Thinking outside the box

With the bench now complete, the last couple of weeks have been all about the box. In fact, this was supposed to be a quick two- week project - and probably would be in any other wood. But not Honduras Rosewood. It's hard, heavy and boy does it like to move around. This is actually the same wood that I'll be using for my next project but we're advised to make a small box straight after the bench to get us back into the habit of focusing on the details of a small project after the larger-scale bench.

First though, I had to order the wood. Having been given a sample of Indian Rosewood and decided it was the way to go, I called Timberline in Kent and placed an order. Only when it arrived it looked nothing like my sample of Indian Rosewood. Why? Because the sample I had been given wasn't Indian Rosewood at all. It was East African Pau Rosa. And how did I find this out? By schlepping all the way to Kent with said non-Indian Rosewood to return and it and hopefully get the right one. I should say that this was not the fault of Timberline. I had ordered Indian Rosewood and they had supplied it. The problem was that I was given a sample that I was told was Indian Rosewood when it wasn't. Just a 5-hour drive each way plus a couple of extra hours of post-Glasto chaos just to top things off. And yes, I was pissed off.

That said, it did give me the chance to visit a great wood yard. My 'Indian Rosewood' was identified almost immediately as East African Pau Rosa but they didn't have any. So it was time to find an alternative. After about an hour of block planing various woods to find, first the right one and, second, enough right pieces of the right one, I was good to go. It cost me a couple of hundred quid more, plus petrol plus two days out of the workshop. But I'm not bitter. Much.


But the box will be pretty straightforward from here on in, right? Wrong. All was going fine until I tried to flatten it. Almost every shaving I took with the plain cause the wood to tear out. And just when I thought the piece was flat, I'd take a lunch break to find it had moved again. And so it went on... tearing and moving, and moving and tearing. The 8mm sides are suddenly nearing 6mm and still moving. Aarghhh.