Tweet
A buddy of mine asked me to build a box to hold a Boy Scout commemorative knife that he got his nephew for earning his Eagle. When we first talked about it I intended to do a simple box with a sliding lid. Much like the ones JR did recently http://www.bt3central.com/showpost.p...13&postcount=9
It ended up being a little more involved. My buddy is also supposed to be making a leather sheath for it, so the box got bigger. When I finally saw the knife, I figured it ought to be displayed. It has a little 3D hologram on the side and some other ornamentation.
I still don't like doing miters, but a couple good miter jigs for my table saw made them a bit easier. They came out a lot better than any other mitered corners I have done in the past. I still need to make a decent shooting board & donkey's ear sometime.
The wood is a Peruvian Walnut. It has some beautiful, consistent grain. I haven't produced a photo that captures it well. The iridescent qualities of it really popped out with the Watco natural Danish Oil I put on it. The chatoyance really shower when it was cut with a really sharp plane. It's not a very dense wood, and it tears out fairly easily. Sharp tools are a must. The hinge mortises went a lot better with a keen edge.
It took me a while to figure out a good way to mount the knife. At first I was thinking of doing a recessed cutout to receive it. Then I figured I ought to make the case able to be wall mounted so I needed a way to keep it in place. I ended up making some posts with magnets in them to hold it in place. The one post is slotted to fit the belt clip on the back of the knife, the other is plane. I end drilled the oak dowels for a 3/8" dia rare earth magnet. I covered the slot and the end with some thin rips of the walnut.
I put a cleat on the back for wall mounting. I played around with some feet designs, but I couldn't get any that looked quite right. I bit the bullet and cased the bottom. I wasn't looking forward to matching up the mitered base with the mitered box.
Overall, I'm pretty pleased with the results. I'm not too happy with the thin oak plywood I used for the bottom. I don't think the grain pattern goes well with the walnut. I also got a little splotching on the oak from some darker Watco danish oil even with using a conditioner on it.
It ended up being a little more involved. My buddy is also supposed to be making a leather sheath for it, so the box got bigger. When I finally saw the knife, I figured it ought to be displayed. It has a little 3D hologram on the side and some other ornamentation.
I still don't like doing miters, but a couple good miter jigs for my table saw made them a bit easier. They came out a lot better than any other mitered corners I have done in the past. I still need to make a decent shooting board & donkey's ear sometime.
The wood is a Peruvian Walnut. It has some beautiful, consistent grain. I haven't produced a photo that captures it well. The iridescent qualities of it really popped out with the Watco natural Danish Oil I put on it. The chatoyance really shower when it was cut with a really sharp plane. It's not a very dense wood, and it tears out fairly easily. Sharp tools are a must. The hinge mortises went a lot better with a keen edge.
It took me a while to figure out a good way to mount the knife. At first I was thinking of doing a recessed cutout to receive it. Then I figured I ought to make the case able to be wall mounted so I needed a way to keep it in place. I ended up making some posts with magnets in them to hold it in place. The one post is slotted to fit the belt clip on the back of the knife, the other is plane. I end drilled the oak dowels for a 3/8" dia rare earth magnet. I covered the slot and the end with some thin rips of the walnut.
I put a cleat on the back for wall mounting. I played around with some feet designs, but I couldn't get any that looked quite right. I bit the bullet and cased the bottom. I wasn't looking forward to matching up the mitered base with the mitered box.
Overall, I'm pretty pleased with the results. I'm not too happy with the thin oak plywood I used for the bottom. I don't think the grain pattern goes well with the walnut. I also got a little splotching on the oak from some darker Watco danish oil even with using a conditioner on it.
Attached Files
If your not happy with the oak ply, you could always veneer it with something exotic and then use a very small molding inside to hide the edges. Never the less the workmanship is outstanding be proud of it!
Comment