks (saves wasting 50 cents worth of walnut) and mounted the sandwich on a simple $10 faceplate. I trued the blank with a live center taking up the tail. After truing the blank into a cylinder, I trued a perpendicular face on the tail end of the blank, i.e on the end of the waste block there. That prepared a surface for mounting yet another simple $10 faceplate for working the lid.

The rest of the turning followed fairly standard procedure.

• Turn a rough profile for the entire container.
• Refine the lid profile to nearly final shape.
• Part off the lid piece.
• Mount a faceplate on the lid piece.
• Remove the body from the lathe and mount the lid piece.
• This leaves the inside of the lid accessible. Hollow the inside to desired depth. Refine, sand and finish the inside.
• Remove the lid from the lathe and mount the body.
• Turn a tenon on the body that accepts the lid as a very snug press fit.
• Remove the lid’s waste block and faceplate. (The waste block was glued in place with a paper separator layer, hence easily cut off.)
• Press the lid onto the body’s tenon.
• Complete the shaping and finishing of the lid. For this particular turning, I left a raised ring of wood on the lid that later becomes the “C-bars” in the carving.
• Refine the outside shape of the body.
• Hollow the body.
• Sand and finish the inside. (Did I say “sand?” Hate sanding anything!)
• Cut the body from the waste block.
• While still mounted, turn the waste block to form a plug / jam chuck for the body.
• Press fit the body onto the plug and turn a very slight concave bottom surface. Sand and finish the body.
• Remove all from the lathe.
• Remount the waste block used for the lid and turn it to form a plug / jam chuck that fits inside the lid. This is not used for any more turning, but as a mount for holding the lid while carving.

All that remains is a simple matter of carving. The design is a single letter monogram set between two classic “C-bars.” The carving is different from most in that it is carved in end grain. While that eliminates the usual grain sensitivity of carving, it presents another difficulty. Carving in end grain is like pressing a knife into the end of a bundle of soda straws. Extra sharp tools are the order of the day, along with a healthy helping of patience. Also helpful are a white wax marker and a fine spoon shaped chisel.

I’m not sure what the recipient will keep in such a container. It has enough room for about 211 calories worth of Gummy Bears, or maybe a few spare gold coins. We’ll see.

Browse through the sites selling handmade goods, and you’ll find a tremendous number of wooden boxes. It looks like recent trends are for boxes made of contrasting woods, or combinations of various exotic woods. Decoration is mostly in the color contrasts, and sometimes with the addition of things like splines on joints, and occasionally some inlay. There are many well made and beautiful examples to be found. (Hint: Etsy > Keepsake Box)

The decorations rarely seen on these boxes are carvings. Here and there some might be found, but not many. Which is why … I’m using hand made wooden boxes as a platform for classic woodcarvings. You might have seen this coming in recent months.

Here are two new boxes. Both are made of Cherry. This Cherry is S2S material 15/16″ thick, which I resaw by hand. The sides and end walls are 3/8″ thick, the result of resawing the stock in even halves. The top and bottom material is finished at 1/2″ thick for the top and 1/8″ thick for the bottom, the result of resawing off center. This gives one the opportunity of using “book matched” pieces to display the grain wrapping around the box, and to have a top with a grain pattern that matches the bottom. Note, I said “opportunity”, and that depends on keeping careful track of such things.

First is a small box featuring a classic flower rosette on the lid, the lid shown as work in progress in the previous post. This style of flower is very common in architectural and furniture decoration and dates back many centuries. The box’s construction is a single-tail dovetail at each corner. The bottom is trapped in stopped grooves. The lid is a snap fit, nestled between the long sides, standing proud about 1/8 inch.

click any image to enlarge
   

The second box is another centuries old design, a Tudor rose. This particular variant has 4 petals instead of the usual 5, as a better fit for an oval. As with the first box. the design is incised. The box is larger, having more tails in each join. It too has a trapped bottom piece. This box measures 5 1/2 inches wide by 9 1/4 inches long by 3 3/4 inches high. Interior dimensions are 4 5/8 inches by 8 1/8 inches (long enough for new pencils) by 3 1/4 inches. The lift-of lid covers all 4 walls of the box and overhangs slightly on the ends for easy removal.

Both are currently available in my Etsy store.

Most of my woodcarving has been rather small stuff, 3 inches square, 4 inches square, 4 by 6, 5 by 7, nothing very large. It’s been my practice to hold it securely in a frame like device that has movable stops. If a stop doesn’t fit the work piece exactly, a couple of wedges tighten things up.

It works great. Nothing moves. Nothing slips. All cuts are secure. Yet, sometimes the directions of cutting is awkward. Oh yes, one needs to become ambidextrous in tool handling and that’s not very hard. However, there are times when the angles just don’t work out well for either hand.

So, I tripped across someone using a different method (YouTube, you know). Actually, I’ve seen similar work several times. The work piece is loose, but jammed into a corner or into other stops to absorb the work force. Other than the moments that cuts are being made, the piece can be moved around easily and quickly. Some wood workers plane wood this way. One particular arrangement for “stops” looked interesting, so I fabricated the contraption. As you see, it’s simply a pair of wood strips with notches cut in them. Since, I’m right handed, arranging them as shown is natural. The work piece can now be quickly oriented in almost any direction and always have two points of contact to keep is steady.

