Teak and Olivewood Jewelry Box

[Mike Henderson]

Very nice. I did not know teak could look that good. Can you talk about the finish? I've used olive wood several times, but haven't figured out a good finish for it.

Thanks for your comment, Stan. I sanded down to 220 grit and then applied shellac. When the shellac was well cured, I sanded that with 800 grit. Next I went to a buffing wheel and buffed with tripoli and finished buffing with carnauba wax.

It might be good to sand the olivewood to a higher grit than 220, but the teak was fine at 220.

Mike

[Lee Schierer]

That's a very nice looking box. Hopefully the olive wood in your box doesn't move seasonally like the olive wood in a box I was given as a gift. It moves quite a bit with the change of seasons even after 20+ years.

[Mike Henderson]

That's a very nice looking box. Hopefully the olive wood in your box doesn't move seasonally like the olive wood in a box I was given as a gift. It moves quite a bit with the change of seasons even after 20+ years.

I have some other things I've made from the olivewood and the movement (in my area) is not bad. I don't think the top of that box will have problems - but time will tell.

Here's a box I made of olivewood (all olivewood) back in 2019 and I haven't noticed any problems (yet). The wood was air dried in my attic.

OliveWoodBox001.jpg

Mike

[Mike Wilkins]

Just saw this today. Love the wood choice and color combination. What finish did you use?

[Mike Henderson]

Just saw this today. Love the wood choice and color combination. What finish did you use?

I applied shellac and then buffed the box with carnauba wax. See #16 in this thread for more info.

Mike

[Mike Henderson]

I put pictures of the teak and olivewood boxes on my website. Recently, I was contacted by someone who had a sad story. A member of the family is dying and they want to be able to share that person's ashes with family members.

They wanted four "containers". We went back and forth about size and wood choice and settled on African mahogany and figured maple. Here are the four boxes I made for them. The boxes are 6.5 inches on each side and 3 inches high. The top has a section on the bottom that fits into the box so the top does not slide around. They plan to glue the top down once the ashes are placed in the boxes, so I did not use any hinges.

They plan to have the tops laser engraved with the decedent's name and birth and death date.

Mike

Cremains-boxes-03.jpg

[Phil Mueller]

Beautiful work, Mike. Is the lid the maple piece or the whole raised panel?

[Mike Henderson]

Beautiful work, Mike. Is the lid the maple piece or the whole raised panel?

The whole raised panel. I don't have the boxes any more but here's a picture I took.

The box is very plain - the work was in the tops. I did the bevels around the tops with a hand plane.

Mike

Cremains-boxes-04.jpg

[Phil Mueller]

Thanks Mike. I’ll be stealing your design…the woodworking guild I belong to donates boxes to a local children’s hospital. This fits the bill perfectly.

[Mike Henderson]

Thanks Mike. I’ll be stealing your design…the woodworking guild I belong to donates boxes to a local children’s hospital. This fits the bill perfectly.

I have a different tutorial for a box of a slightly different design - https://www.mikes-woodwork.com/BoxTu...2ndVersion.htm

They're about the same as far as difficulty so you can choose which one to use.

For the box in the tutorial listed in the opening post, you'll need some very short screws to attach the hinges to the top. I used some steel screws plated gold color.

The Brusso stop hinges are very expensive. But maybe you were talking about the small boxes without hinges. If you go with the small boxes, make the box sides thinner. It didn't matter on these because the top was to be glued on, but the sides look too thick for the size of the box.

Mike

[Phil Mueller]

Thanks Mike. The hospital doesn’t allow metal to be used, so going for the non-hinged one. And yes, I tend to keep sides around 3/8” on smaller boxes. Appreciate you posting the tutorials!