No lid on this one

[Wood Borer]

A little box I made for a mate who has helped me over a few tough sandhills this year.

The sides are Beefwood, the ends are Huon and the base is Silver Quandong.

The Beefwood and the Huon were cut from small logs with my bandsaw and thicknessed and dimensioned by hand planes. The Silver Quandong was from a plank kindly given to me by Cliff Rogers when I dropped in to see him in Cairns.

The Beefwood is extremely figured and was very challenging to plane without encountering any tear out. I was almost doing figure 8's with the planes.

The dovetails are hand cut - of course:p

The base was bevelled using a handplane.

The finish was using only UBeaut products - many coats of White Shellac, EEE Wax and two coats of Traditional Wax.

[Harry72]

Nice, but why no lid?

[ddeen]

nice dovetail saw.. oh and nice box.:)

[zenwood]

Very smart box, and the mitres on the top edge are a very nice touch. Are they straight from the saw?

[Zed]

very clever product placement borer - ubeaut and lie neilsen !!! :D

[JDarvall]

Very nice. I've never heard of Beefwood before...:o

[Wood Borer]

Are they straight from the saw?

Straight from the saw - the sides are only about 10mm thick so it wasn't that difficult.


Nice, but why no lid?

Not enough wood without joining the sides.


very clever product placement borer - ubeaut and lie neilsen !!!

Both companies make good products which I used on this project.

[Wood Borer]

I've never heard of Beefwood before...:o

Jake I think it is also known as Red silky Oak. It grows in Northern NSW and in QLD.

[Wongo]

Very clever WB

[Hickory]

Excellant box, Not all boxes are lidded. This one especially, Eh? I make several boxes from time to time and escape the lid formation. Just as useful in many cases, and in some cases more useful as you can pile outside the box when you have no lid to get in the way. :eek:

[Cliff Rogers]

Very nice. I've never heard of Beefwood before...:o

Beefwood Bischofia javanica QUT
Beefwood Floydia praealta NRT
Beefwood Grevillea parallela FT2
Beefwood Grevillea striata NPQ
Beefwood Macadamia praealta NAT
Beefwood Stenocarpussa lignus WIA

There are a few things known as Beefwood.
The one that Rob has used looks like one of the Grevilleas.

BTW, my compliments on the box Rob. :D

[TassieKiwi]

Good work - lots of stress relief on those dt's. Lid schmid - who needs'em anyway?

Question - with such difficult grain, when do you break out the scrapers? Do you raise the grain with water or sand back the first coat of shellac?

Nice work with the hand tools.

Den

[Gumby]

Nice dark side box Rob. :D If I know anything, it will be that the real thing is even better than what comes up in the photos. ;)

[AlexS]

Nice job Rob, love those London pins on the DTs. Try doing them on a machine, eh.

[RufflyRustic]

I'm with DDeen - Noice Saw!!!! ;)

A lovely box too. That beefwood is truly amazing, contrasts nicely with the huon.

Cheers
Wendy

[Wood Borer]

Question - with such difficult grain, when do you break out the scrapers? Do you raise the grain with water or sand back the first coat of shellac?

Some people like to stick to rigid formulae but I take an educated guess and use what works. In this case, I planed with a No 4 bench plane - razor sharp, finely set with the mouth closed up. This gave me a tiny bit of tear out. I used a scraper which surprisingly gave me even more tear out. The best for this this I found was a low angle block razor sharp with the mouth as good as closed. Other timbers I have found the scrapers were the best or the bench planes.

Mind you I had to move the block plane around in different directions over the board to keep the tearout to next to none. You have to keep a mental map in your head:confused:

I use shellac to raise the grain and then sand the first and/or second coats.

[Auld Bassoon]

Nice joinery Rob!

I especially like the mitre/dovetail combination - and the fine pins.

Have you ever tried the English Houndstooth dovetails? - I've got on order a trio of Rob Cosmans DVDs, one of which apparently reveals the mysteries of this super looking joint.

Cheers!

[Wood Borer]

Might have to watch it over a bottle or two of red one night Steve:cool:

[Auld Bassoon]

Splendid idea Rob - I'll PM you when they arrive :)

[oldbob13]

Rob
Cool dovetails, a nicely figured piece of Forest Red Gum could make a suitable lid.
Tell me the dimension you need and I'll send you an installment of the board thats waiting here for you.
Bob

[mononeuron]

Hi,
I have used beefwood before on my home built CNC router for carving signs and would have to say it was one of the nicest woods I have ever cut. The wood doesn't seem to disperse into a fine dust like, say, pine but seems to break off into small chips/pieces and has a nice clean finish afterwards. My pieces came from a workmate who travels to the Cooper basin in lower west Queensland a few times a year. A lot of wells and mine shafts in the area are lined with it but it is very hard to find a trunk or piece of it that hasn't been attacked by wood borers leaving 6mm holes all over except in the heart wood.
I would love to get my hands on a pile of it.
Great job on the box.
Rich.

[DPB]

Hey, Rob! I saw this one earlier, and am surprised that I didn't comment. Very nice box. Love those hand-made dovetails. :)

[Poppa]

Beautiful work. I'm inspired by the fine mitred dovetails. Will have to give them a try.

[TTIT]

Hi,
I have used beefwood before on my home built CNC router for carving signs and would have to say it was one of the nicest woods I have ever cut. The wood doesn't seem to disperse into a fine dust like, say, pine but seems to break off into small chips/pieces and has a nice clean finish afterwards. My pieces came from a workmate who travels to the Cooper basin in lower west Queensland a few times a year. A lot of wells and mine shafts in the area are lined with it but it is very hard to find a trunk or piece of it that hasn't been attacked by wood borers leaving 6mm holes all over except in the heart wood.
I would love to get my hands on a pile of it.
Great job on the box.
Rich.
Your looking in the wrong part of Qld!:eek: Go up and to the right a bit!;) Central Qld is covered in the stuff and while I agree it has nice grain and color, for my thing (turning), it's crap to work with. Very high sap/resin content that bogs the tools and sandpaper. :( It's sap is so abundant and gummy that it was the aborigines tree of choice for resin to bind their spearheads etc. :) (And it's a bugger to try and clean off the lathe bed!!!:o)

[mononeuron]

Well, TTIT,
It seems that I was looking in the right place after all as the beefwood I had used was dryer than a Gibson lizard. I suppose being around 100yo would make it a lot dryer than the fresh ones you mention. I still love the texture and grain and the ease of cutting though. Wish I had some to send to you to try it out so you would probably change your mind.
Oh well. Back to the slip stone. :)

[Cliff Rogers]

I have/had (don't know where it is at present:o ) an old log of beefwood from out near Longreach that was still oozing sap more that 10 years after & got it. I don't know how long it had been cut for but it had lost all the bark.