Finger-jointed jewellery box

A carefully crafted timber jewellery box with an intricate design etched onto the lid.

The project

I built this jewellery box using Meranti light red timber. I decided to use an airtight lid rather than hinges. The base has thick padding and the lid is lined.

I cut the fingers and joined all four sides. The fingers sit proud here, just enough for clean up.

To finish the box, I etched the tree of life onto the lid.

I had a few issues with etching as the soft sap wood came away, leaving raised ridges. To fix this, I used a bit of Brown Japan stain to make the black stand out and reduce the effect of the raised ridges. After the wax has had time to harden a polish up should do the trick. Where possible I try to bring out the natural colours of the timber by using beeswax or a clear poly wipe.

This time I was lazy and used a jig. I had planned to set it up on the table saw using the method illustrated below. In hindsight I should have gone down the table saw track. The time spent on setting up the fingers for spacing, cutter selection, tapping the timber to stop splintering and making sample cuts took longer than it would have with the table saw.