Walnut jewelry chest....

[Mark Singer]

Another Classic! You have the touch my friend!!!

[Robby Phelps]

Great project Micheal. Well designed and executed. Very, very nice

[Mark Patoka]

I must also add they are very impressive. I really like the design and adding this to my "gonna have to make one of those" list.

[Keith Hooks]

That's a beautiful piece. I especially like the shape that the drawer fronts create and the lighter spline accents. How did you attach the drawer pulls to the drawers? Are they glued flush or is there more to it?

[Mike Weaver]

Beautiful!

Making a jewelry box for a gift is on the round tuit list...
I like the look!

Nice work.

-Mike

[Jim Hinze]

Wow! Very nice design... very good execution.


I just love black walnut!

[Jason Tuinstra]

Michael, very, very nice! The walnut looks great on this piece. Very nice proportions as well.

[Michael Stafford]

Keith, the drawer pulls are mortise and tenoned into the drawer front. The pulls are 1/4" thick and have a 1/8" tenon on the reverse that fits into a groove. There are also two small 1/8" brass dowels centered on the tenon about 1/2" from each end reinforcing the handle. They are somewhat susceptible to breakage if one is heavy handed. DAMHIKT!!! Once I started reinforcing this type handle with the brass or steel pins I have had no breakage....

[Wes Newman]

Michael, Very nice design. Have you made any Men's valets? I am about to make one for my father in law and have been hunting for the right design. Great craftsmanship. I love it.

[Dennis Peacock]

Well now Mr. Stafford...

A very outstanding piece you have there. I have always admired your box work and do learn a lot of things from you for my boxes. I like the walnut, the accent pieces and the overall shape of this piece.

I do have one question though?? You mentioned mitered corners on the velour. What sawblade did you use on your mitersaw to cut the velour??!!??

[Michael Stafford]

Okay, Mr. Peacock, I am afraid I cannot divulge the special saw I use for mitering velour. If I did that all my secrets would be gone.....

[Effie Lever]

Great looking work Mike. I have on my to do list a jewelry box for my wife. Couple of questions, what size stock did you use for the box, is this 0.5”? The other question, can you describe the method you used for shaping the drawers fronts.<O</O

Effie.

[Erik Larson]

I like the contrast, spacing and location of those splines. To my eye, beautiful work.

[Michael Stafford]

Effie, the carcass is indeed 1/2" thick stock. The drawer fronts are a full 3/4". To shape the drawer fronts you start with a board planed to final thickness and the correct length but wider than the height of the box. In this case I started with a walnut board 3/4" X 8 1/2" X 14". Using a jig that allowed me to stand the board vertically I bevel ripped both with and across the grain. Then I carefully sanded and planed the ripped surfaces trying to maintain the crisp edges of the bevels. Then it is just a matter of ripping the drawer fronts to width. I used my bandsaw allowing a little extra to clean up with a handplane. Not as hard as it appears really....By the way the entire box was made from one piece of walnut that was 9" wide and 67" long. In this case the box was built to accommodate the board I had....I felt like I was cutting it close. The second one is larger in length and came from another board that gave me more material to work with if I made a mistake...
I also used a piece of walnut veneer I had to veneer some birch plywood for the back of the box. This I had to stain a little to get a closer match to the wood for the rest of the box...

[Effie Lever]

Thanks Mike, I’m still not convinced it’s not “as hard as it appears”, I’ll just have to try it and find out.
Your comment earlier about how easy it is to spot small mistakes in small pieces is something I leaned the hard way when starting to do this kind of work.<O</O

Thanks again for sharing.
<O</O
Effie