Category: Test Builds

Most people don’t think much about boxes.We think about shapes and sizes based on what we plan to store in them. That’s about it. But, if you look around most of what we see are based on cube-ish shapes. Houses. Cabinets. Storage boxes. Cars. The list goes on.

Yesterday, we took a brief detour from shop related stuff we were doing to build a couple of boxes. They were mostly for fun, but we were also testing out how we were going to prepare them for finishing. Many  items we will be producing in the future revolve around box shapes, so building a box  is a fundamental woodworking skill.

The boxes we chose to make were simple mitered corner boxes. This is one of the more basic designs. Four sides are cut at 45 degrees so they meet up at perfect right angles to each other. A part of the challenge is to make sure that the wood is of even thickness and dead flat. The other challenge is to ensure that the cuts are exactly 45 degrees. If any of the preceding are off, the box has unsightly gaps.

The miter joints that make up the box we made aren’t the strongest. On the plus side, they don’t show any end grain. On the minus side, if one isn’t careful about priming the joint with glue seize the end grain can suck up all the glue, weakening the joint and causing it to fail or swelling the wood, thereby throwing off the geometry of the box. This was a test for us in many respects.

Since we were making a couple of these boxes, we figured we’d take a couple of pictures to show you what the process looks like.

 

Here’s the follow-up to yesterday’s post on a couple of the cutting boards we were making.  They turned out pretty well.

Unfortunately, it’s hard to see the beautiful patterns that the end grain makes on the beech cutting board.

Sanded and branded! We are getting there!!!

Today was a long and tiring day. Both of us spent the morning completing some necessary tool maintenance. And then we got to have fun! We spent this afternoon building a couple of prototypes we plan to place in our Etsy Store — very soon! The first – an end grain “butcher block” cutting board and second, a serving board/platter.

Butcher Block cutting boards are “de rigeur” (i.e. necessary) if you are serious about cooking. They expose the end grain rather than long grain unlike most of the non-plastic cutting boards one finds. It’s sort of like a dart board. The fibers part to absorb the cutting edge allowing it to stay sharp longer. If you ever go by a traditional butcher shop, you’ll will probably see them cutting on either an end grain cutting board or the cross section of a tree stump — depending on how traditional they are and how long they have been in business. End grain butcher block cutting boards are the modern equivalent of the original tree stump. They can be quite beautiful. And now, we are making some.

The other item we started making is a serving platter. In this case, it’s a wooden board with feet. Since we tend to associate platters with parties and special occasions, we are making these decorative while maintaining the resilience and utility of a cutting board. The easiest decoration is to put together a straight lamination of different/contrasting woods that please the eye.  Lots of people do this. Some to great excess.

We are experimenting with simple laminations that are curved rather than linear to add visual interest.

We’ve made two variations of each of the above items. Two of the creations have been spoken for. The other two will go into our Etsy Store to start spooling it up. If you’ve read this far, please visit our store and “favorite” it.  This will greatly assist to develop our online presence.

Let us know if you find what we are creating interesting. We love feedback!