Curly Maple Moravian Candle Box

Curly Maple Moravian Candle Box · 07-03-2009, 06:44 PM

Thought I'd post this to potentially encourage someone else to make one. It's based on an origianal in the collection of Old Salem, probably made late in the 18th century. The dimensions were graciously provided to me by Dan O'Sullivan of Durham, NC, who has built dozens.

The salient dimnsions here are 14-3/4" long, 8-3/4" wide, by 3-1/2" deep (that's outside measurements). The sides are 1/2" thick, the top is 3/8" thick, and the bottom is 1/4" thick. The woods in this example are curly maple from Irion Lumber Co, Birds-eye maple from a local woodworking store, and eastern white pine as the bottom. The finish is French Polish.

A couple of construction comments: The end grip of the top is, of course, long-grain attached to face grain. So it is attached with 5 tiny #2 brass screws from underneath the lid, with the 2 outside screws on each side having oblong holes in the underside of the lid to accomodate wood movement. The close-up of the dovetails is one way to accomodate the grooves for the lid and the bottom - one simply cuts the bottom and top tail short, and reduces the depth of the mating pins to match. Easy to do with handtools, not so easy to do with power tools.

There is one significant mistake I made with this box - the upper corners should be mitered, not a tail/pin combo (that's what happens when you get a too busy laying out the pins and tails!). The next couple will correct that issue.

And, as one might imagine, this one was done totally with hand tools - no tailed assistants. The tools used were the usual layout items (square, marking knife, 14 degree dovetail saddle square), a wooden plow plane to cut the grooves for the top and bottom, a wooden panel raising plane to cut the top and bottom bevels, a dovetail saw, a carcass saw, and a foreplane, a jointer and a smoother.

Joe Scharle · 07-03-2009, 07:00 PM

Very nice. The birds eye is a nice accent!

WoodWrangler · 07-03-2009, 08:53 PM

Nice work!~ The wood selection is awesome. I like the sliding lid ... slick.

willarda · 07-03-2009, 09:19 PM

A very beautiful project and great handtool skills!

merrill77 · 07-03-2009, 09:26 PM

Nice! I'd like to make one of those sometime...though many electrons will be consumed when I make one

nelsone · 07-04-2009, 12:46 PM

Nice! That's some spectacular figure. I really think you need to work on getting your pins a little smaller though!

Canuck · 07-04-2009, 01:13 PM

Wonderful (No - Beautiful) work there, David!!!!

That maple looks like the creme of the crop.

Wayne

dkeller_nc · 07-04-2009, 02:05 PM

"That maple looks like the creme of the crop."

It was - it came from Irion Lumber. They were just scraps, and those normally go into a box for kindling for the woodstove, but I decided they were too nice for that. Dan bought some of this, so I'm expecting him to post something really over the top in a few weeks - I think he was planning on an 18th century clock.

From a hand-tool perspective, making one of these without electrons isn't all that hard, nor requires everything in the Seaton tool chest. The only thing that might be considered a little exotic is the panel raising plane I used, but you can do the same thing with a straightedge, a marking knife, and either a rabbet block plane, a wide shoulder plane, or a bench rabbet plane.

Travis Porter · 07-04-2009, 07:08 PM

Impressive joinery and impressive wood!

Thanks for posting!

PChristy · 07-04-2009, 11:42 PM

Nice job David

I couldn't imagine making this with hand tools -

froglips · 07-05-2009, 10:50 AM

I'm blown away. Lovely little pins too.

If you don't need all those left over tools from your Seaton tool chest, I'd be happy to hold on to them for you :-p

Jim

Originally Posted by dkeller_nc

It was - it came from Irion Lumber. They were just scraps, and those normally go into a box for kindling for the woodstove, but I decided they were too nice for that. Dan bought some of this, so I'm expecting him to post something really over the top in a few weeks - I think he was planning on an 18th century clock.

From a hand-tool perspective, making one of these without electrons isn't all that hard, nor requires everything in the Seaton tool chest. The only thing that might be considered a little exotic is the panel raising plane I used, but you can do the same thing with a straightedge, a marking knife, and either a rabbet block plane, a wide shoulder plane, or a bench rabbet plane.

cpowell · 07-05-2009, 11:14 AM

Nice use of scraps!

Thanks for posting the pics and dimensions. The construction looks very solid. After reading your post and looking through the pics I can see how mitered top corners would look good too. I agree the curly maple is just gorgeous.

I really ~~want~~ need a plough plane. Would be cool to make something like your box.

Chuck

timf67 · 07-05-2009, 12:26 PM

All I can say is - wow. I can't add much to what they all said. It does inspire me to go make something, too bad my shop is being used for storage for the next 2 months. If it wasn't for the lathe in my garage, I would have nothing to play with.

nelsone · 07-05-2009, 01:08 PM

David, did I read that you may make another? If so, how about some WIP pics for those that may want to try one of their own?

dkeller_nc · 07-05-2009, 02:38 PM

"David, did I read that you may make another? If so, how about some WIP pics for those that may want to try one of their own?"

That's in progress. This next one will be mahogany. I've already taken a boat load of photos showing how to 4-square the stock with handplanes, cross-cut it to size, rip it to width, and shoot the end-grain. I must admit that I'm getting very tired of being slowed down by taking photos, so I may abbreviate the pics of the actual box construction to showing the panel-raising operation and the dovetail/mitered corner layouts.

That would exclude the actual dovetail sawing and chopping, planing down the tails, and planing the grooves with a plow. The dovetail thing has been done to death in videos and magazines, and plowing a groove with a wooden plow is so basic I doubt anyone would want to see it.