Cremation urn
Dave Mount
>A good friend of mine and an accomplished woodworker passed away prematurely a while back and his widow asked me to make something to hold his ashes. The pic below and in a couple companion posts are what I came up with. Not really sure how I arrived at the design. Pat (my friend) had an interest in Japanese tools and joinery, which got me thinking about the angled sides. I made several pine mock-ups using elements of different angles and proportions and this is what seemed most appealing of those. Made of cherry obviously, with walnut splines and a curly maple panel in the top. The drawer box is persimmon, which is a little unusual, but it was from a plank from a tree that Pat had milled and given to me to �see what I could do with it.� Certainly never thought this would be the use I would put it to.
All the elements are angled/beveled. The upper compartment is sized to hold his ashes, while the drawer is to hold his eyeglasses, wedding ring, and a few other keepsakes. The drawer front is mitered to meet the sides. I felt a little like I was �cheating� using a false front on the drawer, but when I started thinking through the details of blind dovetailing the drawer side into a mitered and beveled drawer front, I decided to just do the false front. All pieces of each �layer� are made from a single board so the grain matches, so if I messed up the joinery on the drawer front I was going to have to start over with all new pieces. Call me chicken.
Made with a combination of hand tools and. . .er. . .other than hand tools. Finished with oil, blonde shellac, and wax.
Sorry about the large image size/poor resolution. I stored the file in a smaller format, but it gets large again when I post it.
Dave