This box lid is about 3.5 inches by 6 inches and I’ve used this frame for both hand powered cuts and mallet assisted cuts. It’s worked well for this piece. And… all of the work is done atop my carving bench, or my BoB, bench on bench.

BTW, the work in progress is the lid for a small cherry box you’ll see later.

Oh yeah, none of this works well unless the screw slots are “clocked.”

Too often it seems …
When I’m browsing blogs about various kinds of woodworking, I read the “About” blurbs for the authors and find things like “I’m environmentally responsible,” or “I use only sustainable wood,” or some such nonsense. Things like that trigger my “I’m outta here!” response.

Shannon Rogers reached the point where he decided to write an article with exactly the same title as this post. Besides being the woodworker and online teacher we know him for, his day job is at a very highly respected hardwood lumber company. So, he knows of what he speaks when he talks about the very obvious sustainability of wood. Wood is one of the most renewable resources in the world. As Shannon says, “It’s already green!” “It grows on trees!”

Markets and international trading systems have matured tremendously from what they were 150 years ago when Honduras ruined it’s precious mahogany resource, or only 70 years ago when the Phillipines did exactly the same, destroying not only a source of income, but their watershed and hydro power generation capability by over harvesting.

Shannon points out that we have more forested land on the planet now than we had 50 years ago and that every species is being renewed, some a little faster than others, and that the more we use it, the more demand, and hence the more it will be renewed.

Shannon is also very generous in suggesting that the people like those I mentioned in the first paragraph are simply misinformed and have been fed “stupid falsehoods.”

Go read it. It’s one of the best things you’ll read today! “Stop Apologizing for Using Wood” by Shannon Rogers.

photo credit: Creative Commons: Christopher Schoenbohm, 2011

PS: For all you out there who regret owning Gibson guitars, with supposedly contraband fret boards, let me know. I’ll buy them at prices that will afford your consciences appropriate penance, especially goldtop and deluxe Les Pauls.

It’s been a long road. My serious woodworking interests started when I came through the door marked “small boats.” Since then, I’ve passed through many doors, each offering new interests and challenges. None included or required dovetail joinery. Until now… That’s one reason why I have been rehabilitating saws lately.

Oh yes, carving still holds my main interest, but carvings need a purpose. Not being one to construct elaborately carved furniture, I find smaller forms more appealing. Hence, the boxes. But… dovetails? Really? (You know, small boats have neither straight lines nor square joins … nor dovetails.) OK. OK.

I’m learning from yet another master. Paul Sellers is in the midst of a boxmaking series at his Woodworking Masterclasses online school. While I find his classes excellent, Paul is one who always produces perfect results. So rare are his mistakes that he seldom advises how to correct them. My learning comes more from (alright, mostly … maybe totally) making mistakes and learning how to fix / avoid them, and I’ve learned over the past weeks that there are elebenty-seven different ways to ruin a dovetail joint. (Nope, no pictures!)

Without further jabbering, here’s the first dovetailed and carved box that’s worth showing:

Body: 4″ by 7 1/2″ by 2 1/4″
Base: 3/8″ larger all around

Body: New Zealand pine
Lid: Wisconsin basswood
Finish: Shellac and paste wax

It is similar to the example Sellers has been teaching, but I’ve made it my own with the carved lid. There are a couple of other variances too.  Sellers cuts the groves for the lid with a tenon saw. That results in a grove that goes all the way through the end of the box and then needs tedious fitting of plugs to close the holes. I made mine a stopped groove, like a stopped dado. This one I cut with only a chisel and knife, an experience I won’t repeat. More learning. A Record 044 just arrived from Patrick Leach in today’s mail.

Sellers also cuts the rebates on the lid (for the slides) with a tenon saw. I cut mine with an ancient Stanley #78 moving fillister plane that I call Mr. Fussy. It does the job, but takes about 4 times longer to set up than just using a saw. Doh! Yet more learning.

One of the last little bits of learning with this project was creating the beading on the top edge. Some time ago, I did beading on the lathe’s timbers with a scratch stock. An even simpler tool, smaller too, produces results faster. Another bit of Seller’s wisdom is a simple screw in a block of wood. The crisp edge of a single slot screw makes a great cutter. Then, hit the outside corner with a light chamfer. Fast. Easy.

The box collector in our household has already claimed this one.

Until now, my infrequent saw filing has been assisted by holding the blade between a pair of 1x2s placed carefully in my bench’s leg clamp. It had two problems. One, it took two men, a little boy, and a monkey to hold all the parts “just so” and get it clamped. Two, oh my aching back bending over it.

The activity is not frequent enough to warrant buying a fine metal clamp, but does warrant a bit of DIY time and about $6 worth of oak. I found drawings on a blog post by Paul Sellers and got to work. Straightforward … until I noticed the rounded hinge. Hey, a simpler square edge hinge, not housed, would work just as well.  No, that’s the wimpy way out. Carve that hinge, and if it really fails, square off the mess into the simpler version. It worked.

The hinge pin is a piece of brass tubing that I had on hand. That’s a carriage bolt and wing nut that tighten the jaw.

The clamp works beyond expectations, perfectly well for as often as I need it.