Pennsylvania Spice Box - Beginning

Summer fun is about over and it is time to get back in the shop and get busy on some projects that were interrupted earlier in the year. These few photos are the beginnings of a spice box following the plans by Steve Latta. Constructed of walnut with poplar as the secondary wood. Overall size is 22"x15"x11" deep and features 11 drawers. This style chest was used among the 18th century Quakers in PA. A small chest but a ton of hand crafted details.  Minimum power and maximum hand tools will be used for this project, I will post progress as it happens. Excited to get this one going.

Case carcass, all dovetails, rabbets and dadoes are  hand cut

Drawer gallery installed

Photo taken from the project plan page

The chest features a number of hidden compartments such as the slot at the top used to store documents. There is a false back to the center drawer for example, accessed  by lifting the back panel and so forth. Another feature of this box is the line and berry inlay on the door. Very thin Holly strips are used for this and the grooves are all cut by hand as well. Hopefully when it is all said and down mine will look as good as the finished product shown above.