Project: Tolkien Box

Hello! It’s been a while — I’ve been spending a fair bit of time on the hands-on aspects of business for the past couple of weeks and haven’t had a chance to sit down and write up a post. Today I’m going to share one from the build archives. Admittedly I’ve done a poor job of recording some of my more recent projects, so I’ll endeavor to improve my habits moving forward. For now, I hope you enjoy this one.

A couple of years back, back my girlfriend lent me her childhood set of the Lord of the Rings so I could brush up on my Tolkien lore. Her set of books is quite old and the adhesive binding is starting to show its age. Some of the pages tried to make an escape during my read-through, much to my girlfriend’s dismay. Seeing as the sentimental value of these books was pretty high, and Christmas was coming up, I figured I’d try my hand at some woodwork and make her a nice gift. Because I was (and still am) solidly in the “Novice” category of woodworkers, I thought this might be a good opportunity to sink my teeth into the craft.

My neighbor had recently removed a cedar-lined closet and left the remnants on the curb to be hauled away. I snagged a few of the choice pieces and thought this would be a perfect use for it. Around that same time I had seen some videos of Adam Savage learning how to make dovetail joints and thought the aesthetic might look nice for an ornamental storage box. My process went something like this (I apologize for the potato-quality photos):

Here’s a rough sketch of the design. I wanted to have an upside-down trapezoidal shape, which would leave a little space toward for the user’s fingers to reach in and grasp the books.

Here are my rough plans and cut-list. I’m embarrassed to say that this project was doomed to failure at the start, since I mistakenly dimensioned the outside of the box to fit the books. Just an opportunity to do it better next time, right?

The pieces were small enough to fit into my miter saw, so I opted to use that over a table saw with an angle jig on a sled. Before I started cutting, I took a moment to consider where the wood grain looked nicest and made sure the front and top of the box would be cut from those pieces.

Here are all of the pieces laid out.

I cut miters on the bottom and side pieces to accommodate the slight angles that give the box its trapezoidal shape. These were cut on the table saw.

I used a hobby knife to score a line to accurately mark the thickness of the wood. This will give me a depth to cut the dovetails. What I learned later is that I should have cut the dovetails slightly deeper than this line.

After a fair bit of division, I figured out the width of the dovetails and the spaces between. I then marked out the dovetails with this angle marker (not positive on the proper name for this tool). I scribed the lines again with the hobby knife for a very crisp and precise line.

After marking everything out precisely I used a sharpie to indicate the material that needed to be removed.

I used a coping saw to cut just inside the scribed lines. I learned later that using a razor saw is the better tool for this operation since coping saws can have a tendency to flex a bit. A razor saw will make a much straighter cut, and is much easier cut precisely with.

I cut inside of the lines, then used files to sneak up to the line for the closest fit I could manage.

I used a chisel to clean up some of the corners with limited success. A combination of cheap, dull chisels, and the soft nature of cedar wood left something to be desired.

The front or the back with the dovetails cut. The spaces on the right are filed, the ones on the left aren’t yet.

After a bit of massaging with a file, I managed to fit my first joint together. The test fit pretty clearly shows I’m an amateur at hand-cutting dovetail joints. The gaps are embarrassingly large. I was still excited when everything fit together though!

Ideally I should have cut the dovetails deep enough for both sides of the joint to sit a little proud of the sides of the box. This resulted in more finishing work for me to do down the line.

I used standard wood glue and some clamps to secure all of the pieces together. The front and back of the box hold the sides and bottom in space. The sides don’t join to the bottom. This enabled me to clamp in one direction (front-to-back)

Once the box was glued, I sanded the top flat with a belt-sander.

There were egregious gaps in the joints. I mixed sawdust into 5-minute epoxy to fill them. I think a color-matched wood filler might have been a better solution, but it turned out okay in the end!

Gaps filled with the epoxy/sawdust slurry.

After the epoxy had hardened I sanded all of the surfaces flat with the belt sander again. Remember how some of the dovetails were too short? This meant I had to sand off a couple of millimeters from the ENTIRETY of each face.

At this point I also made some small feet for the box and glued them into place.

I found some tarnished looking hinges and them into the box and lid.

I think the latch helped make the front of the box slightly more interesting.

I also added some corner protectors, which I think also gave the box an air of quality.

Here I’ve marked out JRR Tolkien’s emblem in pencil.

I then used a soldering iron to brand the wood. I’m really pleased with the effect it created. The emblem is both debossed and blackened.

Here’s the box with the emblem completed

Finally I finished the box with several layers of tung oil. This really brought out the charred emblem and the wood’s grain. Definitely the most satisfying part of the build!

The finished product!

I definitely learned a few important lessons on this build:

1. Double-check your dimensions! I forgot to account for the thickness of the wood in one direction and ended up making the box too narrow for the books to fit. Oops.

2. Dovetails need to be cut slightly deeper than the thickness of the wood. Ideally you want them to sit a little proud so they can be sanded flush. Otherwise you’ll be stuck sanding off the whole face to get everything flush.

However in the end I’m very pleased with how the box turned out. None of the crimes I made are particularly visible in the finished product, and it’s still a nice piece to decorate a shelf with. I definitely learned heaps about working with wood. I hope to do more projects like this in the future!