(bright upbeat music) - Now Suzy, what do you think of your treasure box?

- I absolutely love it.

I love all the woods and the beautiful carved shell.

- I should've made it smaller, just saying.

Stay with us, learn how to make your own today on "The American Woodshop".

- [Announcer 1 ] "The American Woodshop" with Scott Phillips is brought to you by- -Woodcraft, since 1928, providing traditional and modern woodworking tools and supplies to generations of craftsmen.

Woodcraft, helping you make wood work.

(soft upbeat music) (upbeat suspenseful music) - Pro tools for tool pros.

(suspenseful music) RIKON tools.

- "Woodcraft Magazine", projects, plans, and web links designed to help you make wood work.

PS Wood, home of Timber Wolf Swedish Silicon steel band saw blades and Super Sharp scroll saw blades.

-A bed to sleep on, a table to share meals, a house that feels like a home, The Furniture Bank of Central Ohio, providing furniture to neighbors in need.

(upbeat music) - Everyone needs their own treasure box.

- Well, just so happens she married a man who can do that.

- Right.

- Okay, well, let's get to it and you need to come back to share finishing tips.

- I will.

- So over to the miter saw we go On every box, there are six surfaces; the bottom, the top, and the four sides.

For the sides and the ends, we're using Aripari.

And it's a wood from South America and it's beautiful.

And this one has some spalting in it.

So we have that laid out.

And then for the front and the back, it's just butternut planed to half-inch thickness.

Now, the lid is one and 1/8 inch thick because we're going to scallop that out with hand planes, and this is solid genuine mahogany.

So I have my layout marks done.

Now, a word about shop safety- be sure to read, understand, and follow all the instructions that come with the tools and products you use in your woodshop, work safely.

So I'll get my hearing protection on, safety glasses always, dust collection, that's important, especially with mahogany, and I'll make a series of cross cuts to get those workpieces.

(saw revving) And it's important to let that come to a complete stop for a perfect cut like that.

Get this done, then it's out to the router table.

(saw revving) We're outside to do all the routing because even with dust collection on a good router table like this, and this is a benchtop that I like with a two horsepower router, spiral upcut three-eighths inch bit, solid carbide.

And what I'm going to do, I've selected the best faces up.

So that's facing up.

I'm using a miter gauge to do these short-grain or the end cuts first.

And you'll see why this fence is important in just a second.

And mahogany, any wood that's resistant to decay, you definitely want to be wearing an N95 dust mask, even with dust collection.

So let me make the first couple of cuts and I use a excellent push block to hold it, down to the table and against the fence.

And when you start it up, well away from the bit, I'll make the first pass.

(saw revving) And I'll rotate it around 180.

Make the second pass, like so.

(saw revving) Always keeping my hand on the miter gauge.

That way, it's safe and away from the bit.

So you see these two crosscuts made.

Now next, I'll use the push block to make the same type of cuts against the fence (saw revving) through the long-running grain.

(saw revving) And do the other side now.

(saw revving) That looks good, and I'll turn that off, and this will fit the inside of the box perfectly.

I know because I've already measured that out.

Now, what I can do is move the fence in to clean up the rest of that shoulder.

And I just want it so that it grazes the backside of that bit.

Doesn't have to be square to the bit because the bit will end up centering it right here on the board.

So let's make these cuts.

Again, I wanna do the cross cuts first.

That way, the long cuts will clean up any tear-out.

(saw revving) Just like that.

(saw revving) That's perfect.

And I'll do this all the way around.

And once that's done.

(saw revving) We'll be able to use a jig (saw revving) to cut all the box joints.

(saw revving) Looking good So that's how the bottom's channeled on all four sides.

And now, you can see how that will fit on the walls of the box once the box is made.

Now, these are called finger joints or box joints, and they're all three-eighths of an inch.

And keep that in mind because at three-eight of an inch, everything is set up using this plywood jig.

