I was fortunate enough to get a piece of rosewood from @disbros.designs.  This board was in a fire (I don’t know the details) and it was cracked to pieces.  It would probably take $100 in epoxy to stabilize it, which isn’t an option for me.  I wanted to see what I could salvage from this board and I thought a box, using the most stable parts of the board, would work best.

Let me first say, this wood is DENSE. It felt super heavy and oily. I don’t know how much of that had to do with the fire. I cut off some pieces of the board that looked the most stable and milled them using the jointer and planer. They were cut to final size on the table saw. I used black CA glue to fill in all of the cracks and voids from the fire. Since the wood’s grain was naturally dark, this gave the pieces a really cool look.

Design

After several moments of deep thought and coffee, I came up with the design features that I wanted. I decided to use box joints, which look clean because I’m not using a bunch of them.  I went with a box shape similar to a pencil box, with a sliding lid.  The lid would be figured walnut and I wanted to incorporate a brass accent.

Construction

I cut my pieces to final size. Then, I used the table saw to make the box joints. I actually have a video that shows step by step how to make box joints if you want to learn the process in detail. To allow for the lid and the box bottom, I took the pieces to the router table and routed out a shallow groove. With my grooves cut, I was able to dry assemble the box and make sure everything fit together properly.

Brass Accent

I wanted a brass bar on the lid. This gives your finger something to grab when sliding open the box lid. The brass bar is 1/8” thick. I cut it to size with a handsaw and made sure that it fit perfectly between the sides of my box. I find that one of the best adhesives to use for combing brass and wood is good old fashion CA glue. After a little sanding of the underside of the brass (to give the glue something to hold onto), I glued the bar onto the lid. Some seasoned woodworkers may point out that this method could interfere with the expansion and contraction of the wood over the seasons. Here’s my take on it: The lid is figured walnut so the grain is running in a million directions as it is, meaning that if it moves it won’t be simply outward. But more importantly, the lid is only about 1/4” thick and around 3.5” wide. A board that size, if it moves, will be microscopic and not interfere with the glue bond.

Finish

After a healthy dose of sanding, it was time to pick a finish. I put a good amount of thought into this one. My go-to finish is a wipe-on varnish. Since this wood felt oily, I had concerns about using an oil-based product (or a product with similar properties) on the box. Sometimes oil and oil don’t mix. Instead, I opted for a lacquer finish. Shellac would have been a great alternative too. A few coats of spray lacquer did the trick. I absolutely love how this turned out. You can catch some more pictures of it in my Portfolio.

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