Box with Wooden Hinges

This box measures about 4 x 6 x 1.25 inches. It is made entirely of Mahogany with box joints, or some call them finger joints, corners. There is no closing latch. The hinges, though, are wooden (with steel pins). Tiny hinges like these are not strong. There's just not enough wood to make them strong. I just couldn't resist the challenge though. This wood is beautiful. It has a deep shimmering glow. The finish is hand rubbed linseed oil and wax.

Tiny Wooden Box

This box is about 2" x 2 1/8" x 7/8" and not quite square. The square sides are Mahogany the rest of the wood looks like rosewood but I don't think it is. The only hardware is the steel pin in the hinge. One corner of the box has finger joints. I rounded the fingers on them and drilled through them for the hinge pin. I did that before I glued the square sides on so I could hide the hinge pin. There's no closing latch or hardware, just a friction fit holding the lid closed. The finish is hand rubbed linseed oil and wood wax.

Redwood Box

This box is made from some recycled wood, that is, very old redwood (100+ yrs.). I milled it into 3/16" layers, planed and sanded to 1/8" thick. I had no large pieces of this wood so a small box was a good choice as a project. Those thin "sheets" were used to make all the parts of the box; top, bottom, sides and liner.

It is four inches square and just over one inch high. The box has a friction fit lid. There is no hardware at all on this one. The corners are 1/8" box joints.

 

The finish is boiled linseed oil followed with hand rubbed wood wax.

Mobile' # 61

Here is another steel mobile' with plastic inserts. The plastic is bits of auto tail lights collected at intersections I pass on my bike rides. It's a rather limited palette of colors to work with but there in lies a challenge. This one is about four feet high and painted a dark bronze color.

Three Band Saw Boxes

Here are three band saw boxes, all from the same piece of wood. These were made from the scrap box in my shop. Two pieces of Douglas Fir were glued together to create that book matched grain pattern seen on the end of the boxes. The largest box (5" x 3" x 2.5") was made first. The middle box (3.5" x 2.25" x 1.5") was made from the piece of wood that was cut out of the larger box, hollowing out the inside. That sequence was repeated for the smallest box (3" x 1.75" x 1"). The are no metal fasteners or other parts on these boxes. The hinges are wooden pins. The finish is boiled linseed oil.

A box with a different kind of hinge.

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This box is 1.5 x 2.5 x 2.5 inches. It is made from Redwood and Oak, with a Suede-Tex liner. The walls of this box are slightly thicker than 1/8 of an inch. I'm pretty proud of myself for coming up with the hinge on this box. Instead of a hinge attached to the back of the box, the hinge is the back of the box. I used the box joint jig I made to cut 1/4 inch 'fingers', which I rounded over and bored for a metal hinge pin, which were covered when I glued the sides on. I have since added a false floor which divides the inside into upper and lower compartments.

Canisters from scrap wood

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I made these two canisters, on my lathe, from bits of scrap wood glued together; maple plywood, redwood, cedar and poplar and pear wood. The left one is 1.75 inches in diameter by 3.75 inches high. The one on the right is 4.5 inches high and almost 2 inches in diameter. The one on the right has a cap made from pear wood, on which I used a home-made texturing tool, a chatter tool. You can see the texture a little better on the image below. Next time I won't use this kind of plywood. It doesn't look very good in my opinion.

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Catulpa wood box

This 3.5 inch wide by 8.25 inch long by 2.75 inch high box is carved from a solid chunk of Catulpa wood. That's "carved" with power tools. It's only two pieces of wood. First I cut the lid off. Then I cut out the inside of the box with a router and chisels. The bottom "legs" were cut with a band saw. The lid was rounded off with a router. There are a lot of insect damage holes in this piece of wood but I was able to get this box done and looking half way decent. The finish is linseed oil and hand-rubbed wood wax. I started this box project many years ago but it got set aside in my work shop and then became buried in the clutter. I never really forgot about it. I was trying to think of a way to finish it, having gotten stuck at some point not knowing how to proceed  . . . until years later, when I had more and better tools and a lot more know-how. . . and then the light bulb came on . . . so to speak. And so I finally have it finished. This wood has a very interesting grain and can be very beautiful if cut correctly. It's a heavy and hard wood. I've carved things from it in the past and liked the results. I'm happy with this result as well.

Redwood box with Oak "hardware"

Here we have a box measuring 5.5 inches square and 2.75 inches high, made with recycled 1/4 Redwood sides with 1/8 inch finger joints. The finger-joint latch on the front is white Oak (and purely decorative). The wooden hinges on the back are also Oak. bottom is inset Mahogany plywood. The top is Old Growth Redwood. The liner is green velvet flocking.

A 4-Inch Gift box

This is a 4 inch square box, 1.25 inches high. The sides are 1/2 inch Birch plywood with Mahogany veneer on both sides. The top and bottom of the box, and the corner splines are 1/8 inch Rosewood. The hinge on the back and the catch on the front are made of white Oak. The liner is a sprayed-on green velvet flocking.

Small Douglas Fir box

This is not a good wood for turning because it is a fairly soft wood with very hard growth rings. It will quickly dull your tools, and it's difficult to sand it properly because the soft wood sands away before the hard wood. Anyway, this is some pieces of scrap glued together to make a turning blank for a test. With carbide tipped tools I was able to get a pretty smooth surface which didn't need much sanding. I finished it with boiled linseed oil only.

