Dovetailed Salt Box
Practice your dovetails while making something useful.
Jan 26, 2015
The finished salt box
A salt box can be used on the counter while baking, or brought to the table during meals, where a little pinch of salt will always be close at hand.
This past Christmas I made three of these boxes as gifts. Each was a bit different in design, but all were made from the same piece of maple, saved from the cord wood stack. The fun part of this project is cutting and fitting the mitered dovetails at the bottom of the box. This joint allows you to put the bottom in the box without cutting tiny stopped grooves to hold it in place. Simply cut an 1/8 inch groove at the top and bottom of the board before cutting the parts to length. The top groove holds the sliding lid and the lower groove holds the bottom.
All parts are 1/4 inch thick with 1/8 inch grooves and tongues. Finished with food safe mineral oil and a coat of bees wax on the exterior.
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The finished salt box
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All parts being fine tuned.
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Detail of the mitered dovetail at the bottom.
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Detail of the chamfered pins.
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Ready for glue-up.
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A single board offers a nice continuous grain.
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Front view
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Side view
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A simple sliding lid for the top.
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Here are the two other versions. The box on the left has the natural surface left on the lid. The box on the right has a slight curve added, narrowing towards the top.
Comments
Very cool--thanks for sharing. I really like seeing the three different design variations.
-Logan
what are the dimensions of the box?
I too.Would like to know the basic dimensions of this
Box
Interior dimension looks like it's about the size of a fist. That makes sense, given you'll likely be reaching in with your fingers.
The execution here is top notch. Very beautiful salt pigs. I especially love the spalted lid in the final photo!
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