Thread: Shaker-style Boxes

Had heard of shaker furniture but not boxes. What thickness are the sides and did you bend them around a form?

Hi Labr@,

The walls are 2-2.5mm for these boxes (the smaller one is at the lower end of the range) and the tops/bottoms are around 4.5mm.
The timber for the sides needs to be something that will take the bend - in this case American Cherry but I'm told Huon Pine is also good for bending. The walls need to be fairly straight grain and no gnarly bits or they will break under pressure of the bending.

Yes, they're bent around a form then taken off the form, held together and held wet over a round anvil while the copper pins are put in. No glue. Tops and bottoms are traced onto the timber , cut a little large on the bandsaw then sanded back to the line using a disc sander with the table raised to 3 degrees so the tops fit in snugly.

There are over 20 'recognised' sizes. These 3 are sizes 1, 2 and 3. Size 1, the smallest here, is around 125mm from end to end. This isn't the smallest box - there are four smaller 0, 00, 000 and 0000! The larger boxes go up to trunk sizes.

Ahh - found a picture of John Wilson (the US Shaker box guru) with some of his creations:

C965AF5E-60CB-4CEB-9597-4D8773DB52E0.jpeg

Regards,

Brian

Had time today to finish up this little project. I sanded to 400 then used shellac and wax on the outside of the two smaller boxes.
On the largest box I used Polyx Black Oil Stain followed by Polyx Satin clear.

A84B8E78-FEEF-43E5-B381-278725676820.jpeg

Just for fun I used milk paint inside just like the Shakers sometimes did:

5BFF23A5-516A-4A74-A8A2-D87FD283847E.jpeg

Now to work out what I'll do with them!

Thanks,

Brian

Something different but still very nice Brian. I also learned something, polyx black oil… I will need to get some [emoji3]