Looking for plans for cedar hope chest

[David Tolsky]

Hello, I'm looking for plans for cedar hope chest including where to get hinges and all needed hardware. Will the common cedar that Home Depot sells (tongue & groove fencing) work? Does only the inside need to be lined with cedar? Thanks for any advice you can give me.

[Dimitrios Fradelakis]

Norm on the New Yankee Workshop had built a blanket chest and lined the bottom with aromatic cedar. I know it's not a "hope chest" but it's similar IMO. Also, a YouTube woodworker by the name of Jon Peters had also built a blanket chest that I, personally made.

[Lee Schierer]

Will the common cedar that Home Depot sells (tongue & groove fencing) work? Does only the inside need to be lined with cedar?

What you need for a cedar chest is Aromatic Red Cedar not Western Red Cedar which is used for fencing. Aromatic Cedar will be dark red to almost purple in color and relatively heavy. Western red cedar is light brown in color and light weight.

Cedar chests can also be made from Cedar or can be made from a different hard wood and lined with aromatic cedar. The big box stores do sell cedar closet lining (http://www.homedepot.com/p/Unbranded-1-4-in-x-3-3-4-in-x-48-in-100-Aromatic-Eastern-Red-Cedar-Planking-36422/205667315) that you could put inside a chest made from other hard wood.

[Mel Fulks]

There is a history of using cedar to protect things that goes back to the ancients. But the modern cedar chest is largely a mid 20th century highly successful spin off and marketing of the "hope chest". So look at the designs of those ,too,for more choices.

[John Sanford]

Fine Woodworking has published numerous plans of blanket chests/hope chests. Pretty much any chest design, whether blanket, hope, sea, or pirates chest will do the trick. I built this one (http://www.finewoodworking.com/woodworking-plans/article/a-blanket-chest-with-legs.aspx) from FWW #129 years ago for my daughter out of maple and purpleheart (the design was for maple and cherry), and lined it with the cedar closet lining.