A quick writeup on my gift box. Material details:
The box is made from Wenge, with a yellowheart inlay of the ram. The yellowheart was beautiful when sanded, it really shimmers in the light.
The box is lined with black oiled leather, which is engraved with 50 stars in honor of her 50th birthday.
The lid has an inset bronze colored mirror (Inventables acrylic bronze mirror), and it appears hazy in these pictures because I have left the protective plastic on it.
The entire box is friction fit, but the inlay was glued in to prevent it ever coming loose due to differences in the way the two woods react to temperature or humidity changes.
For the base, I cut an insert of 1/8" MDF to add some heft before putting the leather in. The MDF is wood glued to the wenge box, the leather is then attached to the MDF with contact cement.
For hinges, I was going to use some cheap small rubbed bronze hinges that I sourced from amazon, but I found that there was far too much slop in the pins, the top could wiggle a millimeter or two, and that was not going to fly. After a minute of panic – I’d already engraved slots for the hinges and assembled the box – I hit on an idea, and used a photo to trace a vector outline for the hinge and cut leather pieces to fit. The leather hinges look great, and they are my new go-to hinge construction. [Look for another post with a different box for my other sister soon, I use the same trick]
I debated making a latch, but in the end, the top is heavy enough with the acrylic mirror that I deemed it unnecessary.
The entire box is sanded to about 800 grit and finished with Danish oil. The leather is already oiled, so I didn’t touch that.
