General Finishes - Lidded Boxes

Hand carved ebonised spiral box

John Parsons — Tue, 25 Jul 2017 13:26:56 +0000

Based near Broadford in the south of the Isle of Skye, Scotland, I specialise in making and selling small, high quality turned wooden boxes. They range from pure and simple designs to more ornamented pieces. I aim for a perfectly formed little piece of artwork, for display as an accent piece. Not many people use them to store things in!

This particular box features a lid which has been hand carved into a open spiral. The outside of the box has been finished with several coats of an ebonising lacquer and polished with wax to a deep, black lustrous sheen. The internal face of the spiral has been left matt to contrast with the sheen of the external face.

The aim was to focus on the form of the box, without being distracted by the wood grain pattern. The inside of the box was deliberately not ebonised to create a gorgeous contrast of natural wood, revealed when the box is opened. The lime wood used to make the box is pale yellow and the interior shows this off by using 3 separately applied and buffed coats of a low sheen soft wax finish. The natural wood and ebonising colour contrast has been exploited in the design by cutting fine grooves through the external lacquer coating, to create a decorative detail.

The inside and outside of the box have been buffed with a soft cloth to create a tactile, little treasure.

Products Used

Ebonising lacquer
Soft wax polish

Lost Reliquary of Thoth

Michael Foster — Tue, 25 Jul 2017 03:06:03 +0000

This form is the simplest of the Platonic solids, a tetrahedron. A Platonic solid is a regular, convex polyhedron. It is constructed by congruent regular polygonal faces with the same number of faces meeting at each vertex. A tetrahedron is composed of 4 equilateral triangles, the simplest of the Platonic solids.

The form was generated totally on the lathe by turning an interior spherical hollow and mounting it on 4 vertices to turn the faces.

The piece was carved using both rotary carving tools and pyrography. the faces were then dyed with india Ink and colored with acrylics using the dry brush technique. 23 karat gold leaf was applied to the interior of the box and select portions of the carved faces of the tetrahedron. A light coat of Krylon fixatif was applied to help protect the work.

Products Used

Box Elder
India Ink
Acrylic paints
23 K gold leaf
Krylon Fixatif

Pencil pot

Davenport's Handmade — Wed, 19 Jul 2017 22:01:38 +0000

A pencil pot with mahogany lid and base. Base was placed in a plastic container then broken pencils placed on top then liquid resin poured on and then a mahogany blank placed on top.

when set a dovetail chucking point was turned into the base. The piece was then turned round and a chucking point was turned into the top. Then the top was parted with a parting tool and the inside of the pot was shaped with a spindle gouge. Then the out side was done and bothe were finished with beeswax.

The lid was then fitted in the lathe. And turned to shape and finished with beeswax.

Products Used

Pencils
Resin
Mahogany

Ebonized Sycamore lidded Box

Kent Harriss — Tue, 11 Jul 2017 01:29:36 +0000

This is a small lidded box that was turned from sycamore. Then a basketweave texture was applied to the exterior and it was ebonized. I left the interior of the box natural to allow you to see the wood and offer some contrast. The lid is also sycamore with a live oak burl inlay some additional texture was added with a power carver. I applied Arm-R-Seal to the interior and exterior.The size is 4" wide and 3" tall.

Products Used

Arm-R-Seal

Lidded Norfolk Island Pine Box

Kent Harriss — Tue, 11 Jul 2017 01:16:33 +0000

This is a small box that was turned from Norfolk Island Pine. After turning the box I handcut glass and fitted it to the exterior of the box. I also turned the lid out of the Norfolk Island Pine. The lid was turned super thin (1/8") so I impregnated it with Cyanoacrylate glue for strength. I applied an ebony offset knob on the lid. The box is aprox. 4" wide by 4" tall. I applied a coat of Arm-R-Seal finish to the exterior.

Products Used

Arm-R Seal

Spalted Bradford Pear Box

Kent Harriss — Tue, 11 Jul 2017 00:22:56 +0000

I turned this small bow from Spalted Bradford Pear. The spalting takes a normally boring variety of wood into a swirl of color anf figure. The knob on the lid was turned from Ebony. The box has multiple coats of Arm-R-Seal

Products Used

Arm-R-Seal

Black Egg

billooms — Mon, 10 Jul 2017 20:29:00 +0000

This box with threaded lid started with African Blackwood. The two pieces were first hollowed inside. Next, matching pieces of hard maple were turned to an exact fit, glued, and hollowed leaving only a thin layer of maple remaining. This was repeated with a piece of brown ivory wood, glued, and turned so that only a thin layer remained. The interior pattern was cut with an ornamental lathe (that I built myself). The cuts went completely through the thin layers and into the outer shell of blackwood to create the contrasting colors in the interior pattern. Then the threads were cut and the exterior was turned. Finally, the exterior was decorated with tarnish resistant Argentium brand sterling silver, a fresh water pearl, and an old Russian faceted CZ stone. The base is hand made silver filigree. The finish is an oil finish I mix myself from 1/3 Pure Tung Oil, 1/3 Pure Boiled Linseed Oil, and 1/3 Behlen Rock Hard Table Varnish. A final buffing of Renaissance Wax was applied. Size is 4.25” high x 2.75” diameter.

Products Used

African Blackwood
Hard Maple
Brown Ivory wood
Argentium brand tarnish-resistant sterling silver
Faceted Cubic Zirconia, Fresh Water Pearl
Custom oil finish (1/3 boiled linseed oil, 1/3 tung oil, 1/3 Behlen Rockhard Table Varnish)
Renaissance Wax

Winning Category

1st Place

Note Box

billooms — Mon, 10 Jul 2017 19:41:17 +0000

This box with threaded lid started with African Blackwood. Then a thin layer of Holly was wrapped around the exterior, glued, and turned down to a thickness of 0.030”. A cylinder of African Blackwood was hollowed to fit over the Holly, glued, and turned down to a thickness of 0.020”. The keyboard pattern was cut through the exterior black layer and into the holly on an ornamental lathe (that I built myself). Additional ornamentation was cut on the top of the box and inside the box with the ornamental lathe. The finish is an oil finish I mix myself from 1/3 Pure Tung Oil, 1/3 Pure Boiled Linseed Oil, and 1/3 Behlen Rock Hard Table Varnish. A final buffing of Renaissance Wax was applied. Size is 2” tall x 3” diameter.

Products Used

African Blackwood
Holly
Fresh Water Pearl
Custom oil finish (1/3 boiled linseed oil, 1/3 tung oil, 1/3 Behlen Rockhard Table Varnish)
Renaissance Wax