Finally using the old growth pine boards...

It's been some time since I've posted here, simply because I haven't had anything much to talk about. I've been sick most of the past month (including having the worst of it during my planned working vacation), and haven't been able to accomplish much.

This past week, though, I was finally feeling well enough to go out to the shop and get to work on a project that I have been planning for some time- making something out of those nice old growth pine boards I found earlier this year.
After putting old blades into my planer, I used it to take off most of the paint on several of the boards, then cut them up to make these-

What are they? They are going to be post office box banks. In the picture, they have just recieved a seal-coat of shellac, and do not have their bases (I haven't made them yet). Ten of them are rounded like the bank on the left below, and
the others are all "faceted" like the one on the right.


These are made from only three different boards, but the grain is still wildly different in almost all of them. Note that the grain continues around all three sides- I was careful to make each of them from one length of wood to get this effect.
The shellac has a slight orange tint to it, and made the grain pop out (visually) in such a striking way, that I'm tempted to not go any further with the finishing!

If you're wondering why they are not sitting flat on the boards, it's because each of them has a stub tenon on the back (below), that is formed from the 1/4" ply back- this not only makes a more secure glue joint with the base, but reinforces the back, allowing me to use thin material, which makes for much more room on the inside. These will hold about 40 cubic inches of coins. when they are done

And here is one of the prototypes, to show what they will look like when finished...