Replies

1. 
   Biscardi | Oct 23, 2005 12:45am | #1

   Black locust is pretty, cheap and hard as all get out. It looks great with an oil finish

   Frank

2. 
   WillGeorge | Oct 24, 2005 02:44am | #2

   Get some PurpleHeart.. I do not think my old M1 could shoot throught it..

   Serious.. Get some Hickory.. Hard as heck and not bad to work with..

   Ash trim works nice with it..

   
   

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   Edited 10/23/2005 7:45 pm by WillGeorge

1. 
   RyanC | Oct 24, 2005 04:03am | #3

   Thanks, i was hoping someone would suggest hickory .thats what i thought would look good.

3. 
   JohnWW | Oct 24, 2005 05:48pm | #4

   Any of the common hardwoods would be fine, but based on many antique tool totes I've seen, pine was the wood of choice.  They were beat up but they held together and they cut down the weight to be carried.

   John W.

1. 
   WillGeorge | Oct 24, 2005 06:32pm | #5

   YES! BUT that was old pine.. Not the junk they sell these days!

1. 
   JohnWW | Oct 24, 2005 06:57pm | #6

   Most of the old boxes I've seen were made from fairly ordinary pine not the dense "old growth" types with very closely packed rings.  The boxes were dinged and scratched, and rounded at the corners, but the joinery, if well done, held up. 

   You can still go to a lumber yard today, and by picking through a few dozen boards of white pine find a board or two from a slow growing tree with densely packed growth rings and rich in resins.  I do this all the time and the wood appears to be identical to wood that was cut centuries ago.  It is probably harder to find closely grained wood today than it was in the past, but it is still possible to do without a great effort.

   John W.