Now, if you look right here on top of the router table, this is a quarter-inch piece of plywood.

It has a three-eighths inch square, and it has to be precise, waxed piece of wood glued to it.

And right here, that three-eighths inch bit is offset from the fence by three-eighths of an inch.

That's what the thickness of this board is.

And it's clamped securely so that it holds that position.

Now, what I do is I use this jig that I made by just creating a right angle.

I got fancy, I dovetailed it.

And then I cut the grooves like you're going to see me cut the assembly.

Very simple jig to make.

And those three-eighth inch cuts fit right onto that three-eighths inch fence or rail.

Wax is key here, so it glides effortlessly.

Now what I'm going to do is take the long pieces.

And that's the butternut for the front and back, and butt it up against that three-eighths inch piece.

Then I'm going to take this spacer board, bring up the end pieces, the short pieces.

And I make sure that all four of these pieces are pushed securely.

These back to against the rail and these front two against the spacer board.

And then without moving anything, keeping everything square, I'm going to clamp this very carefully, just like so.

And I wanna make sure it stays tight against the fence.

And that looks really good.

I'm gonna check the long pieces as well, looks great.

Now, safety gear up and on, and we're gonna make a series of cuts, gliding them all the way through.

The bits up half an inch, and that's okay 'cause this is a two-horsepower motor with a heavy-duty Spiral Upcut Carbide Cutter.

So now we're ready to make those cuts.

Now, that's secured.

Always use two clamps, so nothing slips as you make those passes.

That looks good right there.

And keep your hands on top, safely away from everything.

Let's make those cuts.

(saw revving) And I take that in (saw revving) until I come to my stop line right there.

Back out, and now what I can do is lift it up, and I'll show you the channel now.

It lines straight up, a little bit of fuzz on that edge.

No harm, no foul.

And so I move it into the cut I just made up on the fence.

And I repeat that process until I'm all the way through to the other side.

(saw revving) Okay, now let that bit come to a complete stop.

And here's what we have.

Take this apart, this is always fun.

And the cool thing is you do two corners at one time.

So I'll take that off like that.

And naturally, (blowing) there's gonna be a little bit of fuzz (blowing) on these three-eighths inch joints because of the nature of the wood that you're working with here.

And you can see I've already started a shell carving here, and I'll show you how to make that easily in about three hours.

You'll see it in two minutes, but I'll give you the tips on how you can hand-cut that.

But here is the one thing that you're going to find.

See that little tab on this side, that means I was off less than a 64th of an inch.

That's no big deal.

I can use a hand plane to tune up those boards, but that's how you create perfect box joints or finger joints.

You can't beat it.

Now I'll repeat the same process by stacking it up and cutting the other ends.

And then it's inside to cut the channel on a router table with a quarter-inch cutter that the bottom will go in, and then we can do some carving.

I'll get that set up.

(wood banging) (saw revving) Now, I'll let that come to a complete stop.

And that is what is called a stop cut.

Still spinning down, there we go.

And what that does, it creates the groove in the bottom of the box that will accept the bottom.

And this groove couldn't go all the way through because it would be seen on the end of the finger of the box joint.

So let me show you what happens when you marry these two pieces together like so.

That completes a continuous channel all the way around so that we can now join the entire box together.

But before we do that, it's a million times easier to carve this shell now.

Let's go carve the shell.

Now, these are called chip carving knives.

That's from Wayne Barton, who has written all the books, and he's the best at chip carving design that ever was, ever will be.

Thank you, Wayne.

And long ago, Wayne helped me design this shell.

And he carved the first one and I've carved a dozen or more since then, but it all started with the Goddard Townsend School of Furniture Making, out of Newport, Rhode Island with the scallop shell, which is what this represents centuries ago.

And then of course, I've come up with my own pattern and then I've even tried it on CNC, but can't beat the simplicity of chip carving.

