Comments

1. 
   cbcrane | Aug 18, 2010 02:13am | #1

   John, Your work is beautiful. I expecially like this one. The grain on the top gives the illusion of the leaf floating on moving water. Perfect placement. The wood is stunning.

2. 
   jbschutz | Aug 19, 2010 01:49am | #2

   Thanks, cb,
   My younger son gave me a small stack of exotic wood for Christmas, and I finally got around to resawing some of it. I wasn't too impressed with the African Cherry until I started to put finish on it. Thanks for the props. Did you get a chance to check my website? Any thoughts?

3. 
   penz | Aug 22, 2010 02:13am | #3

   Great job on the boxes! How do you make the leaves? Are they purely decorative, or are they the handle to open the lid?

4. 
   jbschutz | Aug 23, 2010 12:19pm | #4

   Penz;
   The leaf is functional....it serves as a lid stop and handle. The lid is hinged with steel pins, and without the leaf, the front of the lid would fall into the box.
   Making the leaves: I start with two 1/4 inch pieces of stock about 3 inches square. I glue them together with the grain running at 90 degrees to each other, glueing two opposite corners. When dry, I bandsaw a meandering line from one unglued corner to the other. Then, I saw off the glued corners. The top left hand piece will mate with the bottom right hand piece. Then I do a glue-up with a very thin piece of contrasting wood for the leaf center vein. After it has set, I saw out the leaf shape and contour the top with a Dremel sanding drum, back-bevelling the edges to give it the illusion of thinness. I try to match the leaf shape to the actual leaf of the tree the wood came from.