Small box corner question

[Tom Porter]

I’m making a small box (12 x 6 x 6) as an urn. My original plan was to resaw so I could wrap the grain around the box. However, my bandsaw wouldn’t handle the resaw cut (plus it’s a piece of crap and I’m not experienced at resawing) so I resawed on the table saw. That worked out ok except it just removed too much material, which I knew was a concern. It’s maple with dark streaks and the streaks not lining up is too noticeable. I’m thinking about ways to interrupt the corners so to speak using a contrasting wood to mask the lining up issue but still allow for a sense of flow around the outside. I thought about a corner block with a floating tenon on each side of the corner but I don’t know if that would be ok with wood movement. I also considered just joining the corners with rabbets but covering the joints with an essentially corner molding but I’m not crazy about that idea. And I’m hoping not to stay from scratch as I’m on a bit of a schedule on this.

Does anyone have any thoughts? Or even follow my limited descriptive skills and have an idea what I’m trying to ask?

[glenn bradley]

I can relate to the misalignment being obvious with some figure. It sounds like you may have to abandon the continuous look anyway so maybe make it easier on yourself. Dovetails are easier for some . . . not for me but are an option.

Urn-Walnut-1n2 (23).jpg

Exagerrated finger joints draw attention to the joinery and away from the non-continuous figure.

Urn Cherry.jpg

Finger joints can also be sculpted with a bandsaw and sander.

Dave-Urn (12).jpg

Urn-Mike (42).jpg

[Cliff Polubinsky]

Tom,

If you have stock that is wider than what you need you can sometimes shift the boards up or down and angle them to make the flow work better. If there's no more stock then posts on the corners could work. Check the Shrinkulator for how much movement can be expected. It might be small enough that a cross grain joint will be ok. Or do a frame and panel approach so the panels float.

Cliff

[Lee Schierer]

Resawing a piece of wood is the wrong approach to making a box with wrap around grain. For your 6 x 6 box you would need a piece of wood that is at least 26" long. You would cut miters on the joining sides of each piece. Mark the pieces with chalk to identify sequential pieces, also noting which edge is up. If you material is too thick make it thinner with a planer. If you are careful with your cuts you only lose about 5/32" of material length with each miter, making grain variations hardly noticeable. Be sure to place the corner between the first and last piece on a back corner of the box.

[Derek Cohen]

I’m making a small box (12 x 6 x 6) as an urn. My original plan was to resaw so I could wrap the grain around the box. However, my bandsaw wouldn’t handle the resaw cut (plus it’s a piece of crap and I’m not experienced at resawing) so I resawed on the table saw. That worked out ok except it just removed too much material, which I knew was a concern. It’s maple with dark streaks and the streaks not lining up is too noticeable. I’m thinking about ways to interrupt the corners so to speak using a contrasting wood to mask the lining up issue but still allow for a sense of flow around the outside. I thought about a corner block with a floating tenon on each side of the corner but I don’t know if that would be ok with wood movement. I also considered just joining the corners with rabbets but covering the joints with an essentially corner molding but I’m not crazy about that idea. And I’m hoping not to stay from scratch as I’m on a bit of a schedule on this.

Does anyone have any thoughts? Or even follow my limited descriptive skills and have an idea what I’m trying to ask?

Tom, Lee is correct - you need a long board cut into 4 for a wrap-around.

If you use non-sequential boards, as you now have, consider dovetailing the corners. That is a classic format.


Regards from Perth

Derek

[Tom Porter]

Resawing a piece of wood is the wrong approach to making a box with wrap around grain. For your 6 x 6 box you would need a piece of wood that is at least 26" long. You would cut miters on the joining sides of each piece. Mark the pieces with chalk to identify sequential pieces, also noting which edge is up. If you material is too thick make it thinner with a planer. If you are careful with your cuts you only lose about 5/32" of material length with each miter, making grain variations hardly noticeable. Be sure to place the corner between the first and last piece on a back corner of the box.

I’m confused. If you cut the miters all along one long board, how does the last corner line up? That corner would be made from the two ends of the board and the grain won’t be close. I thought the point of resawing was so all four corners would line up more closely.

