Mike Stafford
Member
- Messages
- 3,378
- Location
- Coastal plain of North Carolina
I built this box in 1987. Actually I built a whole lot of these boxes in 1987; perhaps as many as three dozen but I don't recall exactly. The reason I know it was built back in 1987 is because I used to glue a shiny new penny on the bottom of my boxes back in those days. This one has sat on my wife's desk in one of the upstairs bedrooms for a long time.
I called these pencil boxes and I made them in 6", 8", 10" and 12" versions. They were all 4" wide and about 3" tall. They were built from freshly planed and sanded cherry stock 1/2" thick which has aged remarkably well in the past nearly 40 years to a rich brown Pennsylvania cherry color. The dovetail splines and handles were made from black walnut. The only thing remotely special about these boxes is the way the lid sits in the opening. The inside edge of the sides and ends has a half cove at the top and the lid has been rounded over to sit in that half cove. The lid is still flat and sits in the opening just as it did all those years ago.
The finish was multiple coats of Danish oil. I used Danish oil on almost all of my small boxes. I power buffed it with my Baldor buffer and it was and is still slick as glass. I love the soft sheen that resulted.
The bottom is a piece of 1/8" plywood is lined with some soft fabric glued to a piece of stiff cardboard stock. It has collected a little dust over time.
These little boxes sold like hot cakes. I sold them at a couple of craft galleries during the fall usually between Thanksgiving and Christmas and they always sold out.
Just thought you might like to see how cherry, at least this cherry, has aged over the nearly 40 years since I used it.
I called these pencil boxes and I made them in 6", 8", 10" and 12" versions. They were all 4" wide and about 3" tall. They were built from freshly planed and sanded cherry stock 1/2" thick which has aged remarkably well in the past nearly 40 years to a rich brown Pennsylvania cherry color. The dovetail splines and handles were made from black walnut. The only thing remotely special about these boxes is the way the lid sits in the opening. The inside edge of the sides and ends has a half cove at the top and the lid has been rounded over to sit in that half cove. The lid is still flat and sits in the opening just as it did all those years ago.
The finish was multiple coats of Danish oil. I used Danish oil on almost all of my small boxes. I power buffed it with my Baldor buffer and it was and is still slick as glass. I love the soft sheen that resulted.
The bottom is a piece of 1/8" plywood is lined with some soft fabric glued to a piece of stiff cardboard stock. It has collected a little dust over time.
These little boxes sold like hot cakes. I sold them at a couple of craft galleries during the fall usually between Thanksgiving and Christmas and they always sold out.
Just thought you might like to see how cherry, at least this cherry, has aged over the nearly 40 years since I used it.
