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I posted this in the thread for 2017 homemade gifts, but it was a rather late entry in the thread and I expect that a lot of folks who might want to make something like this box, did not see that entry. This box, a Thiers-Issard chef's knife, and a sharpening stone will be a gift for my 15 year old grandson Ethan who is well on his way to becoming a very good chef. Thiers-Issard is the French company that makes Sabatier knives among other things. First of all, here is a photo of the completed box with its lid off: The box is made of Pau-Ferro wood and is finished with several coats of polymerized Tung oil. Below, I outline the steps I took to make the box. (1) Outlines slightly larger than the knife and the sharpening stone were marked on a board of Pau-Ferro which is slightly thicker (14mm) than the thickest part of the knife's handle. Half circles were added to allow one to easily lift the knife and stone. A thin perimeter (3mm) was also all around the outside of the board. Once cut, the interior of this board will be the middle part of the box and the thin perimeter will be glued to the top of the box in order to form the box edges. I designed patterns for Ethan's name and for the Thiers-Issard logo and glued them to a 2mm thick board which is going to be the top of the box. (2) The two boards were cut appropriately on my scroll saw. (3) After gluing a 1mm piece to the top, I pushed FIMO bake-able clay into the cavities: This was baked for 30 minutes in a 265 degree Fahrenheit oven. After cooling down, the clay saw sanded off to the level of the wood with 120 grit sandpaper. (4) The edge was glued to the top and the middle was glued to a 3mm thick bottom. (5) The edges were roughly sanded with a belt sander in order to make everything uniform and rounded. (6) All parts were further sanded down to 320 grit using both a rotary sander and hand sanding, as appropriate: (7) Several coats of polymerized Tung oil were applied: Edited Friday at 05:47 PM by Frank Pellow