Been a long time since I've been able to get into my shop. Busy with work, busy with projects for the KC Woodworkers' Guild, just plain busy!

So, stole some evenings (when it was cooler) to work on a little walnut box. This is based on a design by Gary Rogowski and appeared as an article in Fine Woodworking. This started out as a build-along to help a friend make one but he has had even less time than me! So mine is done and I can now go poke my friend Jason with a sharp stick and tell him to get crackin'!

The box is walnut, resawn and then cut large "finger" joints by hand. The joints are pinned with very small maple dowels (otherwise known as toothpicks). The bottom is a piece of walnut plywood I made. Used some very thin Baltic and veneered on two pieces of walnut veneer. This let me glue the bottom into a rabbet (also cut by hand) for a bit more strength. The sides and top have a slight curve to them, again this was hand work.

A little planing followed up by a scraper did the trick. Once shaped I hit the whole thing with some 220 grit to even out the surface. Planed vs. scraped will look different under a finish. Please note the inclusion of knots. These were planed, slow and careful. Still a bit of tearout but the scraper gets rid of that.

Finish is lacquerer (first time, great stuff) follow up with a coat of wax to soften the finish and feel.

RW,

I like it. Your simple design allows the beauty of the wood to take center stage.

Oh, and welcome back!

Very nice, thanks for sharing.

Not my design, rather a slight riff on one from Gary Rogowski [sic]. But what I was more interested in was playing about with that knot in the lid and having a small project to try out lacquer.

I have such a hard time transitioning from "practice" to "produce" sometimes. It is nice when I can find both an inspiration, fun material to play with and some techniques to execute all at the same time.