Two recent projects (w/pics)

[Rob Horton]

Just sharing my recent work with my fellow Creekers. Just finished up two projects. One was a "real one" where I built a country wall cupboard for my wife. The other project was a keepsake box where I was fooling around with learning how to do mitered spline joints. Actually came out pretty good and my 8 year old son ended up wanting it. Guess it ended up being a project after all. :)

Anyway, the box is made from an old cedar board I had been holding onto since our last house (found the board in the old house's basement). Used my new planer (from that Lowes clearout of Delta tools not long ago <stealth gloat>) to take the lumber down to thickness.

The wall cupboard is just made from glue up pine panels (also from Lowes). And it's my first actual attempt at relief carving - other than just practice.

Anyhow, hope you like em. I surely enjoyed doing them although they are nothing fancy. Heck, any time in the shop is time well spent right? :)

Cheers!

[Jack Hogoboom]

Rob,

Those are BOTH great projects!! If your son decides he doesn't want the box, I'll gladly take it.

The relief carving looks great. I'd be nerve-wracked trying to do that.

Thanks for sharing!!

Jack

[Michael Stafford]

Rob, both projects look great. Your wife will love the shelves and your son loves the box. Recently I was visiting my son in new home and as we were taking the grand tour I noticed the very first box I ever made for him when he was about 8. I said very flippantly something like, "You've still got that old box?" He turned to me and said, " I love that box." Your son will love your box too. It doesn't get any better than that.

[scott spencer]

Rob - Both projects look super...I really like the styling of both. I experimented for the first time with mitered spline joints last winter on a jewelry box....all went well except for mixing up the edge and end grains a bit....live and learn!

Nice job...

[Rob Horton]

Michael,

I think you just summed up why most of us do the work that we do. Thanks!

Rob

[Alan Turner]

Rob,
Nice work. And yes, all time in the shop is well spent.
Any chance of a close up of the carving? It is a skill I am in the process of trying to acquire.
Alan

[Jim Becker]

Both projects look wonderful, Rob!! THanks for sharing them. And I agree with Alan...show us the carving!

[Wes Newman]

Great job on the carvings. Must take alot of patience.

[Rob Horton]

I'm not sure that the carving is all that fantastic but here is a close-up of it. And thanks for the compliments. I am a bit proud though that this is my own free-hand design, not a pattern.

Here's a pic. And this is all just plain old MinWax stain from Wal-mart for the contrasting color (just in case you were wondering). After the carving, I dipped a small finishing nail into the stain and retraced the veins and leaves to darken them like that. Took about an hour.

Remember, be gentle it's my first carving. ;)

[Rob Horton]

Also, if anyone wants a great set of carving tools to get started or just to try it out, I'd like to highly recommend the ones that Rockler sells. They're called 'Flexcut" and they have a 5-piece tool set for around $40 - even comes with some sample wood and instructions to carve a dual-leaf pattern project. Very, very cool.

[Jim Becker]

I have a small 4-pc set of Flexcut carving gouges and they are excellent.

[Alan Turner]

Rob. Very nice, and thanks for the pix. Did you find that the pine, given its inherent softness, was hard to carve? So far my only experience is with carvng mahogany, which is a nice carving wood, I think.
Alan

[Jerry Olexa]

Rob, great work and agree its satisfying to make something special out of old ,discarded material you've been saving. Nice carving also!

[Tony Falotico]

I especially like the carving, we don't always take the time to personalize each project like you did.

[Pete Harbin]

Rob,

Is the box design from an American Woodworker article? I've earmarked that issue for Christmas gift ideas this year and was thinking of making a few.

Ditto on the Flexcut tools. I've got a four piece set, plus several carving knives.

Pete

[Rob Horton]

Rob,

Is the box design from an American Woodworker article? I've earmarked that issue for Christmas gift ideas this year and was thinking of making a few.

Ditto on the Flexcut tools. I've got a four piece set, plus several carving knives.

Pete

Pete,

Yep, that was from that issue! Guess great minds think alike :)

[Rob Horton]

Rob. Very nice, and thanks for the pix. Did you find that the pine, given its inherent softness, was hard to carve? So far my only experience is with carvng mahogany, which is a nice carving wood, I think.
Alan


Alan,

I apologize for taking so long to reply. For some reason, the Creek wasn't letting me back in. Anyway, the pine was pretty easy to carve as it is very soft. However, what I did have to watch out for was too much wood coming loose at a time due to that fact.

I've only worked with Basswood for practicing. Which, I'm told by the guys at Rockler, most carvers seem to prefer. Probably because it is also easy to work with.

[Ted Shrader]

Rob -

Those are really remarkable. The relief carving turned out great! Did you sketch it yourself or find a pattern to copy?

Your son will be proud of his box. It will stay with him forever.

Regards,
Ted

[Rob Horton]

Ted,

I just drew the vine-lines out free-hand with a pencil and then carved right over them. The leaves I just put "wherever they felt right" with a gouge.

[Lou Morrissette]

Nice job on both your projects, Rob. Very creative carving.

[Pete Harbin]

Rob,

Did you make the sled they recommend in the article, or did you find you could do ok without it?

[Rob Horton]

Rob,

Did you make the sled they recommend in the article, or did you find you could do ok without it?

Pete,

I made the sled too, and pretty much everything else they recommended in the article. One other thing to note in the articel as far as accuracy goes. I would make the lid out of thicker stock than the 3/8" that they recommend. Probably 1/2" material is what I would use. Then route the rabbet for the lid to fit snug onto the box about 1/8" deep. That would leave you with a nice thicklooking top like you see in their photos.

Because if you look at the photos, they have a nice thick lid on their boxes. If you follow their plans exactly though, they say to use 3/8" material for the lid and then to make that rabbeted edge around it so that the lid sits down into the box a bit.

This works great except that it then leaves your lid looking much thinner than theirs are in the article.

Hope that all made sense.