Pictured is a box (10 3/4 x 5 x 5 1/2) designed to hold 8 decks of playing cards. The sides are crafted from an especially light colored piece of Black Cherry from Spencer, Indiana and the top and corner splines are European Willow from Western Asia. (Hence the title “will ow wood”) Willow is a delightful wood. The glowing soft yellow color makes a great contrast with cherry. The corner splines are a low level contrast with the cherry.
This box features removable dividers, a full length mortised hinge, a pencil holder, and room for a score pad to lay on top of the decks. An alternative use is as a small tea box for about 25 foil-sealed tea bags. Of course the dividers can be removed and you can use the box any way you would like. It is finished with one coat of tung oil, two coats of wipe-on poly, and a final coat of wax. Clicking on any of the blue words above will take you to a tutorial on that topic.
Focus: I want to stress the importance of making boxes that serve a particular purpose. I made four of these with various styles and woods for a recent opening at a local gallery. To my surprise they were some of the first to sell. If you host a bridge club, play games with multiple decks, or want to have several kinds of card game decks stored in one place…this box works great. This sells well or make nice gifts for a card-playing friends.
Techniques: The dividers pictured in image 5 are made from recycled Venetian blinds. The front and back inserts are cut at the same time after being masking taped together. The pencil holder is a routed cove sitting close to the front side. I found it was much easier to not glue the dividers in at all. I cut the dividers a little short, slid the whole unit: (front and back inserts, and dividers) into the box and then spread the inserts apart. The dividers fit tightly, and it was easy to get the unit to fit tightly inside the box.
Thanks: I appreciate all of you who take time to look and have a special appreciation of all who make comments and ask questions. I make it a point to respond to all comments and questions so check back to see how I replied to what you wrote to me.
Crafty Puzzles
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