Small Gift Box

At the end of the summer, my son will be moving into his first apartment.  I made this box for him to use there.  The great thing about a small box is that it doesn't take up much space and you can put other stuff in it!

It's mostly made of claro walnut (California black walnut).   I got a weirdly shaped thick piece of this for free many years ago when buying some local (Massachusetts) black walnut from a cabinet shop going out of business.  It was an off-cut from a big coffee table.

The lighter strip in the lid is cherry and the miter keys are ash.

I took the idea of the lid from the book "Making Heirloom Boxes" by Peter Lloyd.  Making and fitting the lid were the only fiddly parts of this project.  You might be able to see from one of the photos that the lid is tapered on the underside.  It has to be thick enough at the back to hold the pivots (dowels), but it would look kind of clunky if it were also that thick at the front where the handle is.