Wooden Book Box

A collegue from work announced their retirement so I thought I would make wooden box in the shape of a book as a retirement gift (the retiree being a cataloguer). It has been a while since I have put my woodworking skills to use so I was really looking forward to the challenge!

Going through my stash of off cuts, I found some Tasmanian Oak that would do really well at the book cover (base and lid) and another strip of Oak that could serve as the spine. I had some long strips of pine - I wanted to make sure there was a colour difference between the 'cover' and the 'pages' so the pine would do fine! I was debating how to do the hinge since it was supposed to look like a book and I figured a piano hinge or something similar would look odd and detract from the 'book look'. I found a Youtube video by Woodworking for mere mortals which demonstrates how some dowel can be used to produce a simple hinge so I followed this method. While it required rounding edges to allow the lid to go up and down (the round over bit in my router got a good workout!), I think it works a lot better than using a piano hinge or using some bulky hardware which would take up too much space in a relatively small box interior.

I decided on using some green felt for the box interior, bit of spray adhesive and it's not going anywhere! Plus it's much less mess than flocking which is something I have done previously for my daughters jewellery box. Unfortunately the local craft shop didn't have small round magnets so I had to use strip ones instead - It required some hand chiselling and epoxy but I think it turned out pretty well. Finished with a simple low sheer lacquer and a couple of layers of finishing wax (which was also applied to the dowel hinges). I was worried that the strength of the magnets would require a bit too much force to open the lid but luckily there is a bit of space between them with the lid closed so I was really happy with the result!

The box was gifted during the week and was well received, I'm glad it is going to a good home! I received a lot of questions about it from other staff so maybe I should start up commissions?