The Bow Saw Box just sort of evolved out of necessity. I was working on filling a wall hanging tool cabinet and needed a box to hold the bow saw parts. Wanted to carve the bottom for parts of the bow saw to sit in and had some curly redwood - interesting and soft. A little hand planing, a little footprint tracing, a little air turbine carving and the box length and width were set. Had some elm left over from some drawer fronts so the sides would be elm. Was going to go with through dovetails but decided to have wrap around grain instead and that meant mitered corners. A rabbet on the bottom for the curly redwood to sit in and a groove for the slide in top. Did the rabbets on the router table but cut the groove on the table saw. Raised the blade after the final groove cut and cut off the top of one end for the ply top to slide through. The cut off piece would be glued to the slide in panel later - little trick from making drawers.

Unfortunaley, I blew a miter cut and didn't have any more elm. More rummaging in the wood stack and there was a nice piece of fiddle backed cherry that would work. Of course it was thicker than the elm parts so more neander hand planing. The bench area became "curlies central" but the smell was nice - another advantage to neandering.

Rubber banded the box together and checked the fit.

Here's the box with everything inside, nice snug fit.

Here's what's under the stretcher bar.

And this shows the places where the handles and the ends sit .

Here's the box - elm sides, cherry ply slide in top with the left mitered elm glued to it.. There's maybe a quarter inch clearance inside so everything inside stays in place even when the box is turned upside down and shaken.

The wonders of curly redwood - looks different under different light and orientation. This is the bottom which, unless you turn the box over, you'll never see.

And here's why I like elm. The grain wraps around the box. The top slides off to the left. Oh, the finish is teak oil - brings out the grain nicely and leaves the wood looking and feeling like wood.

The box is 13 1/2 inches long, 4 1/2 inches wide and almost 3 1/2 inches high. It's a pleasant little box that does a job, looks nice, feels nice and the way into the box is not obvious so there's a little mystery to it. The surprise on the bottom is only for the curious - curious enough to pick it up and check it out. The stuff inside rattles a little when you shake it. It's fun and was fun to make.

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