Ned Bulken
Member
- Messages
- 5,529
- Location
- Lakeport NY and/or the nearest hotel
Honestly, Ned I don't know why you think it needs a finial. I think it looks great just as it is.
The beauty in a turned box to me is how carefully you choose the wood, particularly the end grain which is in some ways the most prominent part of a box. If the end grain is dull you can inlay a contrasting piece of wood to brighten it up and make it beautiful. I do that all the time with plain old maple, curly maple, quilted maple and birdseye maple. The long grain of those woods is beautiful but the end grain is blah. Inlaying something else to dress it up makes a bland box into something special.
For example here is a maple box with a scrap of koa inlaid into the top.View attachment 86236View attachment 86237
Mike, when I parted off the lid from the blank everything was going fine... until the last 1/4 "... which broke off and stayed with the scrap part. It just tore out, leaving a rough edge. Design mod opportunity, not that I had much of a design beyond 'make a box.' I'm about to head back out to the shop, I'm visiting friends and want to turn a NE bowl for them.
Ned, somehow the fact that you ended up with a hole in the lid totally escaped me. I still think that you could inlay a contrasting piece of wood that would be visible from both sides. I re-read your post and now understand that you first hollowed the lid and then parted it off from the main blank. If you are going to use that technique you have to 'measure twice' and leave enough wood to keep that splitting from happening. If you follow the box turning steps advised by Raffan that kind of thing will not happen very often.
I suggest you spend a couple of dollars and buy Richard Raffan's video and book entitled Turning Boxes. The hollowing can be done without a Forstner bit. I can hollow out a box in less time than it takes you to set up and use a Forstner. The inside rounded hollow you have could be cleaned up/squared up in just a minute or two with a square scraper. Square boxes should have an interior that closely resembles/mimics the exterior.
Learning to use a square scraper is an important step in creating boxes with suction fit lids.
If you are interested I will be happy to send you a PDF of one of my box turning articles. Just PM an e-mail address.
My new scraper arrived today. Promptly re ground it to a better angle
Ned