"Triplets Dresser Valet " -Bastogne Walnut and Carob with brass and velvet

This is essentially a bandsawn box, so all the grain is seamless through all three compartments as the box began as one large block of walnut. The legs are from a thick block of carob, and shaping was accomplished with a bandsaw, the stopped grooves on a router table. The knurled knobs are held in place with brass machine screws, screwed into tapped holes. The counterbores for the knob details were bored on the drillpress--nothing fancy...

This piece reflected a desire to design a functional men's dresser top box that embodied an overriding masculine style.

"Paternal Box " -Bubinga and black Walnut with velvet

This box was made as a Christmas present for my parents in 2009, thus the name. It is made with baltic birch plywood skinned with bubinga veneer.

The edges are inset with black walnut, and the pieces for the birds mouth had to be steam bent into shape. The hinges are Brusso. The knob was turned on my woodlathe in walnut and mounted with a brass woodscrew. It has a lacquer finish.

"Lewis' Stacking Jewelry Box " -Fiddleback American Walnut, black Walnut, and Cocobolo

This was a commissioned piece. Made with resawn fiddleback walnut, the box corners are fingerjointed together. The lid panel is captured within the black walnut frame with loose splines to allow for seasonal movement. The lid frame miters are reinforced with micro-biscuits.

Thin strips of cocobolo are laid in as color accents- a strong orange but within the overall brown color pallette.

The fingerjoints were realized on the tablesaw with a purpose-built jig.

"Isaac's Dresser Valet " -Burled Black Walnut, Carob, brass, and velvet

This box was made as a gift for my brother. Again, an attempt to design with a masculine motif.

An interesting sidenote: the black walnut log was salvaged from an orchard, and after resawing on my large bandsaw, I realized it was harboring a termite colony! Microwaving each board for about 2 1/2 minutes will kill termites...

Due to the condition of the walnut (very porous, punky in small areas), it took some 15 coats of lacquer to build up a good film and solidify the surface. The hinges are Brusso.

The recesses within the top of the carob endblocks were routed with the aid of a purpose-made template. The coves machined into the outer ends were accomplished with a panel-raising bit in a router table: the radiused blocks had to be carefully rotated over the bit whilst staying on center point and referenced against the table fence.

"an Urn " -Bubinga, ebonized Maple, Plum burl, and velvet

This box was a design challenge attempting to integrate an Oriental design motif. The box is veneered plywood, and the top and bottom elements are ebonized maple. The lid has a plank of some beautiful burled plum harvested from a tree taken from my sideyard- it is held in place with loose splines.

The frame for the lid was milled as one four foot long piece of wood with some 12 machining setups on the router table, before being mitered together. The foot was accomplished in a similar manner, but only had around 5 to 6 machining steps. It is finished with lacquer.

In hindsight, I feel this design profile would be more successful as a turning.

"Collector's Marble Boxes " -Aromatic Cedar, Black Walnut

These boxes were a production run for a gent who sells collectable glass marbles. Sixty of the small cedar boxes (consisting of three variant groups of twenty each), and twenty of the larger double wide units were produced. Barbed insert hinges, as well as rare-earth magnetic catches were implemented. The customer provided the die-cut foam inserts.

Three distinct, complex jigs were designed and built to aid in the the fabrication of these boxes, all utilizing vacuum clamping as an integral function.

All have a lacquer finish, and were laser engraved at a local trophy shop.

"A Wedding Box " -Quilted Chestnut, Carob, and suede

This box was made for a dear friend as a wedding gift.

It is a simple, bold design: the only challenges being every surface is either non-parallel, has compound angles, or is contoured is some way. The lid is resawn out of chestnut and then bookmatched to generate a larger lid, resulting in a larger box.

The major splits in the carob endblock were filled with cyanoacrylate, and the box has a tung oil finish.

"Sliding Coffin Box " -Fiddleback Walnut, Bastogne Walnut, brass, and velvet

This is essentially my first serious attempt at a box. The sides are resawn from a log of fiddleback walnut. The endblocks are attached with brass dowels, profiled to match the surrounding radius. The lid slides within a smoothly waxed dado, and the lid seam is pretty well hidden within the lid edge.

This box is finished with tung oil and wax.