Making a Steak Knife Set: Final Part 4

When Gregg is making your presentation, jewelry or display box, he makes certain that your box will last many years regardless of where you live.  He uses only kiln-dried wood, internal joinery, and floating lids to allow for changes in humidity or temperature. 

Now that the box has been carefully joined and glued to insure perfect mitered corner fit and structural integrity, he will let it cure overnight then hand-sand to insure levelness. The edges will then be slightly rounded unless you have requested either very rounded or a more square edge.  He may even add ebony corner inserts or a contrasting lid lining per request.

Hinges will be carefully set in using chisels to avoid any protrusions when the box is viewed from the side or back and the hinges will be tested for a perfect fit and squareness.  Nothing is done hurriedly. Great care is taken with every step.

Your box is then sanded completely by hand through incremental stages to a finish sanding of 320 grit.  At several stages, sanding sealers are applied. After sanding is completed, the box will be further sealed over three days before it goes indoors for final waxing. He will take every care while sealing to insure your box is perfect, including application with a small paint brush.

Waxing is also done entirely by hand using fine furniture paste waxes, impregnating the wax into the pores of the wood with super fine English steel wools, then hand-buffed. The process is repeated over a couple days until the wood tells us it is ready. With koa wood, it will not just shine, but the shimmering chatoyance will have a depth and life of its own.