Six board chest

This is just a simple example of the classic American colonial chest. It's called a "6 board" chest, because that's all it was - 6 boards, and a handful of nails. Of course, in those days it was possible to make it from 6 wide boards; with modern timber it's necessary to joint narrower boards together.

The grain on the ends runs perpendicular to the sides. Normally this would cause problems with expansion and contraction owing to moisture, but in this case the nails allow a little movement. Glued joints would probably split and crack.

Inside is a till, a small compartment with its own lid.

As a change, I made this (apart from roughly dimensioning the stock) entirely with hand tools. It's interesting to make something like a thumbnail moulding by hand, rather than with the ubiquitous router and roundover bit. Although the shape is similar, little details like differences in the machining marks display the hand-made nature.