Tiny Pear wood box

This tiny 1.5 inch long capsule is made from Pear wood . . . just to see if I could make something this small. Pear is a nice wood for turning, a pleasure to work with.

Wooden Hinges

Here is a selection of wooden hinges I made one day puttering around in my shop. I've been wanting to make some of these for some time now. To give you an idea of the size: the hinges on the bottom row are one inch wide and one inch long. The hinges at the top left and the ones on the bottom row are white Oak. The ones on the upper right are Cherry. A steel pin was used on all of these. The Cherry hinges were cut on a band saw. The ones on the bottom were done with my box joint (finger joint) jig. There was one more wooden hinge not pictured here because it was already on a box, which will be in a future post. These hinges will be used in upcoming posts as I make boxes with them.

Box with wooden hinge

Here is a 4 inch square box 1.25 inches high. Top and bottom are Redwood. The sides are 1/2 inch plywood with Mahogany veneer on both sides. The corner splines are Rosewood. The hinge is Oak with a steel pin. I'm working on a wooden latch for the front closure that mirrors the Oak hinge on the back.

Yeah, I know, another spalted Maple box

Here we go again with the spalted Maple. Sorry, but you have to use it or lose it. It's rotting wood after all. This box is a little smaller than the last two (1.5 inches high, about 2 inches wide), but a really nice piece of wood. I used boiled linseed oil only as the finish.

Yet another spalted Maple box

Another spalted Maple box, very similar in size to the last one I posted. This one is about 2" high and 2" wide. Finished with a high speed wax.

A spalted Maple box

Spalted Maple, 2.75 inches wide, 1.5 inches high. Finished with wood wax.

A small footed bowl

This is two pieces of pine glued together. Those Pine boards had stain on them. That's the dark line you see on the middle of the side and the inside bottom of the bowl.

Douglas Fir box

Douglas fir scraps were glued together to make a hunk of wood that I turned into this box. Douglas fir is not a good choice for turning. It's a soft wood with hard annual rings; the dark part of the grain. But it is possible, so I gave it a shot. This is what I came up with. I like the shape. I think I'll try it again with a nicer piece of wood. 

A small wooden toy top

I found this scrap of very hard wood, which I thought was Eucalyptus, but, I don't know . . .
Anyway, I thought I'd turn a quick top. They make nice gifts. I get to practice my lathe skills. This one's a bit of a fail though. It doesn't spin well. I think there's big difference in wood density within this piece of wood which makes it hopelessly out of balance.

Pear and Maple box

This box is about 1.5 inches wide and about 3 inches tall. The cap is Maple and the knob and the bottom are Pear wood. This Pear is really nice turning wood. I'm looking forward to working more with this, because I have a lot of it. The cap is a piece of spalted Maple with a small knot in it. I thought it might work as a cap. I was wrong. I'm not liking it. There's another look at it below.

Two small bowls

These are (2.5 inch and 3 inch) small bowls I turned on my lathe. That's spalted Plum on the left and mildly spalted Maple on the right. This is essentially practice, using every scrap of wood to hone my turning skills. I am making progress, learning with every turning. I do enjoy this craft.

A small Maple turned box

 This box is made from spalted Maple. It's about 3 inches tall and almost 2 inches wide, made from a section of a branch which I turned on the lathe. I gave it a green sprayed-on flocking lining. Burned-in accent lines on the side at the top and bottom, and an attempt at a little chatter-tool texturing on the top. The end grain in this piece of wood wasn't hard enough to get good texturing with that tool. I ended up with a wooded box that looks like it's been around a long time. I'm OK with that.

A small wooden box with liner

That is a 2.5 x 2.5 inch Douglas fir box with a flocking liner. Quarter inch finger joints, one brass hinge, no latch hardware. Just a nice little box.

From the Mask Series

Here is a mask from a series I did of faux metal masks (in the early 2000's). The masks are made of cardboard and paper and painted with metalic paints; this series, in bronze.
I will post more on this series in the future. I sold this one today to one of my restoration customers.

Trefoil Knot in metal

Here is my latest trefoil knot, made with 1.5 inch wide 1/8 inch thick metal strapping. That's five feet of metal ribbon to make this knot, which makes this knot about one foot in diameter. Here, I've made a mount for it: a cement block base with a 1/2 inch rod on which I welded the knot. The steel is lightly sanded and brushed, then covered with a matte clear coat.

Spalted Apple Bowl

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Here is a 4 inch spalted Apple bowl, about 1.25 inches high. There was a bit of tear-out on the end grain which I decided to accentuate with a gold paint fill. I rubbed the paint into the pits and when dried, I sanded off the surface, leaving paint in the pits. I topped that off with 3 coats of shellac. In the photos there's a narrow depth of field so, one photo has the foreground in focus and the other has the background of the bowl in focus.

Spalted Maple Box

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I think this is the best turned object I've made to date. This is a box made from spalted Maple. It is 4 inches in diameter, and about 3.5 inches tall. The knob is a darker piece of the same wood. I did a real fine job getting the walls nice and thin and perfectly smooth. The lid fits perfectly. The finish is just right. I've been using better tool and I get a better result. The practicing is beginning to pay off.