Walnut Box Part 3 and a free book

Hi all,
In my last post I mentioned the main difference regarding scroll saw blades and I will repeat it here just for the purpose of any new readers. If you are thinking of buying a scroll saw, make sure you get one that will take plain end blades. Pin end blades are useless for any detailed fretwork.

Besides various sizes of blade, mentioned in my last post, there are other attributes to consider when choosing a blade for a certain project. Some blades just a have a straight row of teeth, while others have every other saw tooth missing, these are called skip tooth blades. Then there are reverse tooth blades where the bottom few teeth point in the opposite direction. I use reverse tooth blades because they prevent tear out on the bottom side of the wood. If this is the case I can't think why I would want to use a skip tooth blade. Apparently they cut faster, but if you see how quick a decent scroll saw goes you may wonder at the logic in trying to go any faster, especially if it leads to torn out grain at the bottom of the saw cut. Saving micro seconds on the sawing and then having to spend a lot of time sanding the torn out grain on the underneath of the project doesn't seem like a reasonable payoff to me.

Anyway, back to the box. Here is a view of one of the ends after the scroll work has been done. You will also notice that I have used my pyrography iron to separate the flowers. 

Here is a little observation. When it comes to doing a bit of pyrography on most woods the smell that is created is what you would expect. It smells like wood burning, which thankfully isn't too unpleasant, that is as long as your name isn't Guy Fawkes or Joan of Arc.

Anyway, be aware that walnut smells pretty grim when it is being burnt with a pyrography iron. It has a  pong like gone-off kippers. Despite having my extractor fan on and the window open in my workshop, by the time I'd finished doing the pyrography, I smelt like an Arbroath Smokie.

After all the sizes were cut, burnt and sanded I stuck the box together with wood glue and clamped them together

Here are the four sides complete.

The next step was to cut a piece of wood for the base and after that I started to work on the design for the lid. I will show you that in my next post.

By the way. if you are interested in a free book. One of mine called Bossyboots is available as a free download on smashwords.com. Just click here and enter the following coupon code at the check out TK32S.