Hello and welcome to the continuation of the Japanese Tool Box build, part of a series in which a Japanese Tool Box, inspired by Chris Hall of The Carpentry Way, is created as a gift to my son.

Where we left off the mortises had been cut in one half of the case.  I have now cut the mortises for the case on the opposing panel and the basic box is now formed.

Paring away the mortise sides for the board to receive wedges.

And now we have a partially assembled case.

In this photo you’ll see that I’ve prepped the stock for what will be the handles.  I’ve chosen walnut for the handles, I will continue that in the caps and for the insert top.  I saw that David Wong had used a similar combination of material (Douglas Fir and Claro Walnut if I am not mistaken) and I found the combination striking, enough so that I decided a similar combination of white cypress and black walnut would suit my taste.

And so the handles were prepped, first starting by resawing the material away that I would not use, from the board.

Then sawing the remainder in half and beginning my prep.  I’ve walked through the prep stages a few times already, so I will show the result.

I then trim these to rough length and bring the sides to 90 degrees using a shooting board.

Next I need to cut in a long tenon to be received by the side panels.  I start by marking and then cutting grooves on the sides of the tenon.

I waste out the remainder using a large chisel bevel down and a paring chisel then finally true up the joint face with a shoulder plane.

After planing I test the fit to ensure that it does engage well with the panel.

Now that is complete, onto the tenons on the ends of the handles.  I begin by marking out with my kibiki and marking knife.

Saw along the sides of my lines with the dozuki saw.

Sawing the shoulders with the crosscut saw.

After I saw the shoulders, I pare away any high spots to ensure that they’re flat.

Then mock up the handle to allow knife marks to be applied around the outside of the tenon.

After which I transfer my marks to the opposing face then drill out the bulk of the waste.

The remainder is chopped out.

The handle is then test fitted to ensure that the tenon fits without hinderance.

The next major step in this project is to prep and cutout the interior supports.  I begin by selecting material which is straight grained, I have enough that I can resaw 8/4 stock and create a wide enough section.

The boards are then edge jointed and glued.

While they setup, I moved onto the base panel.  I will be cutting this into three sections, but it is easier to thickness as a full length panel than as three short panels.

Finished up with the Kanna.  The finish is nice and smooth, I enjoy all of woodworking, but there is a special satisfaction reserved for a smoothly planed panel, free of tearout and emitting a nice luster.

Returning to the interior supports, I begin prepping those with the jack plane.

Then follow up with the try plane and finally the kanna.  I bring it down to  3/4″, a little thicker than what Chris’ plan calls for.  The reason for doing this is that I will be applying dados into these supports to receive the base panel sections.

Thank you for joining me!  I hope you have enjoyed and welcome your comments or questions.

The Carpentry Way – Japanese Toolbox Part III