Valentines Day Gifts

[James Davis]

Just getting around to posting pics of the projects that were the gifts for the two LOMLs here.

My daughter is a purple fanatic so she gets a purple pen

The pen is made from some curly maple that I had lying around and it is dyed with a water soluble dye.

And for Christmas I made my wife a letter opener and magnifying glass. She said she wanted a box to keep them in so I took some walnut that was lying around and came up with this. The amazing thing about this project(at least to me) is that I did all the joinery with my hand planes. The grooves were cut with a combination plane, and the corner rebates were cut with a back saw and a #78. The panels for the lid and bottom were raised with my Lie-Nielson #140 (Man is that a sweet plane)

Thanks for looking,

James

 

[Ray Martin]

James,

Your valentines must be really happy. These turned out wonderfully.

Do you have any plans or drawings for the box? I'm betting that's a really popular item.

 

[James Davis]

Thanks Ray,

The box is ~11" long, 4 1/2" wide and ~3" tall. The first time that I measured any of it was when I measured it to write this. When I was making it I took what the piece of walnut would give me to work with. It was a rough piece of wood and I had to cut out several crooks to get workable pieces. and yes Valentines Day was good.:eusa_danc

James

 

[cskipper]

Those are lovely!

 

[Trent Mason]

Beautiful projects for both James. :eusa_clap:eusa_clap:eusa_clap I'm not a hand tool fanatic (yet), but I saw an episode of The Woodwright's Shop recently where he used hand planes to do almost all of his jointery and I couldn't stop thinking about it. Sounds like a way more dependable and long-lasting solution. :eusa_thin

 

[MrAudio815]

Very Nice~!

Those are all very Beautiful, but I particularly like the Walnut box.

 

[sawduster]

Dang man, those are nice ! What kind of dye did you use to get that nice purple shade ?
Excellent job on the box bro :icon_thum I sure wish I could do something like that ! :eusa_doh:

 

[Ray Martin]

Thanks Ray,

The box is ~11" long, 4 1/2" wide and ~3" tall. The first time that I measured any of it was when I measured it to write this. When I was making it I took what the piece of walnut would give me to work with. It was a rough piece of wood and I had to cut out several crooks to get workable pieces. and yes Valentines Day was good.:eusa_danc

James

James,

I just know I'm going to do something like this. I do not believe there is any such thing as "scrap" wood. :gar-Bi Thanks for sharing this one.

 

[James Davis]

Dang man, those are nice ! What kind of dye did you use to get that nice purple shade ?
Excellent job on the box bro :icon_thum I sure wish I could do something like that ! :eusa_doh:

Thanks Everyone. The dye came from Klingspore about 4 years ago. Tis was the first time that I tried to use it and will not be the last. The brand is Transfast. The color Purple (Go Figure on that one) and it is water soluble. I boiled some water and added a little of the dye to it and then wiped it on the pen while it was still on the lathe. I let the grain raise for about 5 minutes and then took some 400 grit sandpaper and sanded it until it was smooth and some of the grain was showing through. Then I wiped it with the dye again and let it dry overnight and finished it with friction polish and Renaissance Wax.

James