Shaker Boxes

Pensmyth

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Several years ago I saw an article by John Wilson on the traditional way of making Shaker Boxes and decided I wanted to try and make one. Several years later and it is my most enjoyable woodworking hobby to date. So simple and beautiful at the same time.

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barry richardson

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Those are great! I went down that rabbit hole some years ago, but it's been a !omg time since I made any, your going to give me the itch to do it again, what kind of a steaming rig do you use?
 

DKMD

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What a great variety of styles and materials! Kudos!
 

Pensmyth

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  • Thread Starter Thread Starter
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Those are great! I went down that rabbit hole some years ago, but it's been a !omg time since I made any, your going to give me the itch to do it again, what kind of a steaming rig do you use?
I have a short and long box made out of galvanized metal that I got from John Wilsons web site and I made one about 5 foot long out of rain gutter. Here's a link to John's web site http://www.shakerovalbox.com
 
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Mike Hill

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Great boxes. Fun stuff. Back in the day - the hey-day of the Country antiques and our wheeling and dealing in them, I had quite a penchant for two things (among many others) adirondack stuff and shaker stuff. Every time I'd see someone cut down a paper birch - it would be in my truck and some adirondack piece made. But then I started reading about the Shakers, became enthralled, even to the point of spending the night at Shakertown and visiting a few other Shaker Villages. They fascinate me! I guess it was 38 years ago, we first stayed the night at Shakertown - a year before our daughter was born. Walked into the carpenter shop and bumped into a piece of wood that was leaning against the wall - a piece of poplar. Well, it was technically a plank. Some 3+ inches thick, 20+ feet long and somewhere about 5' foot wide - it reached almost to my chin. Probably plainsawn, but nowhere near the heart and no live edge. That was originally, one big tree. Now, again, remember I'm an old man and I am also a fisherman - so this may be inadvertently exaggerated by fuzzy memory cells. But it was a big piece of wood!
 

Nature Man

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These Shaker boxes are very nice! I am not familiar with them. Looks like you have perfected the art! Chuck
 

TimR

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Nice! I took some time to visit various classes going on at John Campbell, and one was making the Shaker boxes. Def looks like a rabbit hole, so I’ll try to just admire yours and others from afar! :watchingyou:
 

FranklinWorkshops

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Very nice. I took a course in making these at the John C Campbell Folk School https://www.folkschool.org many years ago. I must have made 100 over the years as gifts for friends and family. John Wilson is the guy who pretty much kept this art alive with his patterns, instructions, and as a source of materials, esp those copper tacks in many different sizes. You've inspired me to get back into that.
 
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