Carving tool box for competition

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Chris Knight

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Well, I am pretty sure I am not going to be doing anything more to my box before the competition closes, so here it is.

The intent was to make a box to store carving chisels (having just taken a carving course and done some carving for the very first time, I can see it being a useful adjunct to my general woodworking and maybe an interest in its own right). The box is very much a working tool box with two special features - firstly, it will have small carved panels that may be removed and changed for something else when my skills improve. At present it has only one such panel - others await progress on the carving front.. Secondly it is jointed with secret mitred dovetails which I have never done before. I turned to Ian Kirby's book to help me out with these.

I started with some ash

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Chopped some secret mitred dovetails

box01.sized.jpg


Here I am marking those tails from the pins I made earlier. Note the little Swiss Army knife I used for cutting the marked lines - I copied this tip from Kirby's book - beats the rest of my knives hollow for this operation!

box02.sized.jpg


Mitred the corners - as seen in the left hand side. Ian Kirby recommends the shoulder plane for this operation, I found a long, sharp, paring chisel easier.

box03.sized.jpg


Added some drawer runners - a single screw in the centre is enough. The 4mm rebates hold the runner securely.

box04.sized.jpg


Made some finger jointed drawers from walnut left over from the chairs with ebony pulls (also leftovers) and a sliding door to cover them with a cutout for a small carved panel

box05.sized.jpg


Made a small incised carving and fixed it in place with magnets in the sliding door

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Covered the magnets in the backside of the door with a small inlay motif

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Put some tools in it - I thought about drawer dividers but eschewed them on the basis that I keep adding odd tools of different widths, so dividers (unless uniformly and inefficently wide) would hamper reorganising things - plus, it makes tools harder to pick up.

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Considered carved panels for the back (which is frame and panel construction - large panel, small frame!) but decided to wait until I could carve a little better..

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Still considering!

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The box is finished with Patina - I gave it another go after talking to AndyP and following his advice on applying it, it went on quite well. The drawers are done with Liberon Finishing Oil.
 
Nice one Chris!
How well did those corners close up-can't quite see in the photo's. How long did the secret mitres take?
well done!
Philly :D
 
Philly,

Thanks. The mitres were quite tight - the fitting was difficult I found and I spent quite a long time fettling the joints. Unlike a "normal" mitre, you can't pull the mitres up tight in the gluing operation because the dovetails require any clamping to be in line with them, rather than across the corners of the box (for a simple mitre and a very tight joint, I would have glued on some clamping battens at each corner, clamped these up tight and after the glue had set - just planed off the temporary battens).

In fact I took the clamps off as soon as I had snugged up these joints, the dovetails held everything very firmly.

The pictures are of opposite sides of the top of the box. The mitres are by no means perfect but for a first go at these things I was well pleased. I reckon I spent two days making these joints.

box_mitre.sized.jpg


box_mitre_2.sized.jpg


Alf, -I was feeling lazy. :)
 
Thats a wonderful looking box Chris and I would be proud to use it every day! Very smart and very well made!

I've been thinking about making a tool box myself with all the left overs from the table, now I know where to come for advice!! :lol:

SimonA
 
Yet another master piece Chris, it's making us feel small :oops:

I think you are on to a winner with this box, it's fabulous. :D
 
Chris, I can't see the pictures nor access your new site directly. Has this one been hijacked too?

AndyP
 
Chris,
got the pictures now, probably a proxy problem at this end.

Do you have two different fronts for it now? One with the square carving and the other with a diamond - is that inlayed as well?

AndyP
 
Andy,

The diamond inlay is on the back of the slding front - covering up the magnets. I decided that I like the carvings to be slightly proud so I don't need the hole to push it of the magnets, I can get enough grip at the front so the inlay covers the hole too.
 
dedee":1jx3ayn9 said:
Do you have two different fronts for it now? One with the square carving and the other with a diamond - is that inlayed as well?

AndyP

Sorry just re-read your post. Inside and outside shots of the front panel. It is just too much, not only are the joints hidden but so will some of the carving.

AndyP
 

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