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I made this yarn box out of walnut and maple, for a birthday present.
The first step was to resaw the stock material, to allow uninterrupted grain to run all the way around the box. Once that was done, I created the below template, which I printed out and temporarily glued to the material to show me where to cut:
I drilled a hole to be the center of the spiral, then using a scrollsaw, cut the spiral out, up to the line between box top and bottom. I probably would have used a coping saw if I didn't have access to a scrollsaw.
With that done, I cut mitres for the 4 corners, grooves for the bottom panel and an inset shape for the top piece, with the decorative maple. I glued the whole box into a cube, then glued on the top maple trim, then sanded everything flush.
From there, I had to cut the cube into the top and bottom - I used a table saw to cut most of the way through the walls, then a Japanese handsaw to cut the last small part. Again, I used a sander to get the surfaces flush.
Once the box was separated, I added the mitre splines. I make a quick jig to cut the splines in the box, but I'm not happy with it so I won't share it here until I improve it. After cutting the splines, I cut thin strips of the maple, cut them into oversized triangles and glued them into place.
After the glue dried, I used the Japanese saw to trim the oversized triangles, then again sanded back to flush.
With that, the main construction was finished! I sanded everything to 220 grit, including extra sanding to give the chamfer effect where the box opens, applied boiled linseed oil and then paste wax as a finish, and attached the hinges and clasps!
All that's left now is to give to the lucky recipient!
Lovely work, @bullfrogchamps! Your attention to detail is impeccable, and I trust the recipient was thrilled with your efforts. This is such a superb example of timber craftpersonship. The added spline detail in the corners is my favourite part, but the whole box is just delightful.
Many thanks for sharing.
Mitchell
