This box was the first real (nice) project I had ever really done. The wood I chose was Australian Jarrah-gum tree burl-mytle veneer.

The box is joined with hand cut mitered dovetails. The top is a book matched burl veneer and inside the top is a quarter matched myrtle veneer. The inside has a tray and is lined with suede. Inlaid Pau shell is used for the escutcheon.

Always being a bit of a hobbyist, woodworking was just calling my name. I just needed the right set of circumstances to get me started. I started a new job 2 1/2 years ago, and met a coworker, John, who had noticed my Family Handyman magazines. He informed me he was an avid woodworker. I showed him a drawing of a wine cabinet I wanted to make with a beautiful tile inlay on top. He got very excited and offered to teach me in his shop. I was stoked–this project was going to be amazing! With John’s experience and my desire to learn, he taught me everything he knew about woodworking from the necessary shop rules and practicum to the very important notion that, “a clean shop is a happy shop.” Within a year, the wine cabinet I had envisioned with Canarywood wine rungs and a stained pine base was completed and I was hooked! To thank him properly I knew my gift had to be crafted from wood using my new set of skills.

As I was still very much a beginner, I decided a cutting board would be suitable as it is the undisputed beginner project. However, after seeing Marc’s leaf inlay, I had an idea. John was a bonafide “Dead Head.” I knew there could be no better gift-–a Grateful Dead inlayed cutting board would be perfect. Practical? Not really, but awesome?…YES! So I used the router based inlay technique and a combination of Oak, Cherry, Walnut, and Purpleheart inlay material approximately an 1/8th of an inch thick. Patiently I began working from right to left. In hindsight, I might choose to work from outside to inside in the future, as I feel it might have been a smoother transition between inlay pieces. The ultimate key however, was patience. At 27 years old, its a virtue I’m still trying to master. I finished with multiple coats of a thinned out salad bowl finish which worked great. Since I was working out of my apartment in winter, this project was rather challenging largely from a cleanliness perspective. Routing anything in an apartment is ill-advised, but I don’t regret it. I spent about as much time creating this piece as I did cleaning up. Overall, it was a successful adventure and well worth the effort when I delivered it for Christmas.

Made these two jewelry boxes for my daughter and daughter-in-law. The top is a rose inlay from Rockler. The rest of the box is out of curly maple. The box sides were stained with a walnut stain at first to make the curls pop and then sanded back and then stained with an oak stain. Then sprayed 6 coats of water base poly on all. All General water base finishes, pretty much the only stuff I use now. I have a HVLP sprayer and it works great for me. I flocked the trays inside with black flock and also have a section that has black velvet covered foam for rings. The trays inside were left a natural maple color. Any comments or questions are welcome.

This is a box I built for my new baby nephew. He is the first child of my only brother and I wanted to do something special.

Before I go into any further details about the box, I want to express my sincere thanks to TWW. I discovered woodworking about 6 months ago and this box is my first real project. Marc’s videos (in conjunction with Rob Bois’s blog) have been pretty much the sum of my woodworking education. Perhaps the most striking feature of this box is the inlay of my nephew’s initials and I learned every single step of the process from Marc’s video on router-based inlays. So from myself, my brother and his wife, and my tiny new nephew, thank you so much for this incredible resource!

The box was made from some short walnut scraps sold on sale at my lumberyard. I think if I had had a little more experience, I would have chosen different (likely straighter) grain for the sides of the box. The dovetails are handcut with a super cheap saw and my homemade 1:8 dovetail marking gauge. I took full advantage of the sawdust/glue combo to hide gaps. Actually, after doing the inlay and seeing how wood-like the gaps were after adding a drop of CA glue, I did this for all the sawdust-filled gaps around my dovetails. It made for a LOT of CA glue sanding, but I thought it looked better afterwards. The top is two pieces glued together then run through my planer. I tried to slide my boards around to find color and grain pattern that looked relatively matched. The bottom is attached by brad nails and features wedged through-tenon feet that are pretty much a straight rip-off of Rob Bois’ Bible-box project (which this project was obviously heavily influenced by). The hinges were bought at my local woodcraft (perhaps my 3rd major source of knowledge). The inlay was cut out of hard maple using a cheap Ryobi scroll saw.

This box was incredibly fun to build and a MAJOR learning opportunity for me. I made several mistakes most of which I think I was able to conceal, but you can be the judge. Thank you again for this amazing resource that has made my nephew’s gift possible.

This Guild project looked like a great way for me to try using primarily hand tools. The table provided an opportunity to do my first real hand-cut dovetails and inlays. All joinery was hand-cut. I also took inspiration from Steve Latta and Garret Hack for the inlay embellishments. Instead of plywood, I used a traditional raised panel pine panel for the drawer bottom, allowing room for cross grain expansion. The curly maple was a bear to plane and I had to fight with the tear-out (a high-angle plane is next on my wish list), but the beautiful figure was worth the effort. Many thanks to Marc and the Wood Talk Online Forum for their generous support for this and all the other resources.

My first attempt at a french polish finish. Had to strip the top several times before I got the technique down. I’m very pleased with the end result. Put a coat of paste wax on the shellac for additional protection.

David Marks inspired the design and process, Norm inspired the finish, but that had to be modified. Norm also inspired the “nested” idea. But that came later after botching a beveled edge and having to trim the original table top back beyond the inlay. Having wanted to build the Nest of Tables, this became an opportunity to do that.

