[Project 11] Curly maple, purple heart, wenge, zebrawood keepsake box for wife

[mattbyington]

My fiancee (I call her wife but really we got engaged a few months ago, getting married in May of next year) needs a place to store her jewelry, going to try my hand at finer woodworking - smaller and thinner boards.

Up until now it's been mostly larger (ish) projects.

Put the first few hours in this morning - glue drying, more to come this week.

Matt

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[jarbroen]

Be vewy careful!  Thin wood like that freaks me out... I'm like a bull in a china shop.
That's some cool looking wood. 
Will the box have drawers?  Lid?

 

[ilovesunshine]

Can’t wait to see it progress!!

 

[Runhard]

Looking good!

 

[mattbyington]

Thanks [member=65755]jarbroen[/member] , I already broke the purple heart a few times and had to fix it up.

Definitely will be careful.

Thank you [member=68412]ilovesunshine[/member] ! and Thanks [member=13588]Runhard[/member] !

More pictures tonight or tomorrow - making progress slowly. Trying to not mess up any of this wood as I go and not waste much.

I'm thinking a hinged lid - somewhat of a simple design with felt at the bottom and thin purple heart half-lap dividers.

Will post more pics soon!

Matt

 

[Steven Owen]

Looks good so far Matt.  You picked some of the more vibrant grain patterns to work with.  I’d love to work with Zebra Wood more often but we get killed on rare exotic wood prices in Canada.

Keep posting pics so we can see all the steps in your project. 

 

[mattbyington]

[member=66154]Steven Owen[/member] thanks man! Appreciate it. Let me know if you want me to pick some up and ship it to you. I can let you know next time I’m picking wood up and grab some for you if you want.

Only had half an hour in the shop tonight - the box now has 3 pieces glued together. I need to do final sanding and sizing of the Purple Heart bottom but here’s the current state of affairs.

Then I’ll work on the top.

Matt

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[nickao]

Looks good so far Matt.  You picked some of the more vibrant grain patterns to work with.  I’d love to work with Zebra Wood more often but we get killed on rare exotic wood prices in Canada.

Keep posting pics so we can see all the steps in your project. 

I dont get that statement.

Zebrawood  costs the same here as in Canada, so do just about all the exotics.

Zebrawood cost 23.00 – $29.00 a board foot here in IL USA in USD(figured, curly etc cost ten times that) and at a Toronto supplier I have used in the past it cost 23.00 – $29.00 in Canadian dollars. When I ship it from Canada the cost ends up almost exactly the same price, so I just normally use my USA supplier. If I made what I make here and lived there the wood would be very close to the same price leaning to less in Canada by a few cents , not more.

So yeah it's expensive, but you Canadian's don't pay anymore than us for exotics. If you are in some super out of the way place, that has more to do with it than being in Canada. Toronto for example has very near identical pricing over all. I have been using exotics in my work for 20 years and get them everywhere and the price is virtually the same anywhere in North America initially and after shipping pretty much irrelevant to my shop, unless I get some super deal.

I will say, its been years and things change and it's not like I sourced wood form Canada yesterday, but historically I got equivalent pricing there.

 

[mattbyington]

Bottoms up - I mean in - and glue drying! Next step is to work on the top.

Matt

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[mattbyington]

Done! Yes I covered the purple heart oh well.

It was my first time using a chisel (to mortise the hinges). That went terribly as you can see. Oh well! Learning process.

Also I broke 2 of the heads off the screws so had to drill new holes. Oh well, again. Learned, again.

Matt

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[mattbyington]

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