Four Dovetailed Boxes

[Dr.Al]

I made these mostly to practise hand-cut dovetails. Three of the frames were made while I was on holiday; the other was from a while before then. When I got back I had lots of other stuff on the list (and wanted to spread out the resawing work as most of this was pre-bandsaw!), so these have taken a while to complete. Pretty much all hand cut (I think the only exception was one lid, which was resawed on my new bandsaw before finishing by hand).

They had their third coat of Mike's Magic Mix yesterday so I think I can call them done now.

This one is oak sides (two of which ebonised), beech lid & base and walnut lining and trim (and was my first ever dovetailed thing, my first ever ebonised thing and my first ever hinged thing):







This one is ash and (believed to be) greenheart sides with poplar for the lid, base and lining:









This one is sweet chestnut & cherry sides with (believed to be) greenheart for everything else:









and finally, this one is ash & (believed to be) greenheart sides, ash lid & base, (believed to be) greenheart handle thing and cedar of lebanon lining:

 

[Peri]

I think they're brilliant Al - nice one.

Is 'greenheart' known by another name? I had a doorframe given to me that looks very, very similar. The endgrain polishes up beautifully. I've been after some more but have no idea what it's called. People have suggested sapele, but that doesn't get the same lustre.

 

[Blackswanwood]

They look great. Looks like you’ve got the box making bug!

 

[Dr.Al]

I think they're brilliant Al - nice one.

Is 'greenheart' known by another name? I had a doorframe given to me that looks very, very similar. The endgrain polishes up beautifully. I've been after some more but have no idea what it's called. People have suggested sapele, but that doesn't get the same lustre.

I'm afraid I don't know. I'd never heard of it before to be honest. I got some black oily stuff covered lumps out of my father-in-law's shed after he passed away. They all had holes through the middle (in the same place as the hole in the lid of one of the boxes); I'm not sure what they were used for before my father-in-law propped up a bench with them. I posted photos of the surface after planing off the creosote on ukworkshop and the consensus was greenheart. That's all I know.

 

[NickM]

Those are great boxes.

 

[Malc2098]

Nice.

 

[Woodbloke]

Good boxes. I always remove the shoulder knife line, but it's a personal thing; some does and some don't. Greenheart actually looks a dark olive green and is very, very hard and brittle; I definitely wouldn't recommend it for fine cabinet work. It's incredibly durable and was once used for canal lock gates and other such heavy duty tasks involving water - Rob

 

[Dr.Al]

Good boxes. I always remove the shoulder knife line, but it's a personal thing; some does and some don't.

Thanks Rob. I wasn't sure whether to remove it or not (strictly speaking add it or not). As I said at the start, this was more about practising dovetails than anything else and I figured it was good to experiment a bit. As you can see in the photos, only one of the boxes has the shoulder knife line visible - on the other ones I cut the shoulder line just where the bits were going to be cut out, but I thought it would be interesting to see what it looked like if I just marked all the way across on one of them (and it was quicker to do it that way!).

Greenheart actually looks a dark olive green and is very, very hard and brittle; I definitely wouldn't recommend it for fine cabinet work. It's incredibly durable and was once used for canal lock gates and other such heavy duty tasks involving water - Rob

It's possible that it's not greenheart and I've just been calling it that erroneously: as I said it was based on advice on ukworkshop.

This is what it looked like as found in the shed (four of these blocks):



With the top planed off one of them and some known woods for comparison:

 

[Woodbloke]

This is a chunk of Greenheart:



...and as you can see, there's a very distinct, dark green colour to it. It's so hard :shock: :shock: that I used it on the bottom of my long veneer shooting plane 'Big Woody'. If your timber was relatively easy to plane, I'd suggest that it wasn't Greenheart, 'cos you need to be seriously dedicated to push a plane over the stuff. The colour and grain pattern of your timber doesn't look right, so my guess is that it isn't GH but just one of the thousands of different tropical, 'difficult to identify' timbers that were common back in the day but are comparatively rare now - Rob

Edit- ref shoulder lines, I make them very light to start with (so they can barely be seen) then on the sections where a chisel will be applied, I go over them again and knife deeply. It's easy then at clean up time, to remove the very light lines with a couple of swipes of a smoother.

