Dancing swallows box #2 build

[Christopher Charles]

Hi all,

After many months of home improvement and shop improvement projects, I finally made into the shop for a "proper" woodworking project.

A year ago I made a small ring box for our wedding, which was also the 4 year anniversary of our first date. The first-anniversary theme is 'paper' and the fifth is 'wood', so I figured it would be fun to make a box for photos from the last five years using a similar design. Was a hybrid hand and power project-major milling with machines and all the fitting and finishing with handtools.

The sides are elm from a local park.

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The background for the top was sycamore from Jensen's hardwood in Walla Walla (i think...). Bandsaw remains my favorite power tool...

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Veneers cut to ~2.5 mm thick. Cut elm and walnut at the same time.

Here's the background with the wings cut in using the double-bevel technique, along with the original ring box.
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Adding the head to the second swallow.

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I forgot to take a picture, but one of my favorite tools for this work is a Lee Valley scraping plane with a toothing blade that I use to level the surface before finishing with a card scraper. Fast and foolproof and eliminates the need for all the veneers to be exactly the same thickness.

Since I was under deadline, went with a simple rabbeted box rather than dovetails. The completed box before finish and then with a first coat.

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The box was well-received, as were the stack of photos I still need to finish with shellac and will post some final shots in a few days. Thanks for looking and comments/questions welcome.

Best,
Chris

[Tom M King]

Gorgeous!!!

[Tony Wilkins]

Gorgeous!!!

What he said!

[Kent A Bathurst]

same here

If I may ask - what saw, or saw type, do you use for the double-bevel cutting?

[Christopher Charles]

Thanks gentlemen!

Kent, I'm using 2/0 blades on a Hegner scroll saw. That said, I've been curious to try cutting with a fretsaw.

[Ted Calver]

Beautiful!!

[mike stenson]

Beautiful work Charles!

Have you thought about some sand shading to further separate the background shapes from each other?

[Jim Koepke]

Wonderfully executed!

jtk

[Andrew Hughes]

That’s a pretty box.

[Christopher Charles]

Thanks all. Mike, i've played around some with sand shading, but have found that my results were inconsistent, in part because the veneer thickness varies just enough that the shading can be cut through during final leveling. I also aim for a realistic, but not 'photographic', asthetic and sand shading can be a bit too much to my eye.

[John Kananis]

That's a beautiful box. That's for posting this.

[Christopher Charles]

Thanks John and all for the kind words.

Here's the final final version with shellac (also posted in Projects):

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[Jim Reffner]

Thanks for sharing Christopher, I've always enjoyed your posts of your work.

[Christopher Charles]

Thanks Jim!