Thread: Cutlery canteen in Maple

Looks very nice Rob, I am sure that your precious will be very delighted to received this gift

Nice work, and nice timber, Rob.

Top work Rob that should earn you some brownie points

Gawd Dammm!!!

That's worth a HEAP of brownie points!!!!

Well done!

At least 10,000 points!
Nice work FB

That looks absolutely fabulous, and I should know I, saw it in the flesh this afternoon!

Beautiful workmanship and stunning finish.

Great stuff Rob, and thanks again for your help this afternoon, it was most informative.


Fred

Nice work Flowboy, and you've obviously put a great deal of thought into the design & finish.

yeah well done, that is a winner. You've done justice to that beautiful Birdseye.

Hi everyone,
Thank you for the kind words.
I should have stated this in my original post, but better late than never.
The design for the box came directly from Peter Lloyd's book "Making Heirloom Boxes". (Guild of Master Craftsman Publications) The original was spalted Beech and about 9"x5".
The method does not give dimensions or in some cases reliable measurements for such things as dowel hole and finger hole placemet and depth.
The larger size of this canteen, I feel, allows the character of the Maple to be shown off very well.
The Maple also carries a high gloss with style and in order to achieve this, I used the following Regimee.
1. ROS in orbital mode using 80,100,120,150,180,240,400 grit.
2. Clean off dust with turps.
3. Saturate the timber with Wattyl Scandinavian oil. This I find brings out darker shades in the timber, while tending to leave the rest as you would see with Danish oil. I like the Wattyl also as it does not begin to set quickly, giving better penetration of the timber.
After 10 minutes I repeat the process and allow another 10 minutes. Then I swab the surface with oil again and begin sanding as follows
4. ROS in random orbital mode using 400,600,800,1200 sanding pads and then 2000 and 4000 synthetic sanding/finishing pads.
5. Wipe clean and treat with EEE Ultra and then finish with Trad wax followed by buffing with lambswool. The final result gives depth to the workpiece and a gentle, soft look to the finish despite the appearance that it has been coated with Polyester.
Its alot of work but well worth it in the end.

Regards,

Rob

This is VERY beautiful, Rob! I wish I could see it in real life, too! Very spectacular timber. I want to try joints like that one day. My great grandfather used that joint on fine silky oak knitting needle boxes years ago - I guess hand cut with a saw. They've never moved & make a great feature.

Cheers,

Jill

Great work Rob But tell me, how did you cut the splines?

That's a loaded question!

Originally Posted by Big Shed

That's a loaded question!

And ill bet any money he didnt use the Festool TS75

Hi,
Actually Lig I used the band saw, then sanded them to smoothness with a Bosch Prio sander with 120 grit pad. Now if I only had a TS75
The dowels I made by cutting 9x9mm squares of Cedar on the band saw, (fingers all still present), then rounded the edges slightly with the Prio and then pushed the sticks through an 8mm nut with a mallet.

Jill,

Thank you for the compliments. My wife has wanted the splined mitres for a while, so now seemed a good chance to do them. They certainly increase the strength of the joint and give a great highlight. I could email you the method used in the book with the jig he uses and the glue up if you would like.

Regards,

Rob