Thread: ASh and ebony jewellery box

Fantastic contrast between the timbers

A really nice piece of work and the colour co ordinations are very attractive, compliments from north of the equator.

yup looks pretty good to me , whats correct name of australian ebony and where does it come from ?

Very nice selection of woods, I particularly like the straight grain on the inside of the lid contrasting with the marbled grain on top.

I can well imagine it'd have been a right PITA to sand without cross-contamination!

Thanks for the kind words everybody.
Mongrell, it is actually Queensland ebony, diospyros ferrera. That is the name I know it by, but it may well have changed by now. There is not a lot of it about. The last bloke I told where I found it, went out with four vehicles and chainsaws to 'get some'. Therefore I will only tell you it is about four hours drive from here. I hope you can understand that.
Jim

Really nice box!

hey Jim
great box keep them coming to inspire the rest of us
regards
Michael

Very nice work. Some beautiful woods used. How was the estucheon(not sure of the spelling) done?

Capt. The escutcheon is a small piece of ebony, about 3mm thick, cut to shape and glued into a recess. All hand done.
Jim

As usual, the retiree's show off again, hate to wish my life away but cant wait to finish work so i can have some time to do some turning and boxes. Notice its up to your usual high standard, are you going to bring it to Proserpine so we can have a good look??

Excellent work Jim. Like Old Croc I'm looking forward to the day when I can designate some large chunks of time specifically for favoured woodworking projects. At the moment it's an hour here - 45 minutes there etc - probably much the same for most people here, I guess.

I am about to embark on a few "Box" projects and am gaining inspiration from the forumites. Yours are particularly impressive. Shame about sanding through the lid veneer (hate to see that stuff wasted), but it raises a question I have about lid construction generally:

When using a veneer or thinly sliced feature timber for your lids, how do you support the piece? I'm guessing the answers are as variable as the different techniques used, and perhaps are a matter of personal preference. But for example, in your box you seem to have used a solid support panel under the ebony veneer, but is this quite common? If you had a thick enough piece of ebony would you make the whole lid insert from a solid piece by preference?

Also, I did an internet search on Diospyros Ferrera to gain a little more information. The first three links led me straight back to this thread, so the Forum's meta tags seem to be working well.

Wayne

Hardenfast, at the present time (the past two years) I have made only drop on lids around 10mm thick.
Many of them are fabricated from strips, (mainly my scrap box) and I can honestly say they are very stable, no cupping or bowing. So I cant see why you shouldn't be able to do the same and veneeer each side . If you wish to hinge lids cant see any problem either.

Many thanks Woody UK. One of the reasons I am considering the foray into box making is that, like yourself I have accumulated a nice collection of small, seasoned offcuts which would make ideal box components.

I have used these for some experimentation in segmented bowl construction etc with good success, but would like to expand the repetoire to include some boxes - eventually.

It's most interesting to watch the threads and view the projects here, and one theme I have seen raised a few times is the issue of warping of lids. I was wondering if the usage of differing timbers was a factor, or if indeed a solution was to use a stable medium (craftwood) as the centre panel with veneer either side.

Personally, I would probably prefer to make my boxes with a solid lid but I guess it depends on materials available to a large extent. The Australian Ebony veneer that Jim has used is quite extraordinary - I would love to see a large, solid piece of it.

Wayne

Wayne, construction of the lid is a function of the size of the box. The smaller boxes have a thin (6 to 8mm) solid top glued to the carcase. The top is then cut off 10mm deep. For the larger jewellery boxes, I make up a rectangular mitred frame, then rout a rebate top and bottom to accept the panels. The panels are 4mm mdf veneered both side for balance. I have had some trouble with the enclosed air space acting like a barometer, so now I glue a styrene infill into the void in the lid. I some times make up and fit a laminated panel to the top only. Hope this answers your questions.
Jim