Now I'm going to use sharpening stones and what you do to keep it sharp 'cause that's key.

This is a ceramic stone.

You lock your wrist when that bevel is just right and in tight circular motions, you bring that edge right up, and I'm doing the other side.

The key is you don't want to crown around over the bevel, because it's impossible to get a good edge.

Now, I'm using an 8,000 Norton hard stone.

And these get cuffed out, even though they're hard over time.

So you have to keep them flat.

You got to dress them flat.

And without honing, the knife will not be sharp.

And that's got a keen edge on it right there.

That's important.

This tiny little chip carving knife is excellent when you have to go deep.

Now, let me show you the cuts.

These are called chip cuts for a reason.

And I do the stop cuts first.

And the key is holding the knife just like that at an angle.

Let me see if I can get in position so that you can see exactly what I'm talking about.

And you don't draw the knife towards you.

You move your entire hand with it.

You aren't in trouble that way.

Now watch, I'm holding the same angle.

And that angle is about 40 degrees.

And I have to go to the bottom of that cut right there.

And I'm working with this butternut.

Basswood works well too, but butternut has a wonderful grain to it.

So I want it nice and deep right there.

And I need to make one more cut, holding that 40-degree angle to go nice and deep to get that relief.

That will...

I'm really bearing down.

And I'm out of wood here, and it's key to keep this wood loose so you can roll it around.

If this was in a finished form, you couldn't really do the chip carving pattern very well.

So I'm going to bring that all the way up and stop.

And I'm coming back in here.

Mating again 'cause it has to go deep.

You can see what that cut is right there.

That's what I'm duplicating here.

(knife scratching) (blowing chips away) Now when I'm close and I need to go in to get the final detail, I go to the narrower blade like that.

And that just lets me really get into the tight spots and pop it right out.

And so the other thing that I like this smaller blade for, rotate that around, got to hold that angle, is when I do the serpentine lines like this.

And I'll show you on the outside edge of the shell.

This is graceful.

You lay in one cut using the edge of the scalloped shell.

And you just trace out the pattern for this by using graphite paper, or carbon paper, if you can't find graphite paper, and transfer it to the wood.

And I will tell you there is one other little thing that's very important when it comes time to get rid of the transferred pattern lines.

If they are left, use an eraser.

Don't sand it.

If you sand it, what happens is you sand that stuff right into the pores of the grain in it, contaminates your wood when you finish it.

(blowing) So those basic cuts are all you need (blowing) in order to do shell carving that leads to this right here.

And that will take about three hours right there.

So it's worth it.

Now, let's go make that scalloped top with three different hand planes.

To me, for this box to work, the top has to be sculpted down like a roof, except it has to show some hand plane marks here.

And I'm using the bench dogs and a tail vice on the bottom to hold on to this workpiece, just like that.

And this is called a scrub plane.

You can see that blade right there.

It's got a curve to it, and watch what happens when you skew it at about a 20-degree angle.

You can really take the wood down.

Now, if it chatters out, you have to reverse it, because that's going against the grain.

And so this is a wonderful way to add character to what would be a boring top otherwise.

And then the other thing that I can do with that on the end grain that has a tendency to tear out, I can use a low-angle block plane, just to ease that edge a bit.

I can do it on the top too, and then on the long flowing grain, going the length of the grade.

I like to just shoot it with a number six, just to make it more graceful.

Of course, all of this stacks up just like this, and that looks awesome.

And then what we have to do is fashion a top.

So off to the drill press we go.

This is Kentucky coffeetree, and that will be proud on the top since the lid just fits in, no hinges, we need this.

And to make it I'm using an inch and three-quarter hole saw, no center pilot bit.

And I have it clamped down, watch what happens.

(drill press revving) Now, I'm all the way through to (blowing) the sacrificial baseboard.

And that gives me one curve on the outside.

I'll drill out the center, then the far end, and then I'll take it to a band saw.

