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By
KONRAD SAUER,
Photography By DAVE STARRETT |
SPALTED MAPLE HUMIDOR |
| Domestic
wood with an exotic figure makes this box unique |
While strolling through a local wood show this past summer,
I came across the most beautiful piece of wood. You know the
old cliché of eyes meeting across a room? Well that's how I
met this spectacular piece of spalted maple. From fifty feet
away its dark pattern beckoned me over. How much is that? I
thought to myself. Usually good spalted maple is quite pricey,
but I wandered over anyway. Much to my surprise its masking
tape tag sported an unbelievable $10 price. Must be per board
foot, I figured. I asked anyway. Nope. Ten dollars for the whole
board. Needless to say, the board came home with me.
 Now I'm not a big smoker:
but have been known to indulge in the occasional cigar. As soon
as I had the board in my hands, I knew just what to do with
it: build a humidor. I had encountered humidors before and had
always admired the arresting smell of Spanish cedar and the
often gaudy use of exotic materials in their construction. This
piece of spalted maple seemed like the perfect exotic Canadian
solution.
The
structure of a humidor is actually quite simple--build a box
and line it with Spanish cedar. I started with a board that
was 3/4" thick, 91/2" wide and 64" long and spent a great deal
of time figuring out the best use of the wood to get the largest
box. To help lay out the pieces for the box, cut holes in a
piece of bristol board the same size as the pieces required.
Position this template over the spalted maple blank and move
it around to visualize how the pieces will look in the finished
box. This allows the best combination of grain and spalting
to be determined before any cuts are made.
Once the pieces are laid out, surface dress the rough stock.
My initial surfacing attempt with a thickness planer resulted
in a poor quality surface--even with freshly-honed blades--most
likely because of the spalting. A switch to a sharp smoothing
plane was all that was needed to tame the unruly spalting.
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With the
rough stock dressed, start construction by cutting all the outer
box pieces to width and length. Next, cut the mitres that form
the corners of the outer box. I used an extension block mounted
to the mitre gauge on my tablesaw. When the mitres are cut,
dry fit the box together. Use big elastic bands--the kind that
come with broccoli--to hold them in place. When you are satisfied
with the fit cut the grooves that hold the corner splines. Do
this using the same setup as the mitres, just move the mitre
gauge to the other side of the blade. Clamp a stop block to
the mitre gauge to keep the spline grooves consistent on all
pieces.
I used a scrap of black walnut to make the splines. It was a
natural choice for two reasons: like the maple, black walnut
is a domestic to Canada; and the colour of the walnut echoed
the dark spalting in the maple.
Using a tablesaw, cut a rabbet for the outer lid and bottom.
The edge inlay will eventually hide this seam. After all the
rabbets are cut, dry fit again using more large elastic bands
(I hope you eat as much broccoli as I do). Once you are satisfied
with the fit, assemble the box again using glue this time. Use
polyurethane glue as a safeguard against the high humidity the
joints will encounter. Leave the glue to cure overnight and
remove any hardened foamy squeeze-out with a sharp chisel.
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