Motivation
As a continuation of the drawer inserts which I’m showing in the photo gallery and the inspiration out of Matt Kenneys book “52 Boxes in 52 Weeks” I have crafted a couple of boxes in the past few weeks and I have improved my skills a lot.
I’m trying to use as much hand tools as I could. I like the fact that they are not as noisy as hevy duty circular saws and dust collectors and I really find it kind of dangerous and adventerous whe I see people cutting small pieces of wood on a circular saw without much security measures in place.
I did follow instructions on how to build jig to cut 45 degree miters and used it. Just creating a bux on a sunday without much noise is impossible since the table saw and dust collection created noise which is not suitable for a sunday afternoon if you are living in not so rural area where neigbours might get upset by the created noise. So I jumped over to use hand tools for my box builds and I create good results with them as far as I can tell. Cutting the boards and planing them is still done using a tablesaw, jointer and thickness planer but I usually do that during weekdays to the noise is ok. Ho I do the wood preparation is not part of this blog entry but I might cover that in a future post supported by a youtube video.
Used Tools
The boxes that I do have 45 degree miters cut at the corners and the bottom and top lids are added using a rabbet that is cut into the edges od the short and long sides of the box. The miters I now cut using a shooting board where I added a 45 degree jig for it. The side parts of the boxes are cut with the Bridgecity Jointmaker Pro v2 or just with a japanese pullsaw. Fitting the top and bottom lids in is done by hand with a japanes pullsaw and the fine tuning I do with the shooting board as well. The rabbets are cut with a Veritas shoulder plane.
All in all not the cheapest and in a pandemic hard to get tools. The handles for the boxes are usually done out of a piece of scrap wood. I sand them on the disc sander using a simple jig (inspired by an Instagram post/short video by Matt Kenney). I’ll cover that in future blog post/youtube video as well.
| Veritas shooting board 45° Jig | Veritas Small Shoulder Plane |
|---|---|
 |
 |
| Bridgecity Jointmaker Pro v2 |
|---|
 |
The collection of finished boxes
The boxes are made out of different wood species in different sizes. Some have the edges painted with milk paint, some have fabric coated bottoms some have linoleum on the bottom. The finish is done using shellac, wax, oil or a combination of them.
Beech with bottom and top lids out of walnut veneered plywood
This box has a size of 10x10x4cm. The thickness of the beech wood is 10mm. I chose thick plywood for the bottom and the lid. The edges were painted with gray milkpaint. The inner side of the bottom lid has fabric glued on. I embedded the top lid handle inside of a round pocket. The handle is made out of walnut whereas the lid surfaces are veneered with walnut veneer. As a surface finish I added some oil. The rabbets I did create on the router table and the miters were cut with the joint maker pro.
This box the first one I worked on to explore the techniques necessary to build it. I created that box in february 2021 .
| View on the box with lid closed | Look on the fabric bottom |
|---|---|
 |
 |
Oak with handle made out of walnut with brass inlays
This box has a size of 30x11x6.5cm. The boards themselves have a thickness of 8mm. Bottom and top lid are made out of the same oak boards with the same thickness. The edges are colored with orange/salmon milkpaint. The handle is made from walnut with 45 degree angles gut. At the end of the handles I added a small 2.9mm brass inlay as additinal detail. On the bottom inside the box I have glued some salmon colored fabric. The box is overall finished with an oil containing white pigments.
This box was created in March 2021.
| View with lid closed | View inside the box |
|---|---|
 |
 |
Swiss Pine Wood
This box without a top lid has dimensions of 10x10x5cm. The thickness of the used wood boards is 8mm. I did not apply any surface finish to keep the aromatic smell of the swiss pine wood as long as possible.
This box was crafted in March 2021.
| View from the top | View from the bottom |
|---|---|
 |
 |
Walnut and Maple
This box has a size of 18x13x6cm. The thickness of the used walnut boards for the box is 7mm as well as the thickness for the Maple boards which are used for the top and bottom lids. I added felt to the bottom of the box inside. I added wax as the surface finish of the box which makes it very smooth but not slippery at all. The handle was done using maple and walnut as well. I created a champfer around the top and bottom lid using a handplane. I lake the champfered edges for boxes made completely out of solid wood the most.
I did craft this box in May 2021.
| View with top lid closed | View into the box on the felt |
|---|---|
 |
 |
Cherry, Basswood and Scirocco Tee
I’ve seen a similar box on Matt Kanneys Instagram account where he posted pictures of this kind of box as well as mentioned an article in the Wood magazine where instructions on how to build this box including the Kumiko pattern. The Kumiko pattern is then inlayed into the box lid.