The layout followed David Marks. Using the top as a template, I did a full layout of the base. Placement of legs (which are rotated 45 to front of table, square to the walls), reveal of the aprons, etc. These layout marks were later used to mark cut lines on the aprons. Simply lay the apron stock on the template, mark where it meets the legs, cut. No measuring, no worries about exact angles. If the angles are drawn right on the template, the layout can be transferred easily and accurately.

Joinery was mortise and tenon, except for the front apron, which was loose tenons, as I didn’t think I could cut the 45 degree tenons at my skill level.

Assem-buh-ly was done with a band clamp to pull the 45′s together, bar clamps to pull the 90′s together. Care – and 2-3 dry fits – must be taken to be certain the bar clamps are square or they pull the 45′s out.

Sanded to 220 (for blotch). End grain was burnished to help slow absorption. 1/8″ masking tape to protect the inlay. This has to be perfect, and where the tape meets in the corners has to be flat on the inlay right up to the perpendicular tape to prevent stain from being worked under the tape should it “slope” up to the adjoining tape.

1/2 lb. cut Sealcoat – 2 coats
1 coat GF Georgian Cherry gel stain
1 coat GF 1:1 Georgian Cherry / Java
2 coats Arm-R-Seal wiped on, undiluted

White abrasive pads were used to remove excessive hard lines where stain had built up along side the tape causing the oil to accentuate the flaw, as well as any dust or other in-between coat needs 2 coats 1:1 diluted Arm-R-Seal wiped on.

The nested corner tables fit nicely in the entry hall allowing for the front door to open without hitting them.

From: Dan Paquette

Website: My Facebook Page

Location: CT

Hobbyist or Pro: Hobbyist

Finish Used: For my finish I used 7 coats of waterlox. I removed the extra oil 5 to 10 minutes after I applied it. After 24 hours I used a gray scotch pad and cleaned in between coats. To me it was the longest part of the project.

Wood Species: The bench is Red Oak. The inlay is Mahogany and White Maple (dyed black)

Project Description:
My inspiration? Spagnuolo of course! His videos are very educational, made me believe I could do it. The design was in my head and as I went through the project, I made changes to make it a true one of a kind. I spent approximately 100 hrs (give or take a few hours) in my single car garage shop. I spent about $150 on lumber, sand paper, waterlox and all those other little things. However, I spent $300 on new tools so I could do the project, all of which I’ll use again.

Here’s a little slideshow Dan made:

I was looking for something to create for my niece on her 18th birthday and I came across a picture of a jewelry box which looked unique so I took the design and added my own touches. Having just completed a class on Shell Inlay I thought this would be an ideal opportunity to practice my new found skills!

The joinery is all mortise and tenon except for the drawer fronts which have dadoes cut in them to accept the sides. The drawers are all lined with flocking.

The drawer fronts are inlayed with Japanese flowers cut from Mother of Pearl, Green Abalone, Pink Mussel and Black Lip and the top of the box is inlayed with a large Japanese Crane. I didn’t keep track of how many hours it took to make this box but it covered a number of months with the usual mad rush to get it finished on time!

You can download the SketchUp File here.

This is a jewelry box for my daughter, Melissa (nickname: Turtle), hence the turtle inlay in the top. She just turned 6 and is starting to accumulate some jewelry. Simple buscuit joinery with my first attempt at router based inlay after watching Marc’s video. Designed the turtle inlay to include the “M” for Melissa.

Would have liked to use Wenge instead of Walnut for the legs and handle but my hardwood supplier was out. I think she will be happy with it and hopefully will get years of use.

Continuing our viewer project collection series, we have some beautiful boxes for you to check out today. Here’s are a few projects submitted by Anthony:

I would love it if you could show a few of my recently made boxes. I am quite proud of them and I would like to see what some real woodworkers think about them. Either way negative or positive responses are always appreciated. The first box is Oak with dovetails. I used Dark Walnut Danish Oil and I left it without a top coat. The second box is Oak as well with miters and splines. I used Medium Walnut Danish Oil and top coated it wish paste wax. The third box is Maple with a 9/16 box joint. This one also has the Medium Walnut and a wipe on poly.

And here are some unique inlayed boxes submitted by Larry. I love the way the handle was incorporated into the design. Check them out:

I just wanted to show you the end result of the gift boxes I had made. I had asked you a few questions regarding their constructing/finishing, to which I thank you for your insight. I basically built them from a guide in Woodsmith magazine. I used my own ideas on materials though. I made the inlay first. I used black walnut and maple glued up to form a “blank” that I cut the inlay strips from. The cool part is, I got the black walnut from a pallet about 2 years ago. I had never seen black walnut used on a pallet before and have not seen it since either. The maple came from some old warped flooring that was being discarded from the school system I work for. The basic box is made from cherry as that has always been a favorite of mine. The top and bottom is plywood. I’m pretty sure it was a birch veneered plywood but I’ve had it laying around so long I don’t remember. I used the plywood because I wanted to be able to glue the tops and bottoms securely as I flocked the inside. By the way I also followed your advice by making up a “mock” box to practice flocking. It was one of the easiest things I ever did. All you have to do is follow the instructions they give you and the results are excellent. After the inlay was done I used the remaining inlay stock to make the handles.
Thanks again for your website and taking the time to do what you do. It is greatly appreciated!!!