Nice box, Doug! Love the top!
Box pictures-everyones!
- Thread starter Mike1950
- Start date
Absolutely gorgeous! Primo heirloom gift! Chuck
Nothing fancy. Min Wax Wipe-On Poly, I think it's semi-gloss. I sand to 220 or 320, then apply two coats of poly. Then lightly sand with 320 and apply another coat. Feel the surface and if it still feels rough or you feel little nibs and bits, sand with 320 and re-apply. Once it feels mostly smooth, I rub with 0000 steel wool and then re-apply poly one more time. This last coat is the most important. Keep your applicator full and apply in a slow, even sweep, over lapping as you go. I hold the wood up into the light to see the reflection and I strive for a uniform look. Try not to wipe back and forth, just a single pass each and then let it dry. After it's fully dry, I rub with a micro pad (must be something like 1200 or 1500), until the surface is slightly dull but very smooth. Then I wax with Min Wax paste.
The Allocasuarina are the ones with the great grain and often limited to the name "She-oak"."Sheoak" refers to species of the genus Casuarina and related genera. Just to make things confusing, some Casuarina species from Australia are called "Australian pine" or "mountain pine." But Casuarina is neither oak nor pine, although its needle-like leaves and pinecone-shaped fruits make it look superficially like a pine. (That's what we call convergent evolution in the biz.) They're flowering plants in a family of their own, somewhat distantly related to oaks, beeches, hickories, and walnuts.
Casuarina species and related species can be found from Madagascar to India and SE Asia to Australia, New Guinea, and NZ. They've been introduced elsewhere -- they're considered invasive in Florida, for example. I know there are some Australian species that are harvested for timber and sold as "sheoak," but I don't know about species from elsewhere.
Casuarinaceae (sheoak) family | The Wood Database
www.wood-database.com
Finished up these two matching boxes. Got a couple very spalted and bug eaten maple boards from someone here - sorry I can't remember who. Split them in half and used about a quarter bottle of thin CA glue to solidify the buggy spots. Also mixed up two part epoxy with some fine saw dust to fill some of the holes. Didn't try to get it perfect, a few little spots and divots just make the boxes look better to me. Had a thin sheet of birds eye walnut (walnut with eyes?) and used it to make the lid panel along with an abalone inlay trim. 4 coats of wipe on poly, buffed with micro pad and then MinWax paste wax. I'll be sending these to my grand kids to use to store the treasures they find and want to keep (important they're the same so there's no bickering over who gets what).
That looks amazing.
- Thread Starter Thread Starter
- #148
Beautiful
Thanks gramps, i'll send you my new address.
Spectacular! Family heirlooms!
These are very simple pen holders I made as Christmas gifts for relatives and friends.
Super-simple design to allow for mass production, with leaves drawings to educate people at least avout some basic trees.
The wood (it should be Khaya) is quartersawn and very chatoyant and very cool!
Super-simple design to allow for mass production, with leaves drawings to educate people at least avout some basic trees.
The wood (it should be Khaya) is quartersawn and very chatoyant and very cool!
Exceptionally nice and so practical! Love the wood and design. Chuck
Finished this one today. Mesquite sides, cholla panel lid with hidden pins, turquoise nuggets epoxy inlay. The frame around the cholla is louro faia from Brazil, the handle is mesquite. Ebony splines. Decided to soften the whole thing with 1/8" roundovers on all exterior corners. Since Jerry ( @Nubsnstubs ) doesn't want his mesquite and cholla back, I'll be sending this one to friends who moved down near Tucson a couple years ago. Four thin coats of wipe on poly, sanded with 320 between the first two, then 0000 steel wool, and after the final coat rubbed with a micro pad and waxed with Minwax paste - nice warm feel to the finish.
Last edited:
Ultra cool! Exotic! Love it! Chuck
Great box Doug.
Love everything about this one - Nice!
I like it, Doug. The rounded corners on the Cholla looks great, plus the the box is ok. 
Seriously, the box is fantastic.
I've got another box(cardboard) for you, but can't print labels yet. I need to change computers so I can print labels. I should be able to get it shipped when I make the change. All Cholla 3/8 and 1/2"boards up to 4" wide and about 14-15" long. I'm just lazy. ........... Nubs
Seriously, the box is fantastic.I've got another box(cardboard) for you, but can't print labels yet. I need to change computers so I can print labels. I should be able to get it shipped when I make the change. All Cholla 3/8 and 1/2"boards up to 4" wide and about 14-15" long. I'm just lazy. ........... Nubs
Thanks for the kind words everyone and thanks for thinking about me Jerry. I certainly appreciate the cholla but I wish you'd let me pay you or reciprocate somehow. If there are a pair of cholla thins without those bigger holes in them, I'd like to make another box without the epoxy fill and just leave the holes in the cholla.