I was researching the Lane family of North Carolina and discovered some pretty amazing roots. Multiple brothers were actively involved in the founding of the United States during the Revolutionary War. If you are from North Carolina then you may know about the family, but they aren’t commonly discussed otherwise. It shows that there were many families that helped to contribute during the war who are equally as brave as those history remembers fondly.

While researching the Lanes, I felt like I needed to make a project that somehow connects to soldiers. There are a million choices for projects, but what I decided on was a recreation of a dice set that was common during the time. Soldiers often carried dice or cards with them. They couldn’t carry much in the way of personal items and these games were small. I’ve seen different styles so I can’t say that the majority of boxes were built exactly like this, but I tried to stay as true to genuine artifacts that I’ve seen from that era.

The box is made from air dried walnut, built only using hand tools. I use hand tools in just about every project, but it’s rare that I build solely by hand. I hollowed out a wooden block, mainly by drilling out the waste material and cleaning up the sides with chisels. I thought that this process would be true to form since if a soldier made a box in the field it likely didn’t consist of fancy joinery.

During the build, I tell the story about the Lanes and what they did during the Revolution. Jesse Lane was a soldier in the North Carolina 2nd Regiment, who went on to fight in the Continental Army commanded by George Washington. Jesse spent the winter of 1777 in Valley Forge, and if you know anything from American history you’ve probably heard about that brutal winter. Soldiers in Valley Forge built hundreds, if not thousands, of buildings or shacks. It shows their ability to make things, which resonates with me as a woodworker.

Soldiers made dice from melted down musket balls, bone, or wood. I went with maple. The dice with hand cut and I used a hole punch to make the dots on each side.

If you are interested in history, especially Colonial history, I urge you to check out the video. It was a lot of fun to make.