Jewlery Box - Koa and Walnut

This is a Jewelry Box I made as a present for my wife.

I've Been making Jewelry for her for about 10 years and she needed a place for all of it.

It is made of English and Black Walnut, Koa, Mahogany, Cedar and Bubinga,

The English Walnut (left) has great curl to it and the Koa (right) is curly as well.

Construction pictures after the link below:

I bought this wood at an estate sale. The person who had it was the Wood Professor at the University.  There must have been a reason he kept it....

Planed Down

Stunning Curl.

I want to make the legs match the grain.

The piece on the right is my template for a 'leg'.  That way all can match,

back legs

front legs - I like imperfections to contrast with a perfect finish.

Figuring where to break up the front for drawers.

All the grain can match up!

I tried to match the grain on the legs (walnut) to the grain on the face (koa).

This shows marking out the leg cuts.

I'm always scared of this thing

Each drawer is a different height.  That makes the bottom drawer seem 'heavier'.

Spalted Walnut Back.  Sort of like a spine too.  The back shouldn't be just the back, it should be well crafted too.

My glue up rig, pretty much anything heavy.

I set strips in the back to raise the drawers, then glued the face on.

lots of sanding

using all the clamps

tape trick to glue, it isn't strong - but I have a plan for that.  splines

cutting all the splines.  I stopped and made the jig (top left in the picture)

64 strips of mahogany for the splines

cutting them down - look at the left

The center splines on the larger boxes are all the way through, so that the splines can carry the inserts.

picture out of order, showing planning the grain for the drawers,

Ta Da!

I cut the face with all of the drawers already glues in place.

drawer inserts

Curly Koa and a pint of Wood Oil.

wonderful curl!

Curley cedar for the insert bottoms.  Smells wonderful!

clamps again

Spline jig

re-sawing the koa

bookmatched

koa is expensive

legs cut out

My crazy work room.  with gas stove.