Continuous Grain on a Box

I’m going to be doing some woodworking on the next couple of posts.  My wife asked me to make her a tissue box cover.  Considering how understanding and supportive she is of the time I spend in my workshop it is always nice to have the opportunity to make something for her. I plan on making a tissue box cover with mitered joints.  I also have an idea to embellish the sides and the tops of the cover with some wood turning.

The situation does remind me of a joke I saw a while back.  Two ladies were talking and the one asked “How is your husbands new woodworking hobby coming along?”  The second lady replied, “Great!  Can I interest you in a $5000 paper towel holder?”

While not technically a box, as the cover has no bottom, I did want to try and ensure the grain flowed around the sides of the box.  Getting the grain to flow across three of the four corners is pretty easy.  However to get the grain to flow around all four corners does require an additional step.  You need to start out with a piece of wood that is equal in length to the front or back and one of the sides.  Further, the board needs to be twice as thick as you need the final sides to be.

Here I have a piece of walnut which I have jointed on one face and edge and then planed.  It is about an inch thick.

The next step is to resaw the board in half.

Then each board is cut in half.  

I have now reassembled the four boards in the configuration they were before the board was resawn.  I’ve also labelled each corner.  The next two images show how the box is “opened’ and it should be clear how the grain will flow continuously around the entire box.

 

Please Note:  I am making a square box, which is why I cut each resawn board in half.  If you are making a rectangular box you will need to adjust the cuts accordingly.  Each resawn board should be crosscut in order to yield the front or back of the box and a side.  The diagram below illustrates this.

 

In closing I want to remind readers that you can have these blog posts delivered to you automatically via email.  Just go to https://syzygywoodworks.com/news/ and in the right hand column you will see a box to subscribe to the blog.