Walnut carving knife box Part 1: Sizing it up

Ahhh, the first post of a new woodworking blog. I decided to start this blog to showcase what and how I create my woodworking projects. Today I am going to show how one kind of box I make is created. First is selecting and marking the cuts on a proper board.

Here is a nice piece of 7/8" walnut. The customer specified the wood and size on this box; so some of the decision is out of my hand. This board has a nice piece of crotch figure on the top edge and 3 knots off the right edge of the photo, eliminating it from use in something larger. I use a white crayon to rough in where the lide and sides will come from. Both will be resawn for 4 corner matches on the sides and a thinner top.

Next, I ripped off the size board I needed for the sides, remembering to acount for space for the bottom, top, and the saw kerf when seperating the two halves of the box later. I was able to eliminate a knot from the remaining board by choosing the cut wisely. I cut this knot off the side board, resawed, and planed it resulting in the bookmatch above. The inside becomes the outside to make all 4 corners have grain that wraps around the box. Now I am ready to cut a small dado for the plywood bottom.

I use 1/8" plywood for the bottoms and set it 1/8" from the bottom of the sides. It is easier to cut the dado while the board is longest and ensures they all line up during assembly. The plywood is always thinner than a true 1/8", but that leaves a little wiggle room on assembly. The picture above shows the dado cut and tested with a scrap of the plywood. I cut the miters out of the bookmatched boards next.

I cut the miters on either a miter saw for small boards or the table saw for larger boards. The most important steps are making sure the grain match is kept intact and that opposing sides are EXACTLY the same. It will not matter in the end product if you wanted 5" and ended up with 4-15/16" as long as both sides are the same. If any opposing side differs between the two, you will never achieve a square box. After cutting the miters test fit them like the picture above shows. I like to test on my tablesaw referencing the edge and miter slot to check for 90 degrees. I do not have a pic of the next step, but the bottom will now be cut. measure the dados to where they hit the miters. If you subtract 1/16" form those 2 measurements, you will end up with a nice tight fitting plywood bottom. A solidly glued, tight fitting plywood bottom will stengthen the box. Tomorrow I will post part 2 about the glue up, including cutting and glueing the top.