We built this box because we just had to.  Last year, we built a rustic box from a special piece of applewood, and made this slider lid from an equally special walnut burl piece.  At last, someone bought that nifty item, but the story had a sad ending.  The box was destroyed in shipping, despite our careful packing.  All that was left was the two sliding lid parts.  Nothing could be done about the poor applewood, but we vowed not to let the beautiful walnut burl lid go to waste, so we built a brand new box for the lid!  This time, not having any applewood, we decided to go with a lovely piece of quartersawn sycamore.  One of our most favorite types of wood to work with.  We were able to make all four sides using a single piece of wood, which meant we could ‘wrap’ the grain around the box.  

 

It is a basic construction, with mitred corners.  But for added strength, we cut 8 small right angle pieces of exotic cocobolo wood to match the lid handles, and glued those on to the corners of the box.  We also gave this box a ‘captured’ bottom to allow for a little wood movement.  Of course the length and width of the box conform to the original applewood box sizes to make use of the lid, but this box is more than twice as deep as the original one, making for lots more storage space.  We were so pleased with the sharp color contrasts between the white specks of the sycamore and the deep browns of the walnut and cocobolo, we went with a water based polyurethane finish to minimize the darkening/yellowing of the sycamore.

 

This new box measures 20” long x 5” deep x 6” tall (outside measurements)