The two articles are linked below for further reference:
I installed the Wood Magazines iOS app on my iPad and purchased the July 2021 issue via In-App-Purchase.
The box has the dimensions of the tee box are 23x10x10cm and it is made out of cherry wood with 7mm thickness. For the Kumiko panel basswood is used. Underneath the kumiko pattern I added green fabric. The same fabric is used on the inside of the box lid. The separators are done using simple plywood strips of 3mm thickness. The box is created with miters on the shooting board and the lid was cut off the body with the tablesaw. I applied some wax as surface finish to the cherry parts of the box.
The crafting of that box was really fun even though it was the most complex one I build so far. I worked on that box in June 2021.
| View on the closed box | Top removed |
|---|---|
 |
 |
| Inside view of the lid | Box filled with tea bags |
|---|---|
 |
 |
Beech and milk paint
I build that box out of leftovers from the drawer inserts I build recently (see pics in the galery). For most of my boxed I use scrap wood and thats the reason why the wood grain does not continue over the sides of the box. This box has the following dimensions 15x9x5.5cm at a thickness of 7mm. The edges of the lid, the bottom and the handle were colored with “Miss Mustard Seed’s Milk Paint” “Boxwood”. For the finish I added bees wax polish. The inner base is laid out with green fabric. The lid and base was made out of 6mm thick beech veneered ply wood.
I created that box in June 2021.
| View with lid closed | View with lid opened and view on the fabric |
|---|---|
 |
 |
Yelloheart, Padouk und Ebenholz mit Filzeinlage und Schellac
With this box project I experimented a bit with colorful wood species. The box has the following dimensions 15x9x7cm and the wood pieces have a thickness of 7mm. The sides are made out of yellowheart, the top and bottom out of padouk and the handle is made out of ebony, The outer edges of the top and bottom are done using a champfer. The box received a surface finish with shellac. On the inner base I glued gray felt in.
The wood pieces I ordered as scrapwood pieces from Designholz.com. The ebony handle was made out of small pieces I ordered from Edelholzverkauf.de.
The box was created in June 2021.
| View on the box with lid closed | View inside the box |
|---|---|
 |
 |
Walnut and Cabinet Linoleum
I build this box to hold a stack of 12x12cm napkins. The dimensions are 14x14x4cm at a board thichnett of 7mm. On the inside of the base I added cabinet linoleum. I finished the wooden surface with wax and crafted it in June 2021.
| Without napkins and view on the linomeum | Filled wit a stack of napkins |
|---|---|
 |
 |
Maple and black walnut
This small box with the dimensions of 13x9x4cm and a board thickness of 7mm for the sides and the bottom and top lids was created out of maple and black walnut. The inner base was layed out with green fabric. The boxes surface finish was done using wax. The handle is relativly simple made out as the material as the lid itself.
The box was created in June 2021.
| Box with top lid closed | Opened with view on the fabric |
|---|---|
 |
 |
Red aromatic cedar
This box has the dimensions of 10x10x4cm and was done out of red aromatic cedar scrapwood I ordered from Designholz.com which I have mentioned before. Red cedar has a wonderful aromatic smell so I have not added a surface finish to keep that smell as strong as possible. To add more aroma to the box I added the wood carvince inside the box which were done duting planing the rabbets and the champfers.
I created that box in June 2021
| Red Cedar Aroma Box |
|---|
 |
Another Swiss Pine Wood Box
Swiss pine has a unique aromatic small as well as red cedar. The illustrated box has the following dimensions 13x9x4cm and a meterial thickness of 7mm. The rabbets, miters and champfers were all done using hand planes. In order to keep the aromatic smell of the wood I have not added any surface finish except sanding. I added some wood carvings into the box which sprinkled with some swiss pine wood aroma oil to intensify the smell.
This box was crafted in June 2021
| Box with lid closed | Open box with look on the carvings |
|---|---|
 |
 |
Conclusion
Juse 2021 was a very successful month for me where I created a lot of box and. The wood was already jointed and thickness planed. The remaining work was then done using hand tools only. This excercise taught me a lot and and gave me a better feeling about the box proportions. I learned you to apply milkpaint and that I don’t like the use of it that much. Even though I did create a lot of boxes in june, I still like to create boxes. For soure you will see boxes created and described here on the blog or on my youtube channel.