Peter Follansbee, joiner's notes

Every winter there’s a few days it’s too cold to bother trying to heat the shop with my small woodstove. It works out, there’s always some other stuff to do. Today, which started at about 10 degrees F/-12C provides an excellent chance to take a moment to post to this blog. Since the middle of 2023 I’ve mostly concentrated my writing on my substack blog – https://peterfollansbeejoinerswork.substack.com/ which I still think of it as the “new” blog. Here’s some of what’s been going on in my shop lately.

First – a detour related to the cold and the time of year. My wife Maureen and daughter Rose have been knitting & crocheting away and have updated their Etsy site –https://www.etsy.com/shop/MaureensFiberArts

All right, on to the woodworking. A customer ordered a copy-as-close-as-I-can-get of a box at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York – and that included a lock with hasp. My friend Mark Atchison finished the lock recently and two days ago I spent time cautiously chopping into the carved box front to house the lock. Whenever I do this, I first cut a practice housing in some scrap.

that gave me enough to go on – and I set out with the carved box front, starting with some depth holes bored with a spoon bit. Most of the modern bits I have include a lead screw that would poke through the board.

From there – chisel work.

I did all the practice, then the real thing, then tested the fit of the lock, turned the key this way & that many times to make sure all was right. Then bored some small pilot holes and clinch-nailed the lock in place.

Boy did that feel good. Every stroke perfect. Centered, tight. Too bad it didn’t work! The test-fits had just enough slop in the fit that the key threw the bolt easily enough. Once it was so tight onto the box front, it was pinched against the housing and there wasn’t enough space to throw the bolt. The key wouldn’t turn. I had to pry those nails out – and today was going to be the necessary trouble-shooting and re-fitting. Now I know what I’m doing tomorrow.

The box itself is a bit different for me – no till for one thing. That makes things easier. No rabbets at the corners – just four boards butted up to each other & nailed. I know many boxes were done that way in 17th century England.

LB carved box begun

Most New England examples are rabbeted. I think rabbets help line things up.

This was the first time I’ve done one without rabbets. It was like first riding a bike without training wheels – a bit nerve-wracking.

There’s some ladderback chairs underway, also to fill orders. I finished one of the hickory bark seats last week and have one more to finish off later.

And I took a couple of days out to make some birch-bark containers, something I’ve dabbled in now & then. Anissa Kapsales was here to shoot the process for an article coming up in Fine Woodworking – or is it Fine Bark-working? I don’t know how “fine” my work was, but it was fun…amazing material.

I’ve made several carved boxes in the past couple of months – and now they’re ready to wend their way out of here. This first one is an old-standby.

Carved oak box, pine lid & bottom

carved box, oak & pine, Sept 2025 PF

It’s one I’ve carved often – from the first group of joined furniture I ever studied – the works of the Savell family in Braintree, Massachusetts between 1640-1700.

front view

Interior till – wooden cleat/pintle hinges – this is one place where mine deviate from the originals – I adopted the wooden hinge from an unrelated box.

end view, showing cleat/hinge

H: 7 1/4” W: 22” D: 14”

The price is $1,500 plus shipping in US. If we use paypal, I’ll add their fee to the price for a total of $1,555. Otherwise, a check in the mail. If you have questions or would like to purchase the box, email me at PeterFollansbee7@gmail.com

Often people are surprised at the mixture of oak & pine, especially on the brand-new box. I remind them that use, light, polishing and handling will quickly darken the pine top & bottom. Here’s a photo I’ve used many times to show a new box on the left and a 15-year-old box on the right. We used it a lot, dusted & polished it a few times a year and let the light from the windows do the rest:

both boxes are oak with pine tops & bottoms

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Box with a drawer, oak, sycamore & pine

Every now and then I like to tackle something a bit more complex – this box-with-a-drawer is one I’ve tried a couple of times before. I changed one or two things this time but it’s a pretty close copy of one by Thomas Dennis in Ipswich, Massachusetts between 1660-1706.

PF box w drawer, Sept 2025; red oak, pine, sycamore & maple

It’s big – it pretty much has to be with the drawer added. H: 14” W: 23 1/2” D: 18”.

All the oak is riven, quartered – in the usual period manner. The lid is quartersawn American sycamore (Platanus occidentalis) – the original used sycamore, but flatsawn- it has a large split down the middle. I glued up two quartersawn boards to get my lid.

detail lid & front

The figure on it is wild & subtle at the same time. The sort of thing that catches your eye now & then when the light hits it right, then other times you barely notice it.

The drawer is all riven oak – the sides meet the drawer front with a sliding dovetail. Bottom boards are thin, edges meet with a small tongue & groove. No drawer pull, you open the drawer using those “glyphs” attached at the ends of the drawer front.

oak drawer

Inside the box is a lidded till – and the box lid hinged with iron gimmals/snipebills.

till inside

It’s available – $3,000 plus shipping. Email me if you have questions or would like to order this special box – it’ll be a long time before I do one like it again.

Finish is a couple of coats of thinned linseed oil. More photos in the gallery below.

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Carved box, carved lid. Dovetailed….etc

One more. This one a bit different – dovetailed for one thing. No oak showing for another. Spanish cedar & some sort of mahogany. New for me…

I thought I was making this box from leftover pieces of Spanish cedar (cedrela odorata) – but once I had the box made, I had to buy some more wood for the lid and base. And then I realized my leftover board wasn’t just some “dark” cedar, it’s some type of mahogany.

front view

Cedrela is related to mahogany – they’re both in the family, Meliaceae. I’ve now told you almost all I know about cedrela and absolutely ALL I know about mahogany. I do know I’ve never knowingly bought any mahogany. I don’t know where I got the wood the box-body is made from.

But except for the two-tone look, I’m very happy with the box. It’s based on one I’ve only seen in photographs – a dovetailed box with a strapwork pattern on the front, sides & lid. The top edges of the dovetails are mitered – the first time I’ve done that detail.

mitered dovetails

I made a base molding to wrap around the bottom edges of the box. The snipe/gimmal hinges are blacksmith-made, from Horton Brasses. Lidded till inside. Finished with linseed oil.

open, showing the till & hinges

Here’s the specs:

H: 7” W: 22 1/8” D: 14 3/4”
price is $2,600 including shipping in US.

Email me at PeterFollansbee7@gmail.com if you’d like to purchase this box…you’ll have to dust the lid…

carved lid