Thread: Birdseye and fiddleback boxes

Originally Posted by Charleville

... with such stunning timbers, I don't reckon that the boxes need to be too clever.


Merry Christmas to all.


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Quite correct. They are nice, simple looking boxes, with beautiful thin walls, and they let the timber do the talking.
My only suggestion would be to use more solid looking brass or wooden latches. Those ones detract from your great work.

Nice.

The document box with the blue lining? I want! :drool:

Beautiful work

Wish I had a friend with off-cuts like that Certainly beautiful timbers with amazing grain. The off-cuts from your boxes would also make beautiful pens

Beautiful boxes!!

That fiddleback Mahogany and Huon camera box is a stunner!!

Lovely boxes, great story on how you got the wood: I hope the donor gets to see some of the results in the Fishers' Forum.

Beautiful boxes

Really beautiful work! I appreciate the use of material that may have otherwise been burned/wasted/tossed. All of the wood really shines in your work.

Thanks for all of the nice comments, folks!


EPILOGUE


Well, folks, Christmas came and much to my absolute delight, the boxes were a "hit" with the recipients both of whom are thirty-somethings.

I thought that #2 son would appreciate his as he is interested in crafts and such stuff. However, I was really delighted when #1 son, whose interests lie more with sporty endeavours than craft pursuits, really took to his box as well, immediately telling me how he intended using it.

It is easy to see the intrinsic difference in the two lads in other ways though, because, well after receiving his box, #2 son spent a good deal of time running his eye over the detail of the dovetail joints, running his hands around the cedar lining and looking closely at the mitred joints in the lining, feeling the smoothness of the external wood, asking how I produced the edge shape of the lid panel etc. On the other hand, #1 son looked at his box all over and smelled the aromatic, Organoil finish and then that was it. He obviously appreciated getting the box though.


Both lads also appreciated the provenance of the timbers, which I demonstrated later with a piece of the birdseye Yellow Stringybark, which is still in its raw form on one side and with holes filled with epoxy on the other side but as yet, unsanded. Likewise, I showed off one of the "raw" Queensland Red Cedar floorboards.


Dad is pleased! The effort was worthwhile.


In relation to the Huon Pine/Southern Mahogany "camera" box, my wife took one look at that and decided that it was not going to be a camera box but that it would be come a jewelery box for earrings and the like.

That was decided in less than 2 nano-seconds after the wrapping was opened.

I initially displayed some dismay at this as I had gone to lot of trouble getting the measurements right for the box to be used as a camera box but, what the heck, take one look at the little box and it is probably fair to say that it does look sweet enough to be a jewelery box ...

Click for large view - Uploaded with Skitch

(Mental note: Make all future camera boxes ugly. )


I then learned that although my wife has a few jewelery "boxes" or probably more correctly "containers", she remarked that she does not have a wooden one. Easily fixed at the next birthday, me thinks!



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Thanks for the epilogue, the feedback from your family is so rewarding. My favourite was box A. I can imagine the difficulty of epoxy filling all those voids. But the result is just stunning. Happy new year.
Maxine

Would you talk more about that epoxy you used in the first box on this thread please?

All the boxes are beautiful.

Originally Posted by mjdtexan

Would you talk more about that epoxy you used in the first box on this thread please?

All the boxes are beautiful.

Thanks mjdtexan.

I have been guided in the use of epoxy resin to fill the holes and voids in the birdseye wood by the fellow who gave me the off-cuts from his table making business.

This is the sort of classy table that he makes...

Click for large view - Uploaded with Skitch


The table maker uses West System clear epoxy resin to fill the voids in his workpieces. Epoxy by the Leading Epoxy Manufacturer | WEST SYSTEM Epoxy However, he said that any clear epoxy resin sold by marine dealers would do the job.

In my locale, West System epoxy was not available at the retail outlets that I looked at so I visited a chandlery and after consultation with the sales person to ascertain which epoxy resins set clear, I bought some Epiglass ... https://secure.international-coating..._I_5000551.htm


Application of the epoxy is simply done by first covering voids on the underside of the workpiece with masking tape to avoid losing all of the epoxy through some of the holes. Some of the voids are very obviously through holes but a lot look like blind holes but in fact the epoxy will seep through and come out in a void on the other side that may not be directly under the entry point.

I was happy to have clear holes because I knew that I would ultimately be covering the undersides with felt in the final box but the table maker puts some sawdust in the epoxy mix that goes into the bottom of the through holes so that his customers cannot see all the way through the holes in the tables.

Anyway, it is just a case of dribbling the epoxy resin into all of the holes and voids and then leaving it to set overnight.

There were a few tiny bubbles that appeared in the epoxy. I initially thought that I might have been too vigorous in mixing the resin and hardener but the same sort of bubbles also appeared in later mixes where I tried to be very gentle in mixing the epoxy and hardener. So I conclude that the bubbles are just released air pockets as the epoxy finds its way into the labyrinth of voids in the wood.

When they were visible at the time of application, I popped them with a sharp stick but then some were still evident in the almost finished job ...

Click for large view - Uploaded with Skitch


So when the job was almost ready to have the Danish Oil applied finish, I just dabbed some very light, very thin applications of the epoxy resin on those bubble holes, left it overnight and then sanded the surfaces flat the next day.


Also, I was initially concerned about whether the areas adjacent to the overfilled holes would cause staining in the same manner that spilled yellow glue will under oiled finishes. So along the way, I tested for such staining on a test piece where I filled the holes and sanded back half the surface and applied Danish Oil to the sanded half. That reassured me that no staining would occur ...

Click for large view - Uploaded with Skitch

After the epoxy had set, I sanded the surfaces smooth, firstly with a belt sander and then down through several grades of sanding on an orbital sander. The surfaces came out pretty flat but obviously not as good an evenness of thickness as I might get from a thicknesser. Because, I did find that the epoxy worked well with saw and router, I did ask on this forum whether one should be confident about passing such epoxied wood through a thicknesser. Based on the answers received in that thread, I shall use the thicknesser after rough sanding off the lumpy bits when I do a similar job next time ... https://www.woodworkforums.com/f154/m...-epoxy-128614/



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Brilliant stuff Charleville!

I was working with some myrtle burl over xmas and your thread was most inspiring for me.

Love the stories about how well your boxes were received. I look forward to reading more of your box making exploits

cheers
Wendy

Thank You very much for the explanation.

Thanks Charleville for a great post. The information on your experience with epoxy is very interesting.