Cut the crest of that, a bit of sanding.

And then it's onto glue up at the main workbench.

But I just have to line this up like that.

This is so simple.

And most folks don't think about using a hole saw.

They'd go to a Forstner bit.

Good luck getting a Forstner bit to behave when you're drilling off-center like this.

(hole saw revving) (band saw revving) A spot of sanding, and look at that, isn't that great?

That gets screwed in from the bottom.

And then a drop or two of glue on each one of the insides of the fingers, because what happens now is we're going to do the glue-up.

The channel in the bottom has to line up.

So you swing this around like that, being careful so that you don't get squeeze out.

So I'll bring up this side.

The whole idea of doing a good glue-up is you don't want any more squeeze out than you absolutely have to have.

That's a solid piece of quarter-inch walnut cut out at the table saw.

You could use a band saw.

I'll insert that into the groove.

And you want just a little bit of wiggle room so it can expand and contract, not a lot.

And now this piece goes in like so.

And once I get it all lined up, I clamp it, draw it tight, and let it be for half an hour.

Of course, you have to hold your mouth just right to do all of that.

Okay, now, what do you think of the treasure box?

- I love it, it's beautiful.

I love all the different woods and you did a great job carving the shell.

- Thank you.

- Wayne would be proud.

- Yes, he would.

- And I get the easy work.

I get to see it come alive with this Arm-R-Seal.

It's an oil and urethane base.

And you can brush it in, you can wipe it on.

- [Scott] It's your favorite finish.

- It is, and you can do... Usually, I'll do about three coats.

You can buff it in between if you need to.

- Okay, and then I need to do a little bit on this- - I love the top and the detail of the handle.

That's beautiful.

- Kentucky coffeetree.

And when you do finishing work, the idea is get the brush charged with just a right amount of stuff, so you don't get drips and runs.

So let me brush that out like so.

And I like the contrast, and I can't help it.

I got to do the shell.

- Oh.

- I'm sorry.

I'm jumping into the shell, so here we go.

- Cheated.

(Scott laughing) - I enlisted her.

- So that now we took it away - From me- - To do all the hard stuff.

Okay, but now- - That is gorgeous.

That's butternut, and I see Walnut on the bottom.

What's this on the side?

(Scott laughing) - [Scott] Aripari, of course.

- No, I didn't.

- You didn't know that?

- I didn't, I can't lie.

(Scott laughing) But I remember in our first house, we had Kentucky coffeetree on our floors that we put in our very first house.

You remember that?

- I do.

- Yeah.

- Now, let's set that out- - That is gorgeous, okay?

- Right on the painter's points here.

- There we go.

- That's good.

And for the final moment, the truth, the moment of truth.

Oh, heck yes.

- Wow, that is a treasure box.

I think I need some special treasures to go in it.

(both laughing) - I was afraid of that.

Okay, well, onward.

- Give me that.

- So that's it for this week, making a treasure box.

I think it is worthy of something special for Suzy, don't you?

- Yes, I do.

- So yeah, okay.

- What a great idea.

- Well, I'll let you finish that and hope to see you next week in "The American Woodshop".

- See you, yeah.

- Stay well.

(upbeat music) - [Announcer 1] Woodcraft, Since 1928, providing traditional and modern woodworking tools and supplies to generations of craftsmen.

Woodcraft, helping you make wood work.

(upbeat music) (suspenseful music) - Pro tools for tool pros.

(suspenseful music) RIKON tools.

-"Woodcraft Magazine", projects, plans, and web links, designed to help you make wood work.

- PS Wood, home of Timber Wolf Swedish Silicon steel band saw blades and Super Sharp scroll saw blades.

- A bed to sleep on, a table to share meals, a house that feels like a home, The Furniture Bank of Central Ohio, providing furniture to neighbors in need.

- For more information on tips behind "The American Woodshop" and watch free episodes, 24/7, check us out online and like us on Facebook.

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