Jewelry Boxes: Update 1

Well, I found my memory card. It was sitting on a package of socks I had bought for E (of course).

Anyway, these photos are from the first two weeks of class.

My plans and the raw lumber.

I decided to base the jewelry boxes off of these plans I found in an old copy of Woodsmith magazine. (Yes, I said “boxes.” I am, perhaps very foolishly, planning to make more than one.) The orange boards running vertically in the photo are African lacewood, a kind of pricey exotic, which I’m going to use on the lids. The boards running horizontally are walnut (a big favorite of mine) which the boxes themselves will be made out of.

The first week of class I planed and sanded the walnut down to 5/8″ thick and then cut the fronts and backs and ends to size. If I’m cutting two pieces that need to be the exact same size I like to tape them together and cut them at the same time to ensure they’re uniform.

A side piece and the front of the box in the dovetail jig.

This last Wednesday I cut the dovetails for the box joints. The plans called for another type of joint but I wanted to learn how to cut dovetails so I switched it up. I think dovetails can be very pretty. Because they’re very strong structurally dovetails are considered a sign of quality craftmanship and you’ll see them used in higher end kitchen cabinetry and furniture.

Cutting the dovetails with the router.

The cut dovetailed joint. The jig offsets the two pieces so when they’re flipped around they’ll fit together.

The cut dovetails. The jig I used cuts blind dovetails and so they will only be visable on the sides of the boxes.

When I finished cutting the dovetails for the three boxes without any major mishaps I breathed a big sigh of relief. Next I need to cut the grooves for the bottom of the box and tray supports, sand the insides, and glue the boxes together with the bottoms.