Jewelry Box with hand cut dovetails and wood hinge

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Hello All,
This is another project that I posted on the “other “ site, so apologies if some of you have already seen it. It’s a jewelry box for my daughter’s 32nd birthday. I chose dark walnut for the sides and hard maple for the front/back to emphasize the hand cut dovetails.

I had been buying rough lumber for previous projects and milling it myself to save money, but it's been hit or miss with the quality and figure of the wood, so I bought S3S lumber to see exactly what I was getting. Even though I still need to mill the lumber to my specs, I have been using this approach ever since.

I found a small piece of Bolivian Rosewood and loved the figure, so I resawed it and laminated it to a 1/2" thick piece of MDF for the center section of the top. Followed with a thin strip of Maple, a thicker strip of Wenge, with the Maple border.

The lid is attached to the box with Rob Cosman's wood hinge technique. If you're interested you can search on Youtube, as he explains it far better than I can. It's a very finicky process. I ran several tests, and I was reasonably happy with the end result, but it's not perfect. When it is perfect, as is usually the case with Rob, the hinge is almost invisible when viewing the back of the box. The size of the dowel is critical, so that it fits the routed channels perfectly to insure a tight fit and a strong bond when glued. Because of the order of milling and assembly, you get one shot when glueing up the hinge, after spending hours cutting dovetails. If things go wonky, it's back to square one.

I finished the box with Osmo PolyX Satin. I like this finish for Maple because it doesn't yellow the wood too much, but still brings out the richness of the Walnut. Thanks for looking.

15 Comments

wow thats craftsmanship dog. your dovetails are incredible. and that hinge looks pretty damn good to me buddy. i think rob would approve. well done.

working with my hands is a joy,it gives me a sense of fulfillment,somthing so many seek and so few find.-SAM MALOOF.

Looks great! I really need to try the hidden wood hinge gig. They look so cool when they’re done right! Nicely done. 

Ryan/// ~sigh~ I blew up another bowl. Moke told me "I made the inside bigger than the outside".

outstanding work and such a visual treat.   I've done more than several dowel hinge boxes with my own slant and thank Rob all the time.
Beautifully done!  Very nice gift.  I like the walnut and maple combination.  
Excellent workmanship and the hinge is very interesting.   Joints as perfect as is the box.   Well done.

Ron

Interesting mix of woods. Kinda of stark, yet inviting. 

Love that interior. So much potential for storage/display of tiny trinkets.

Cool hinge.

Great craftsmanship. 
That is one stunning combo of woods!

Fine looking box and enough details to drool over!
Very nice build and creative mix of woods!
Thanks all, my daughter liked it so that’s what’s important.
damn straight my friend !

working with my hands is a joy,it gives me a sense of fulfillment,somthing so many seek and so few find.-SAM MALOOF.

Nice looking box a lot of fine details on there. 
Nice looking box and excellent joinery.
That's a first class box! The hinge is definitely worth the effort and the wood choices are done well.