Maple and bloodwood engagement ring box

My youngest son came to me last week and requested an engagement ring box. He very kindly gave me nearly an entire week to produce one. After some discussion, he produced plans for what he had in mind.

He originally wanted walnut and maple for the box, but I was rooting through some of the wood he had collected when he was working with me in the shop.

I found a piece of bloodwood that he purchased more than ten years ago, with the intent of building something special. I asked if he was interested in using it and he enthusiastically agreed.

I had the basic concept of what he wanted so I started to play.

He wanted a heart of maple surrounded by the bloodwood so I cut a chunk of maple to be the core of the box.

I want to wrap a piece of bloodwood around all six sides so I tried cutting a piece to length and re-sawing a 1/8″ slice off.

That was silly because the thin piece got sucked down into the saw and the rest just kicked away…

I decided to do a much longer slice off each side and leave it all attached by not cutting it off completely.

Then I put spacers between the layers and started cutting them down to the rough length.

To get them to the exact length, with minimal tear-out, I used my small cross-cut sled on the table saw.

Once I had all the sides, I revised the plans to make sure I had room for the ring and the hinges.

The glue-up will be interesting since the sides will want to slide around.

I applied wood glue to the sides first and clamped them in place, then left them to dry for a half hour or so.

While that was drying, I placed the front panel on the laser bed and carved out the heart. I thought this would be cleaner then carving it out by hand or router later…

I carefully applied glue to the front and rear panel to avoid squeeze-out and placed them where they needed to be.

I places a few drops of CA glue along the edges to keep them from moving while the faces were clamped in place.

Then I did the same for the top and bottom as well.

Not so pretty like this, but I wanted to bevel the corners to reveal the maple so I set up the 45° chamfer bit on the router table.

I made the first pass a little shallow to see if I would get much tear-out with the bloodwood

I took the next pass slowly and did a pretty good job.

To clean up the little bit of tear-out, I set the belt sander to 45° and touched up all the corners.

I also decided to sand the faces down to only 1/16″ thick,

I cut away the top of the box on the table saw and you can now see the basic overall look of the box.

Time to finish sand all the faces. Since the bloodwood dust can impregnate the maple pores and stain it, I sand right in front of the vacuum to remove the dust as I make it.

I have two barrel hinges that are about 5/16″ in diameter.

I drilled holes for them, 3/8″ deep so that each side would sit flush when installed.

They are a tight fit so I won’t install them fully until I cut the ring pocket and finish the box.

I clamped both ends of the box in my vise, flush to the workbench and placed a 1/4″ spiral cutter in my trim router.

I freehand cut the pockets with the router.

Then I used a chisel to square up the corners.

I cut a piece of dense foam to fit the ring pocket and put a slice in it to receive the ring.

I removed the foam and used spray-on lacquer to finish the box.

After four or five coats, I re-drilled the hinge holes to remove any finish and installed the hinges.

The hinges seated well and the box closed properly so I added a few drops of CA glue to the ring pocket and re-inserted the foam to hold the ring.

My son is getting some burlap to be glued into the hole at the top to cover any mill marks and give it a slightly more rustic look.

Box complete, and early enough for the lacquer fumes to go away before he gives it to her.

The ring just fits, luckily she has a small finger…

Spoiler: She said YES.