Candle box Christmas gifts

[Brian Hughner]

Thanks to a thread on candle boxes from David Keller I decided to try making some as Christmas gifts this year. I've changed some aspects of the design, such as no mitered corners and no end grip, to fit my skill level and build schedule. Christmas always seems to come way too early!

One is made from a very light curly Cherry and the other two are dyed curly maple. All three were finished with shellac since I like the softer look and feel it gives to this type of project.

Overall I'm very happy with how these turned out.


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[Rick Stewart]

Brian,

Nothing wrong with your design. I think they look great. Job well done. Those would be a nice gift to receive.

[gary Zimmel]

Nice work on the candle boxes Brian.
That last pic sure shows some sweet curl...

[Seamus Day]

Nice work, that maple is stunning!

[victoria stiles]

Express your love with a beautiful candle box that is actually quite inexpensive, yet possesses an elegant look on the outside. These boxes are designed to have inserts that can hold several or a single candle on the inside. You can also try flower boxes to gift them on Christmas to your friends and family specially girls they will like them.

[John McClanahan]

Great work! This place should be called "Sawmill Creek Woodworking and Photography"! Lots of good picture taking around here.

John

[Jeff Hamilton Jr.]

Very nice wood! Well done on the boxes.

[David Keller NC]

Thanks to a thread on candle boxes from David Keller I decided to try making some as Christmas gifts this year. I've changed some aspects of the design, such as no mitered corners and no end grip, to fit my skill level and build schedule. Christmas always seems to come way too early!

One is made from a very light curly Cherry and the other two are dyed curly maple. All three were finished with shellac since I like the softer look and feel it gives to this type of project.

Overall I'm very happy with how these turned out.

Really nice job, Brian. One suggestion, though. You might want to add a "fingernail" cut on the panel - opening the top on these can be difficult if the humidity changes and the top tightens up in the grooves. You can make one of these finger-nail cuts quite easily with a #5 gouge and a straight chisel (but practice on some scrap first!)

Edit: Oops, I didn't notice how old this thread was. Since the original post was 12-16-2010 and they were Christmas gifts, I have a feeling it's a bit too late to add the fingernail cut....

[Brian Hughner]

Really nice job, Brian. One suggestion, though. You might want to add a "fingernail" cut on the panel - opening the top on these can be difficult if the humidity changes and the top tightens up in the grooves. You can make one of these finger-nail cuts quite easily with a #5 gouge and a straight chisel (but practice on some scrap first!)

Edit: Oops, I didn't notice how old this thread was. Since the original post was 12-16-2010 and they were Christmas gifts, I have a feeling it's a bit too late to add the fingernail cut....

Thanks David, and your comment is actually well timed. I am making some more of these for gifts this year and I'll try the fingernail cut. As for these gifts, so far they've been doing very well and no problems with humidity, etc. However, I do like the idea of the fingernail cut and will definitely try it out this time around.

Thanks very much for the help!

Brian

[David Keller NC]

Brian - If you're looking for other ideas for small projects that make nice gifts, you might try the colonial newport pipe box that Rob Millard has generously posted plans for on the net (for free!). I just completed one of these in mahogany, and have sets cut out for one in curly maple and one in cherry. It's an excellent hand tool project that is also amenable to power tools, and while challenging, it's not too overwhelming in terms of time and materials. Here's the link:

http://americanfederalperiod.com/blog/?p=65

P.S. - This project is considerably easier if you make a CD or thumb drive copy of the pdf and take it to Kinko's and have them print it out full-size to make templates for the sides. In my case, they charged me just over $2 to make a print.

[Brian Hughner]

David, this looks to be an excellent project to do for this Christmas. I have some nice hard curly maple that I think would make an excellent pipe box. I like the idea of getting the PDF printed to make full size templates as this will probably be another project that I'll want to make some copies of!

Thank you very much for the link to the excellent blog from Rob about this pipe box.

Brian