[Mike Henderson]

I’m confused. If you cut the miters all along one long board, how does the last corner line up? That corner would be made from the two ends of the board and the grain won’t be close. I thought the point of resawing was so all four corners would line up more closely.

Tom is correct about getting all four corners to line up. You have to make your piece exactly the right length when you resaw so the final miter is right on the end edge. It's difficult to get right.

I just accept one corner not matching and put that corner at the back.

Mike

[John TenEyck]

To address your original question, take a look at this article in FWW:



John

[glenn bradley]

Resawing a piece of wood is the wrong approach to making a box with wrap around grain. For your 6 x 6 box you would need a piece of wood that is at least 26" long. You would cut miters on the joining sides of each piece. Mark the pieces with chalk to identify sequential pieces, also noting which edge is up. If you material is too thick make it thinner with a planer. If you are careful with your cuts you only lose about 5/32" of material length with each miter, making grain variations hardly noticeable. Be sure to place the corner between the first and last piece on a back corner of the box.

Interesting. I use this approach.

continuous figure.JPG

Obviously there are always plenty of ways to skin the cat. Since a thin kerf re-saw is not available to the OP, I think he is hoping for "fixes" at this point. I do agree with Mike Henderson that sometimes you end up with one corner that is less than perfect and I just place that at the rear.

[stephen thomas]

If you resaw for thick veneers, the book match is possible.
But a slip match might be more interesting. Also,if you go for the book match, it might be necessary to "cheat" and not use the veneers in sequence. The veneers would be sorted so the change at the corners between any two is minimized. This might mean that every corner has a slight mis-alignment, instead of one big one on one corner.

If you plan to saw veneers for sequential book matching the whole way round, be very observant of the _edges_ of the proposed resaw candidate: Parallel grain on the edges suggests the figure will change less from the front of the board to the back of the board (& of course that can be observed directly). Don't forget - if you veneer one side of a panel, the other side needs veneered with "similar" veneer in the same direction for balance. Insides of boxes can be things like relatively mundane wood, or something like satinwood or QS sycamore for a nice surprise.

This "box" is book matched veneered the whole way around with .050" thick veneers sawed from a big leaf maple burl.
(there are multiple book matches across each face)
Then "saved" at the corners with a contrasting relatively straight grain wood. Which in this case is also matched.

DSC_0217 - Copy.jpgDSC_0211 - Copy.jpgDSC_0221.jpgDSC_0227_02.jpg

[stephen thomas]

^^^^^where's that like button!^^^^^

I use this approach.

smt

[Mike Henderson]

Interesting. I use this approach.

continuous figure.JPG

Obviously there are always plenty of ways to skin the cat. Since a thin kerf re-saw is not available to the OP, I think he is hoping for "fixes" at this point. I do agree with Mike Henderson that sometimes you end up with one corner that is less than perfect and I just place that at the rear.

This is what I do, but note that the original piece of wood, before resawing, has to be exactly the right length so that the miters on the ends of the boards match. You can't have any waste at all when you make your cuts. The idea of barely cutting through is good. I have a 1/16" table saw blade and have been using that to make my cuts.

Mike

[Jim Becker]

I’m confused. If you cut the miters all along one long board, how does the last corner line up? That corner would be made from the two ends of the board and the grain won’t be close. I thought the point of resawing was so all four corners would line up more closely.

Tom is correct about getting all four corners to line up. You have to make your piece exactly the right length when you resaw so the final miter is right on the end edge. It's difficult to get right.

I just accept one corner not matching and put that corner at the back.

Mike

I agree with this. The whole reason for the re-saw is so that where things meet, there is near-perfect grain match across all corners. But, as Mike points out, it does require some careful measurement so that the board used is very close to the exact length required for the four sides plus miters including saw kerfs. And once must be very careful doing those miters because a 're do' isn't going to satisfy.

[Cameron Wood]

One approach...

IMG_3340.jpeg

[Lee Schierer]

I’m confused. If you cut the miters all along one long board, how does the last corner line up? That corner would be made from the two ends of the board and the grain won’t be close. I thought the point of resawing was so all four corners would line up more closely.

You cut the long board into 4 pieces with your blade at 45 degrees. You keep the good side up making all the cuts.