A basic design, utilizing a mitred case with wenge splines. The box bottom is a bookmatched floating panel of curly hard maple which rides in a 1/4" routered dado. The lid is a bookmatched birdseye panel in a wenge frame. The black mineral streaks in the maple do not transmit to the outer, bookmatched surface. A short cut to make the frame is to use the ends of the panel dado as the mortise for the frame sides. However, this panel was done with a more traditional through mortise and tenon joint. The hinge was designed to be as small and inobtrusive as possible. It is a simple pair of brass rods that are inserted through sides of the box, pinning the lid and providing a pivot. The lid "lift" is piece of shaped wenge. Finish is straight acrylic lacquer (rubbed out). No oil was used in order to keep the tone of the maple lighter.
The same basic design, but with profiled sides. The rough shape of the sides are cut on the table saw (with blade tilted), and final shaping is done on the belt sander or hand plane. In this case, a piece of scrap brass was shaped to form a lid lift. Lacewood responds particularly well to an oil&varnish finish, although the darker color may not appeal to everyone.
A word about choosing the lacewood. If you choose quarter sawn lumber, the flecks that lacewood is famous for will be very thin, almost to the point of being tiny slits. On plain sawn pieces, the flecks can be very large and oval in shape. I find the large, oval shape to be overpowering for a delicate piece like a jewelry box. Therefore, I use rift sawn stock for this type of box, and orient the grain such that it remains largely rift sawn after the sides are profiled. The slim, tapered shape of the flecks with this orientation are the most attractive to my eye.
My favorite way to do a tray is to first make up the trays with solid maple and finish with 1 coat of thinned lacquer. Real velvet liners can be made by wrapping a piece of velvet around a piece of HPL (high pressure laminate) cut 1/8" smaller than the tray openings. This gives the owner the option of removing the liners, revealing the nice bmatched maple tray bottoms.
Finally, lacewood has a beautiful, open plus interlocked grain pattern. If an oil type finish is used, I recommend that sufficient coats be used to create a thin surface finish in order that the 3-dimensional depth of the grain be maximized.
Yet another box, but this time with post legs and mortise and tenon carcase joints. The legs were roughed out on a band saw, then finished on a stationary belt sander after assembly. Finish is 1 coat of Watco followed with several coats of a Watco/polyu mixture. The polyurethane enables the finish to build up quickly, and the presence of Watco avoids the plasticy look of a 100% polyurethane finish. An unsusal touch is the raised panel lid, where the panel surface protrudes above the surface of the surounding frame.
The box is sitting on a liquour - audio cabinet in hard curly maple and tropical walnut. The base is a Reitveld "Z" chair inspired zigzap, and is made of 1" and 3/4" curly maple. and looks like a wooden "Z". Sorry, no picture available at this time.
Email me at bfeng@ibm.net in the meantime.
Please come back soon and visit me.