April 19, 20233 yr As promised here are photos of my completed chest, built as a hope chest for our daughter born last October. It is all made from on hand/found materials. The wood came from some bookshelves from a used book store that closed down at the end of our street. They were poorly made bookshelves but built out of some nice quality oak baseboards. The steel stock was stuff I already had or drops from previous projects. It is certainly not perfect, I had a couple of nails give me some small splits even with pre-drilled holes, and some other issues with my "fine" woodworking skills. Over all I am very happy with it though. It took probably about 4 months all told, working on and off as time permitted. I did re-do the finish on the entire box as I was not happy with the stain I used, and the BLO glossy finish looked to much like a cheap commercial clear coat. Paint stripper pulled up the oil and the stain pretty well and I ended up just using beeswax on the raw wood, and I am very pleased with how it looks now. Just enough gloss and luster to pop without looking like a layer of clear coat. The inside has a coat of BLO rather than beeswax. Enough rambling, here's photos.
April 19, 20233 yr I bought one for my daughter oh so many years ago. A hand made one will be cherished. Beautiful.
April 19, 20233 yr Ya done good. I bet your daughter will love it and keep it for her daughter, with the history attached about Grandad making it.
May 10, 20233 yr Author Thomas, I actually stamped a copper plate (made from some copper tubing scrap) and tacked it inside the lid just under the latch. I'm not going to put up a photo though since it has a some personal information on it. And a belated thank you to all others who gave commendations!
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