Thread: King Billy and Sassafras Box

Beautiful box, the mitre splines look really good, what did you use for the keys?

Very nice box Ruddy, I particularly like the rosette, clever. I could live in Tassie!!!
regards
Billy

Really nice work and great use of those lovely timbers. The trays are particularly neat. I have a question. How necessary are the splines across the mitres on boxes such as these? I know that end grain gluing is not all that strong, but boxes don't usually get a lot of rough treatment.
To mitre spline or not spline is the question, anyone had any experience of failures without splines?

In my opinion, I think the splines ensure that the mitre joints are stronger and will help keep the joints tight when the relative humidity effects the moisture content in the wood. They must add considerable strength as there is a large glue are when the splines are used.
For the splines, I have used wenge on this box and king Billy Pine for the splines on the tray. The contrast of the different species is part of the appeal for splines.

Ruddy

Truly lovely box.
The grain on the lid is gorgeous, not to mention that rosette.
I agree the trays are really something too! Your granddaughter will be delighted I'm sure.

While I have only made one box, I did use splined mitres but purely for decoration, not the strength they would add.

Beautiful Ruddy, simply beautiful!!

Very nice work Ian, I too like the contrast of the splines.

Tell me, how did you do the rosette? Was it all hand carved?

Bloody beautiful Ruddy! Excellent craftsmanship!

I've said it before: I'm a sucker for anything with Blackheart Sassy in it, but that is simply stunning.

I too am very interested in how you made the rosette.

Nathan.

The rosette was made from six "buttons" that I made. I made the buttons by cutting the sassafras into small squares with the colour change as near as 50/50 I could get. I then glued these together and then was able to turn each button and cut them off. I made a simple jig to then be able to get them all to the same height.
At this stage I had 6 round polished buttons all with the grain change near enough to being on the centre line. The next step using the disc sander is to grind the 60 degree straight sides.
Provided you set the angle correctly you can then assemble the rosette. If there is some inaccuracy, you can glue up two lots of three and then get the matching join straight by correcting on the sander, Its a bit fiddly but not too difficult.
I have been toying with the idea to use the rosette with the centre split being on the join of the lid and base on the front of a box. this would mean that when you open the box half the rosette would be attached to the lid and half to the base of the box. Somehow this could be made to be the closing catch as well........an idea looking for a solution. It's on the list ...

Ruddy