The sides of the box and the lid were constructed out of one long
piece of 5/8” poplar. Therefore, the grain runs horizontally from the left
rear corner of the box up to and across the front, and around the back again
to the same corner. All of the dadoes and rabbets were cut while the sides
were still just one long board. Then, the board was cut into four pieces and
assembled into a box. The bottoms to the three compartments and the lid are
all made of ¼” poplar. The section bottoms were added before the box was
assembled, but the lid was fitted and added later. The four corner joints
are mitered and held in place with glue only.
After I assembled the box, I sliced it into four pieces on the table
saw. I would have preferred to use the band saw but the box on its edge was
a little too tall for my band saw’s capacity.
One I had four individual compartments, I slightly chamfered all of
the edges at my router table. This gives the box its noticeable horizontal
breaks between the sections.
I added two pieces of ¼” poplar to each compartment to allow the
boxes to stack without sliding apart. At the short ends of each compartment
I glued the ¼” pieces in place so that they protrude about 3/16” above the
edge. Since the bottoms of each compartment are in dados that are ¼” from
the bottom, this allows these protruding pieces to stick up into the bottom
of the next compartment. Because there is one at each end, the compartments
cannot shift side-to-side or front-to-back; they can only be removed by being
lifted straight up.
The next step was one of the longest and most painstaking, but also
one of the most enjoyable and rewarding: using a woodburning tool to add the
design detail to the front of the box and lid. This whole process took a
whole day. Whenever I use a woodburning tool, I always start with a pattern
on paper. I tape that pattern in place on the wood and then I use an exacto
knife to trace the pattern. I poke through the pattern along the lines
making a series of shallow dots in the wood. Once I remove the pattern, I
have a dotted line of my pattern in the wood. Then I use a mechanical pencil
with a very fine lead (usually 0.5mm) to lightly connect all the dots. I end
up with a faint pencil drawing of my pattern on the wood. That pencil
drawing is what I follow with the woodburning tool to make the final design
image.
After a lot of sanding, I stained the box inside and out using a gel
stain in the color of Honey Maple. Then I sanded the box again using very
fine steel wool. Then, I applied a coat of clear polyurethane as a
protective finish, followed by another sanding with the steel wool.
Finally, I cut some adhesive-backed red felt to fit the bottom of the
compartments and stuck that in place. The felt adds some protection for
whatever jewelry is placed inside and it also adds a nice rich feel to the
box. The red contrasts nicely with the Honey Maple color of the box.