new look and home for the newsletters …

You’ll notice that there’s a slightly new look to the newsletter this time, it has a different background and header colour to match the livery of the box-making.com website which is where the newsletter sign-up page is now.

There is also a new newsletter archive page with links to all my archived newsletters in pdf form. Each has a short summary so you can see what you might be interested in before you read …

The following items are available straight away from the smartBoxmaker website. For reasons of high postage charges the wide abrasive sheets are only available to UK visitors. But for the benefit of my many European, US, Canadian, Australian and other overseas subscribers I’m in the process of sourcing these items in those countries. If anyone knows of useful non-UK suppliers/sources please let me know and I will try to publish a list of these in the new year.

inlay lines: beautiful snakewood and figured sycamore inlay lines, 8mm wide x 600mm, all ready to personalise your boxes, or anything else for that matter.   Available now – click here.

extra-large abrasives: self-adhesive, 600 mm x 400 mm, in a variety of grits, to make large double-sided sanding boards with many uses around the workshop. Almost everyone who comes to do a course with me goes away with a set of four sheets because they see how versatile these large abrasive boards can be. And they often come back for more when their friends see how hugely useful they are as well.   Available now – click here.

glue bottles: the very best I’ve found: light, easily refillable and cleanable, ideal for box making and any small scale work. Each supplied with a short length of stainless steel wire of just the right diameter so you can set yourself up sauce bottle style.  Available now – click here.

Books: the publication of my new book ‘The Incomplete Guide to Box Making’ is making excellent progress, but is still a little way away …

Looking back over past newsletters it’s noticeable how often I refer to this new book being in the pipeline. Even the very first, no. 1 in January 2010, is already referring to it as having been in the pipeline for a long time, which it had been!

Someone who came to me for a weekend course last year was also an author negotiating with his publishers over an overdue book. He said he’d been forced to break out his ‘emergency metaphor’ for such situations: “it’s like a glacier, very slow progress but a great force over time.” Hi, Dominick – hope you don’t mind me borrowing your great and hopefully very apt metaphor!

Special offer: Anyway in the meantime I’ve decided to offer a deal on the titles above. Many of you will have one or both of these already, but for any that don’t I’m offering the following: ‘The Book of Boxes’ for £13, ‘Celebrating Boxes’ for £10, and £20 for both titles [all + p&p]. Full retail price for both is £36.   Available now – click here.

box lining materials: pig suede, adhesive backed card and double sided tape: the easiest, neatest and most luxurious and way to line a box interior. And you get full instructions.

Available early next week, probably Dec 9th onwards.

Downloadables:

This is a bit of a new departure to see if this sort of thing might be popular …

Stylishly put together this first offering is an excellent and very comprehensive iPhone ‘photo-documentary’ by US box maker Roger Bean. It shows how Roger went about making this gorgeous and complex burr walnut pen box. Many insights into his processes.

112 page – highly recommended, and this is the first of several.

Available early next week, probably Dec 9th onwards.

 … and a couple of collage-type posters of my own work.

These are jpg files, 250 x 400 mm so around A3 in size, and 300 dpi so can be blown up larger if you want …

Will be available early next week, probably Dec 9th onwards.

smartHinge in stainless steel.

Actually, I do have a very few, email me if you’d be interested – first come, first served. They are just around the corner, honest – the manufacturers have been working hard to iron out a few last issues while I sit at home fussily rejecting their best efforts.

Available early in the new year.

Under the bonnet is a distillation of all the best features taken from a wide range of locks I’ve encountered over the years in my box making, with a few of my own ideas added for good measure. I’m not keen to reveal too much just yet, suffice to say for now that smartLock is set to match the smartHinge in every respect: it will be by far the best quality, best looking, easiest to fit box lock available.

Available from March …

I’ve decided to produce a copy of my favourite ruler, but with a few small improvements: light, flexible, 500 mm long, double sided, NO inches, NO half mm marks, NO cms [all in mms], short divisions for easy reading to name but a few. smartRule, of course – more news anon.

‘Precision Inlay Corner Jig’: catchy name, huh! My disappointment with the way Veritas dealt with this project leads me to want to have it made myself, which was my original intention. But I can’t think of a convincing name that incorporates the smart tag! – suggestions on a postcard. Better still by email.

Coloured lines: of various formats, also part-made elements such as pre-dimensioned cores and laminated veneers to enable you to make up lines to your own designs. And box kits, pre-veneered boards, advice sheets – still working on what to make available. But all firmly there, together with “The Incomplete Guide to Box Making”, somewhere in my very well used, and extremely long and tortuous pipeline.

And some other hardware items: sliding button catches, push button catches and others – all will make their way on to the site in due course.

This time I decided to have five consecutive days, Thursday – Monday, and the first five day ‘Gold’ BMW happened in October. I’m very pleased with the way it all went. I decided to limit it to three participants until I was sure everything was working as it should. There was no problem filling the places this time, the format was much more popular, but one cancelled late on so it was back to two again!

The schedule went very smoothly, the boxes were completed in the time and came out very well, and hopefully lots of important techniques learnt along the way. Fitted with smartHinges of course, and Ian Hawthorne’s Neat locks. Carsten and Robert seemed well pleased.

Option 1: email me the date you’re interested in, I will email you the relevant information and, assuming I have a place available, 50% deposit [or 30% for a 5 day course] will secure your place.

Option 2: or, if you play your cards right you could land a box making course, or a contribution towards one, as a gift. But you will need to persuade someone you love, or perhaps more importantly someone who loves you, to buy you a:

Fine box making
in the
Shropshire hills

Gift Token!

The ideal gift for the man, or woman, who has [almost] everything.

and now for something completely different …

 – in honour of the Pythons reforming, of course.

This has little to do with boxes, but something to do with wood and music, two things I have a certain interest in. ‘Henrietta’ is a true story about a piano. Or was it a harpsichord. Anyway, this has been stuck away in a corner on my fine-boxes website in an area called ‘Pandora’ and I thought it was time it had an airing. Click here to read, and hopefully enjoy.

Andrew Crawford