 

[DaveL]

Green Heart does not float as it is so dense.

 

[Dr.Al]

It sounds like it probably isn't greenheart then. Interestingly, I had another look at the listing in a book I've got (The Real Wood Bible) and the photos of greenheart in there look exactly like the stuff I've got. However, the photos on the online wood database look much more like the picture Rob posted.

 

[AndyP]

Whatever it is it looks gorgeous and well made, as do the others.

I have enough oak left over from the V&A table :eusa-think: maybe I should make a box :eusa-think:

 

[Woodbloke]

I have enough oak left over from the V&A table :eusa-think: maybe I should make a box :eusa-think:

Secret mitre dovetails, solid panelled and bottom please Andy. Lining scribed and mitred in Bog Oak; should keep you quiet for a morning :lol: :lol: - Rob

 

[johnward]

Very nice boxes Al.

John

 

[Mike G]

Well done Al, they're great. :eusa-clap: :eusa-clap:

 

[Mike G]

.......This is what it looked like as found in the shed (four of these blocks):

View attachment 1

With the top planed off one of them and some known woods for comparison:

Naming timber based on a photo or two is notoriously difficult......but that planed piece looks like teak to me.

 

[Dr.Al]

Whatever it is it looks gorgeous and well made, as do the others.

Very nice boxes Al.

John

Well done Al, they're great. :eusa-clap: :eusa-clap:

Thanks all.

.......This is what it looked like as found in the shed (four of these blocks):

View attachment 1

With the top planed off one of them and some known woods for comparison:

Naming timber based on a photo or two is notoriously difficult......but that planed piece looks like teak to me.

Hmmm... another interesting possibility. I really wish it were easier to identify woods! Looking at the photos on wood-database.com (which of course are also just photos, so may not be that helpful), teak looks a lot browner and less red than the shed-find wood, although rhodesian teak looks a similar colour so I guess that's a possibility.

 

[Woodbloke]

Hmmm... another interesting possibility. I really wish it were easier to identify woods! Looking at the photos on wood-database.com (which of course are also just photos, so may not be that helpful), teak looks a lot browner and less red than the shed-find wood, although rhodesian teak looks a similar colour so I guess that's a possibility.

It's a complete nightmare and almost impossible to accurately identify lesser know species from a couple of pics on t'interweb. I've said many times that there are only two guaranteed, cast iron, set in concrete methods, both of which have nowt to do with woodwork. The first is an expert botanical examination of the leaf and twig structure of the tree and the second is a microscopic examination of an end grain slice; anything else is pure guesswork - Rob

 

[Dr.Al]

Hmmm... another interesting possibility. I really wish it were easier to identify woods! Looking at the photos on wood-database.com (which of course are also just photos, so may not be that helpful), teak looks a lot browner and less red than the shed-find wood, although rhodesian teak looks a similar colour so I guess that's a possibility.

It's a complete nightmare and almost impossible to accurately identify lesser know species from a couple of pics on t'interweb. I've said many times that there are only two guaranteed, cast iron, set in concrete methods, both of which have nowt to do with woodwork. The first is an expert botanical examination of the leaf and twig structure of the tree and the second is a microscopic examination of an end grain slice; anything else is pure guesswork - Rob

But on a positive note, there is at least one tree that can be identified from quite a long way away...

https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x6gf76s

:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

 

[Woodbloke]

But on a positive note, there is at least one tree that can be identified from quite a long way away...

https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x6gf76s

:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

The 'Nudge nudge' episode! :lol: :lol: - Rob

 

[Doug]

.....but that planed piece looks like teak to me.

I thought Teak when I saw it.

Nice boxes btw :eusa-clap: