African Blackwood lidded box

[John K Jordan]

Made this from a clarinet bell blank from Big Monk Lumber.

African Blackwood.
Turned and hollowed with 3/8" Hunter Hercules.
Smoothing with hand scrapers then 400 to 1200 sandpaper.
Stippling on top with carbide bit in a Dremel.
Finish is Mylands Friction Polish.



JKJ

[tom lucas]

beautiful! Lid seem is nearly invisible.

[Phil Mueller]

Beautiful work, John.

[Richard Dooling]

Very, very nice! The texturing is a nice touch.

[Bill Carey]

Every time you post a picture John makes me wanna go get the lathe out of the gang box and set it up. Beautiful work. As usual.

[John K Jordan]

It was nice to do some turning after not touching the lathe for a couple of months (except for a bit of teaching.)

Every time you post a picture John makes me wanna go get the lathe out of the gang box and set it up. Beautiful work. As usual.

Bill, I guess I should post more pictures then!


Tom, just for fun I purposefully tried to make the seam difficult to see! The detail higher on the lid is a visual distraction - sometimes people grip the wide part and try pulling the top, and of course they are holding it together and it won't come apart. I tried to cut a clean join on both sides and avoided touching the edge with even very fine sandpaper. This closeup on a different shot shows the seam better:

Blackwood_box_seam_IMG_8155.jpg

For anyone who hasn't tried it, African Blackwood is wonderful to work with. Unlike what is now called Ebony, Blackwood is actually a rosewood (Dalbergia) and as such is listed with all the other rosewoods under CITES appendix II as restricted. According to the Wood Database Blackwood itself is not YET listed as endangered. The clarinet bell blanks are still available but they may eventually be harder to find. It's already more difficult to find reasonably large square blanks. Most Blackwood I've seen is not jet black but does have some dark brown figure which is nice since it doesn't look so much like plastic when polished!
I still have a dozen or so of the clarinet blanks so maybe I'll try some variations (such as putting the lid seam in a respectable place. )

A few years ago I made this "pod" box from one of the clarinet bell blanks, cherry and coke lid, dogwood and wire stand:

pod_box_comp.jpg

JKJ

[tom lucas]

I like the seemless look. I suppose you could have hidden under a decorative edge. But, it's great. I'd like to try that blackwood myself.