Thread: WIP Maple teabox

All four corners cut and dry fitted and a mock up of the cherry, brass, ebony base. I'm going to cut some sort of molding on the cherry and thin the ebony down a bit.

Looking good

Nice thin wood and small dovetails look very elegant. A bit like one of those hotel tea boxes, but several notches better.

Slowly getting there....
The top and bottom are glued on and sanded flush with 100 grit on the stationary sander. The bottom is cherry ply. I cut the cherry molding on the router table with an antique beading bit. The next job is to cut the top off with the bandsaw and then dye the wood with Transtint dyes mixed with alcohol then attach the molding...

..and then there was the box showing the lovely grain in all its unfinished glory. Imagine what it's going to look like finished - WOW!!!

Spent the afternoon preparing and working up amounts for the dyeing. This peice of scrap is from the same board as the teabox. I sanded it dyed it oiled it with tung oil finish (2 coats) and waxed it in 4 hours (I'll let things dry abit more when I do the box though This is the colour my wife liked best. The other sample was too dark and came out very close to the cherry in colour.

Here is the box with the dye on and 2 coats of tung oil finish. The finish is rubbed back between coats with 0000 steel wool. I'll put about 6 coats of oil on the wax and polish it.
the other pic is me resawing the ebony for the binding. Once cut into thin slices I ripped it down into strips.

Hi Sundancewfs,

That maple looks just great mate. At 4mm the weight should suit the purpose, the tea.

Well done mate. Keep us posted.

Cheers
Pops

Fabulous looking grain and finish. Is that macassar ebony? This is gonna be one helluva box.

yes it is maccasar ebony, this peice was a scrappy bit with big void in one end, so too short for fingerboards so I sacrificed it for this project and others. I picked up a boot load of ebony, rosewood, mahogany, walnut, spanish cedar etc etc etc.... from a garage sale for $30US. The load filled the boot and most of the back seat with some peices of the walnut down between the seats to the dash from the boot. must have been my lucky day! I am thinking I'll leave the top unbound. I was worried about the look of end grain, but the wood is so thin that its not noticable. Also the edge grain of the maple top has a really nice ray fleck to it and is a nice feature in itself. I'm also going to leave the brass out of the base as cleaning tarnished brass down the track will probably ruin the surrounding wood.
Thanks for the comments

Originally Posted by sundancewfs

ebony, rosewood, mahogany, walnut, spanish cedar etc etc etc.... from a garage sale for $30US.

I despise you!

I decided to go with the ebony binding at the top....... Wish I wasn't so hesitant to do it before I started the finishing! Oh well a bit of a touch up around the edges and no one will be any the wiser... Did I say that out loud???
here is a pick of me scraping the bulk of the ebony binding flush to the box with a cabinet scraper. Ebony is a real hard wood and doesn't take too kindly to low angle block planes.....
Note to anyone thinking of using ebony.... The saw and sanding dust is like supercharged pepper! It REALLY gets up your nose! It stings on your face too. So dust collection is advised.

Starting to look good.

Nice product placement too

zenwood, I love you too