Gracious Galoots,

Thank you all for the many tips and tricks and links to various jewelry box
ideas. At first I was going to surprise my wife but then I decided I better
include her in the process. And what I learned is that despite the many,
many things we have in common, woodworking aesthetics is not one of them. A
jewelry box made the way I would like to make one is not what she is
looking for. And truth be told, I am so rusty that both the outcome and
timeframe were probably going to be suboptimal. So a jewelry box is going
to be purchased for now, but I have two daughters and I have longer-term
jewelry box plans for them. Josh's box (which is based on that July 2001
FWW 150 article--which I found in my files) is probably close to what I
will eventually aim for, I think.

The other thing I realized is that my wood stash is 80% tiger maple and
birdseye maple, which I love. And so in order to get my sawing and planing
skills back to where they should be, I am going to make a super gaudy
hanging toolbox for myself, which has been on my to-do list for maybe 20
years. Hopefully it won't take 20 years (or even 20 months) to finish, but
we'll see.

Brian