Turning Boxes with Richard Raffan, Revised

When it comes to turning, there is no greater master to learn from than Richard Raffan. Here in Turning Boxes, Raffan reveals the tricks you need to know when turning boxes, from the cutting and seasoning of the wood to finishing the piece.

The book begins with basic design considerations and the tools and equipment you need to get started. Raffan then gives you detailed instructions for turning each part of the box, as well as variations you can make. Each chapter includes several step-by-step photo essays to lead you through the process. The book also features a wide variety of Raffans own work that you will find truly inspiring.

Improved with color photography and more accessible design, this book is the revised and updated version of the popular Turning Boxes with Richard Raffan. It remains the only full-length book on box-turning.

Turning Boxes give you:

• in-depth information on turning basic and challenging boxes
• a variety of styles and inspiring finished work
• sections on decorative techniques and finishing

About the Author
Internationally acclaimed for both his turning and his teaching, Richard Raffan is a leading figure of the woodturning revival. Well known for his gallery-quality production work, he is the author of the best-selling book Turning Wood with Richard Raffan, the book Turning Bowls with Richard Raffan, as well as the classics Turned-Bowl Design and Turning Projects with Richard Raffan.

Introduction

Equipment & Tools
Lathe
Chucks
Saws
Turning Tools
Skew Chisels
Ancillary Tools
Dust Collection and Safety

Wood Selection & Preparation
Types of Wood
Sourcing Wood
Cutting Wood for Blanks
Air-Drying Blanks
Rough-Turning
Preparing Blanks

Design
Exploring Form
Practical Considerations
Aesthetics and Proportions
Profiles
Finials and Knobs
The Inside
The Bottom

Making an End-Grain Box

More About Lids
Suction-Fit Lids
Screw-On Lids
The Join
Inside the Lid

Deep Hollowing
Boring End Grain by Hand
Drilling End Grain
Sanding the Inside of a Deep Hollow

Surface Decoration
Turned Decoration
Chatter Work
Off-Center Patterns
Inserts
Texture
Carving
Burning

Variations on the Basic Box
Retaining the Bark
Saturn Boxes
Sculptured Profiles
Roll-Around Forms
Miniatures
Drill Containers
Earring Containers
Needle Cases
Experiments

Forms

Finishing

Afterword

Index

When I decided to turn wood for a living late in 1969, I knew nothing about the craft. But I did have it in mind to make boxes -- especially little boxes -- for rings, pills, and spices, or for the more personal treasures we each possess. I had no inkling then of how challenging this would be, or of the many thousands of boxes I was destined to make throughout the decades following. Even now, after 30 years, my fascination with this particular aspect of woodturning continues. Much of this has to do with the challenge of making a lid that fits just tightly enough that it comes off with a soft plop. Then there are the visual aspects concerned with proportions, the combining of curves and detailing, which in turn must relate to the tactile qualities experienced when the box is handled.

But above all, the attraction of boxes seems to lie in their enigmatic role as mini storehouses that might contain anything from a collection of tiny shells or ball bearings to a lover's eyelash or mummified frog. Most of us feel the need to hoard mementos of times past, which the casually curious might only guess at, and how better to do that than in a group of boxes on some shelf, clutched together as a sculptural form in their own right.

You can make special containers for specific objects or with hidden compartments. These boxes might not be commercially viable, but they are just the thing for any hobbyist--ideal personal gifts that also stand a good chance of becoming the heirlooms future generations will treasure. Boxes can be all manner of shapes and sizes and it is not mandatory that the internal form should reflect the exterior; box walls do not have to be thin and even. Thus there is scope for all manner of design solutions to surprise or taunt our expectations of how a piece should look or feel.

I have included a few technical hints to hone your skills, but I don't dwell on basic techniques since these are set down in detail in Turning Wood with Richard Raffan (The Taunton Press, 2001). Chapter 4 details how to turn a basic lidded end-grain box with an over-fitting lid. Most of the boxes in this book have lids that fit in the same manner: The inside and outside forms vary. If you are new to box turning, make a few simple forms using this chapter as a guide and strive for a nice, soft suction fit before you move on to more complicated pieces.

You can find inspiration for new forms just about everywhere, in seed pods and blossoms, finials on housing or many older public buildings in so many parts of the world, or old-style mailboxes and bollards. The Taj Mahal and the equally famous roofs of the Kremlin led me to explore similar forms for several years before a ceramic Japanese tea jar sent me off in another direction.

There are dozens of forms to set you on your own path of discovery and to help the development of your own style. Rather than copy them, let these be a springboard for your imagination, triggering some variation of your own.

Like most of the world, I use metric scales to measure. For those who don't, imperial measurements have been rounded to the nearest 1/8 in. for the sake of convenience. Accurate measuring in the projects is mostly achieved without rulers or tape measures, and I don't think the world will fall apart at my failure to measure to the nearest 1/132 in. the diameter of any piece illustrated.