Project Wood Working

A Small Carved Box

I needed a small box to hold my auger bits for my braces. I had a little mahogany laying about and figured, a little upscale for auger bits but what the hell its not doing me any good over here on the cut off pile. As I was cutting the dovetail joints I started to think about how I had heard that mahogany carves like butter so I figured, hey why not, a great chance to practice some of my 17th century carving techniques I picked up from Peter Follansbees DVD. A couple minutes on the net and I had a couple patterns I hadnt tried yet and I went to town.

The cool thing about this is I got this project started and finished in just one day in the shop, it was a good long enjoyable day, but it was one day, and that makes me smile. At any rate I thought that from here on out I would stop typing and just let the pictures tell the tale of the day.

















In some pictures you get a good look at the contrast in the wood between sap wood and heart wood, I oriented the stock when I was putting it together to make sure the darker band chased itself around the bottom of the box. A Danish Oil finish and I called it good. I do have to give a little shout out over to the Badger Woodworks Blog because it was his practice carving of a similar vein that inspired me to give the "S" scroll a try on the backside. I have to admit, his turned out better than mine, I ended up trying to stretch it too much for my proportion tastes.Overall a very satisfying project.

Heres a few final pictures:


I really begin to dig that heart wood, sap wood contrast. I made a good choice orienting the darker along the bottom, I think it gives this small box a little bit of gravity and weight.

Ratione et Passionis
Oldwolf