This article is an excerpt from Lois Keener Ventura's new book Sculpted Band Saw Boxes: Design, Inspiration, and Construction. Woodworkers love to make them and nearly everyone wants to have one—we're talking about beautifully sculpted band saw boxes—and none are as outstandingly unique as those made by author/woodworker Lois Keener Ventura. This book follows in the steps of Lois's first bestseller, Building Beautiful Boxes With Your Band Saw, and inside it are step-by-step instructions for eight all-new designs, plus designs for an additional ten projects. Birthday, holiday, and special event gift giving has never been so easy. Create a one-of-a-kind heirloom today!

Graceful undulations propel these docile creatures along ocean currents. North of Grand Cayman Island within the confines of a protective barrier reef, stingrays are habituated to humans and will interact peacefully, accepting fishy treats from divers. This box embodies a school of rays flying in serene slow motion through calm currents. LKV




Notch and Cut
This box has some open ends. In order to start the second cut in the right cutting plane, I cut a notch for the saw blade.


Make the Cut
Slide the saw blade in the notch sideways and away you go. This same proceedure will need to be done on the other side of this box.

 
Meet the Cut
When you get to a cutting junction, stop, shut off the saw and back out.


Sanding Inside
Lightly sand (unless you want sloppy-fitting drawers) the inside of the drawer cutouts. I won’t go into the ramifications of sloppy-fitting drawers.


Sanding Your Drawers
Lightly sand the outside of the drawers to avoid the sloppy-fitting-drawers syndrome.


Inspector Izzy
Attach the back back on the back of the box blank. Got that? Izzy is checking the clamps, “Stack! Get over here! I think you need to tighten this one a little more.”


Sand the Outside
A disc sander is the tool for sanding outside curves. Light pressure is all that’s needed to smooth the band saw blade marks. A heavy hand here could result in a misshapen drawer.


Rough-Shaping
The edges of the drawers can be rough shaped using your oscillating spindle sander. Fine-tune and finish-sculpt the edges using sandpaper. Once again, remember that power tools can remove material quickly. Use a light touch and remove small amounts of material at a time. It can be heartbreaking to remove what you can’t replace.


Shaping the Pulls
After cutting out the pulls, rough-shape them on your oscillating-spindle sander.


Sanding with Feeling
We had a saying in the house-finishing business, “Caulk to fit, paint to match.” I’ve changed it a bit to fit here, “Cut to shape, sand to finish.” Yeah, I know, lame. But, the idea is sound. Cutting to shape is logical. Sanding to finish means: final shaping with finesse and sanding so the look is unblemished and the feel is smooth and silky. Hmm, that still sounds lame...


Revealing
An otherwise plain-sawn face reveals its character. As the edge is shaped, the face layer seems to be coming out of the wood.  


Rear View
Here’s how the back cutouts appear when finished.

Click here for PDF file.

Lois Keener Ventura has been woodworking most of her life. Her boxes have earned several awards and are owned by collectors worldwide. She is also author of the bestselling Building Beautiful Boxes With Your Band Saw.