With the hinge out of the way, one of the tricky fits is history but getting all the corners to match is another thing altogether. The marquetry was applied to the back before assembly to facilitate bending the veneer around the curve of the hinge tabs but making the corner matches will be better accomplished with the bare box already glued up. I left the corners a little big when I cut the FB dovetails to allow a little fine tuning. Good thing because when first assembled it had a decent amount of rack in it. Fortunately a few adjustments could be made that almost entirely eliminated the twist.

 

I did however, as Patrick pointed out, miss one detail of the full blind dovetail when I failed to miter the top and bottom bits thereby leaving signs of the FBDT. To remedy this I did about a thousand hours of very tedious hammer veneering in the half lap interlock of the box and the lid. I did remember to miter the veneer strips.
The insides of the lid half laps were veneered before assembly and the rest was done afterward.

( The lid parts were too small for FBDT's so they are simple miters, cut in the miter jack of course.)

 

 

The actual fitting of the marquetry panels on the sides was a bit of a gong show. You would have had a good laugh on me. It was so fit-critical that I became all wound up in the difficult parts, which I pulled off really well, but managed to make some real rookie mistakes on the easy stuff. For example, (but not limited to) I glued one end panel on the lid on with the masking tape still on the back ….. wait for it ….. TWICE!

What amazed me most was the fact that I just went along and fixed it without any swearing or breaking things at all. It must be the effect of doing marquetry for a while …. or maybe I'm just getting old. (I'm going with the former). The concentration and difficulties do however explain why I wasn't taking a lot of photos while that was going on so the next ones are with the box all glued and marquetried up. I do have to say that without the reversible properties of hot hide glue these pieces would all be in the trash can and there would be no more blog.

Here are the four corners and the front. They still need some minor patching, filling and sanding but the fits are there and it really wasn't all that hard.

 

 

 

 

 

I have not only decided on the marquetry for the lid now but have cut and mounted it. I can't show pictures until I post the project though because it would give away the end use of the box …... and that's a secret.

Thanks for looking in.

Paul