Background: Over the years I had acquired a number of letters which until building this box were stored in various drawers and boxes. In order to keep them all in one place I decided to create a box for safekeeping.

Construction: The box is 11.75×7.25×3.5″. It is made from some unknown dark hardwood. It’s coloration is similar to walnut but the grain is much straighter, the wood is denser and has almost a coffee smell to it. The long edge were dattoed on the ends to accept the short sides and show no end grain on the long edge. In order to add strength to the joints since it is never a good idea to glue end grain maple dowels were drilled and glued into the corners. This also provided a nice accent. The top and bottom were made from 3/8″ birch plywood. The box was fully assembled and then cut in half to create the lid and base. In order to create the lip in the lid a router bit was used. However, this method caused the lid to jump while routing and left gashes in the underside of the lid. The whole thing was finished using water based polyurethane.

Date: January 2018