First Box
My first real attempt at fine woodworking — a canarywood keepsake box with a velvet-lined interior and brass hardware, mistakes left visible on purpose.
Before I ever built a cutting board, I built this — my first real swing at “fine” woodworking instead of just cutting straight lines and calling it a project. I picked canarywood because it’s hard enough to feel like a real hardwood but still forgiving to work, and the actual goal wasn’t a flawless heirloom — it was dialing in my table saw, my joinery, and my own hands on something with actual hardware and a lid that has to line up.
It didn’t go perfectly, and honestly that was kind of the point. The miters aren’t dead-tight. I skipped splined corners because I didn’t want to build a jig for it, so I ran dowels through the corners instead — and blew out a couple of the dowel holes in the process, with the wood-color contrast I was hoping for not quite landing either. Both mistakes are still visible in a couple of the photos, and I’m leaving them there on purpose instead of only showing the flattering angles.
The parts I’m actually proud of: the bottom dado is oversized deliberately, so the red velvet lining wraps around the edge of the board and gets physically pinched in place by the groove instead of relying on glue alone. And the lid — rather than fuss over aligning a separately-built top and bottom, I glued the entire box shut first, then sliced the lid free on the table saw afterward. Guaranteed perfect alignment, zero measuring.
Finished in gloss polyurethane, which I’d probably skip next time — oil is a lot less of a headache on something this small — but I won’t pretend I don’t like the shine it gives.
