A Keepsake Badge Box

Hello!
I obtained some rather large blocks of walnut the other day at the sawmill I frequent. Normally they are used for handgun grips. Instantly, I seen a keepsake box carved from a single piece of wood. I have enough of them so I can experiment before making a final piece.

Is there any reason I couldn’t cut off a slab for the top, then carve out the box and include the mortise for the hinges? I did search around and only found bandsaw boxes, where the top and bottoms are cut off and the bottom reattached.

I do understand that the top could warp, but I could minimize that with a thicker slice for the lid.

The end goal is to make a box to hold a badge when an officer retired. The lid could have name, years of service etc.

Thanks for any insight that can be provided!

Jake

Jake, I’m not sure this will help but when I was using my old carvewright CNC I would cut what I wanted on the top of the cribbage board and sometimes cut the inside of the board too. I make the base from 3/8 “ wood using box joints to form the box. I put a grove in .25 inch up from the bottom edge of the base for the bottom and then rabbit the edge of the cribbage board itself to fit as the lid. I used a flocks on the inside of the box. It worked well and made a nice gift.

Funny I’ve been looking for cribbage board patterns, I have a ton I made on my old Carvewright and I can’t transfer any of them because they use a proprietary software, kinda sucks.

Anyway good luck.
Here’s a couple pictures of one I made.


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P.S. I know it’s a cribbage board and box but you could just use the box idea.

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@MikeH That is a beautiful cribbage board Mike! My dad LOVED to play cribbage. I like your thinking about this, I could slice both edges, and two sides. Use the cnc to make small box joints and assemble that way. Got me thinking. That is what I enjoy about this forum and group. Thanks for the idea!

Here is a cribbage board my dad made probably 60-70 years ago. Obviously nothing but hand tools used. He always said “never play cribbage with this, cause you can’t see the other player’s actions on the back side”.

Appreciate your post!
Jake

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I love the boat. That is a piece of Americana.

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