Toolbox

I love making toolboxes and this one is my favorite.

I have been making toolboxes ever since I started woodworking as a hobby. After getting more confident with cutting dovetails by hand, I decided it was time to make a fancy toolbox for myself that I'll be proud to carry for the rest of my life.

This toolbox is made from 4 species of wood - mahogany (handle), maple (tall sides), red oak (long sides) and black walnut (decorative stripes). I didn't include the bottom there, because I cheated and put in some 1/4" plywood. The whole box is made with hand cut joinery, and there isn't one metal fastener to be found. The handle joins to the maple with wedged mortise and tenon joints. The bottom sits in a groove cut all the way around. And the sides are joined with dovetails. I woodburned my name in the sides to permanently join it to me (see what I did there?).

Taking pictures of this completed project was a real joy. I hope you enjoy the pictures as much as I did!

Check out the constrasting colors of this maple and red oak. No artificial staining or coloring going on here, just some hand oiled natural wood.

In this close up you can see the wedges on the through tenons on the handle. They're quite inconspicuous as black walnut and mahogany are similarly dark.

Here you can see the awesome color of the red oak plus the curves cut in the handle on all faces. It was a bit tricky cutting those curves when the adjacent faces weren't flat.

Here's a different toolbox I made as a thank you for some free lumber!