Bob Easton

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.”