Hexagonal Dovetailed Box

As I continue my foray into boxmaking, my wife thought a hexagon shaped box would be cool. So instead of being boring and mitering the corners, I decided it would be “fun” to try dovetailing them. Normally I don’t like to cut practice joints but this time I made an exception. For whatever reason I couldn’t wrap my mind around how these were supposed to be cut and come together so I’m glad that I had that bit of practice. I also haven’t done any dovetailing in a few months and it showed. The sample joint was really gappy (and the actual ones weren’t much better). I tried cutting them tails first and pins first. I stuck with pins first since it was much easier to transfer the locations to the other board.

The sides are made from maple, the top is a piece of mulberry crotch, and the bottom is cherry crotch. All the wood I used for this box was cut from firewood. The mulberry and cherry I cut years ago and the maple I cut earlier this year. The top of the box pivots on a brass pin and the bottom is glued to the box (I love being able to play fast and loose with wood movement at this scale). The bottom and underside of the top received a small chamfer. Finished with one coat of Arm-r-Seal.

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2 Responses

  1. Matt – the hexagonal box is beautiful. Really enjoyed the process of starting from a piece of rough lumber, this is methodology that trying to do myself. The best part, of course, was the end news. Congrats to you and your wife, happy for you guys!

    take care,

    -Rod

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