Popular Woodworking 2003-08 № 135, страница 34

Oval Boxes

There was a time when households had few belongings, when clutter from too much stuff was not an issue. Basics such as matches, glue powders and paint pigments, and sugar, coffee, tea and spices need-

Try this traditional bent-wood craft for a project that is attractive, useful and easier than you might think.

ed containers. Before the age of canisters and Tupperware, the Shaker craftsmen made and marketed their oval boxes.

The place for boxes in the home has changed throughout time. Modern metal and plastic containers have displaced the traditional preeminence of wooden

boxes in the pantry. Today they

are more often seen on the coffee table in a more decorative setting. Along with the change in use has come a change in finish so that varnish rather than paint is preferred. Cherry is more common for bands than plain maple. Yet

this is still a box for all occasions, utilitarian as well as decorative. Its charm and grace make a difference for whatever role it plays.

These beautiful boxes were first made from hard maple and white pine. In an age before machines, thin wood strips were rived from a straight billet of wood and made ready for bending by hand-planes and scrapers. Hot water soaking makes this sturdy wood pliable, and bending gives a complete oval shape in a single motion. Tacked and made secure by oval shapers, this efficient process impresses me every time I do it.

The Search to Find Wood that Bends

Today we are not likely to go to the wood lot for a straight-grained section of log to split stock for the bands. Few of us have a wood lot nearby, and technology has separated us from skilled hand-tool use. But the need for bendable wood to flex around the box core remains the same. This capacity to flex is not always apparent in wood. While straight-grained stock is the place to begin to look for bending material, brittleness

by John Wilson

can cause the best looking piece to snap. One condition that causes brittleness is drying out. It's a consequence of the fact that we live some distance from the wood lot. Green wood, which bends best, isn't readily available.

In your search for materials for bending wood you will find hard maple a good species. Cherry, while it makes a fine box, is prone to changes in growth direction and unexpected brittleness. I sometimes imagine Shaker craftsmen watching my frustration with ornery cherry boards and sighing, "Ah, the price of vanity. Stick to the utility of maple, and it would go well."

Strange as it seems, the same things that make for suppleness in the human body (age and nutrition) apply to wood. Freshly cut boards do better than old dried ones. Also, the conditions of favorable growth will yield better results. Ample nutrients and sunlight make for faster growth as evidenced in wider annual rings. This is a favorable sign in selecting wood for bending. And, of course, straight growth, and not picturesque gnarled figure, is ideal.

John Wilson first saw oval boxes 25 years ago as a woodworking instructor at Lansing Community College in Michigan. Besides teaching and selling his boxes, Wilson founded The Home Shop to produce supplies for the oval box trade worldwide.

32 Popular Woodworking August 2003