Layered Wood Tool Holder

I have some inlaid wood boxes from Italy, and I've always been interested in detailed woodwork like that. Those are difficult to make. I was inspired by some 3" layered blocks I recently made (for the Godly Play Tower of Babel) to make a slightly larger layered wood project. I have been looking for some tool holders in the stationary stores based on pencil and supply holders, but could not find anything appropriate. Making a pair of holders from layered wood was the perfect project.

I chose woods available at Home Depot and used only a table saw and a drill press. I used alternating woods to emphasize the colors and used different pieces of wood to show different grain structures. One dark wood was purchased from a specialty dealer about 8 years ago, and I don't know what it is. The others are pine, fir, oak, birch, poplar, alder, and maple.

birch oakmaple

alderunknown

firpoplarpine

Most of the drilled holes (ranging from 1/2" diameter to 1 1/2" and depths from 2" to 6" deep) in both holders are filled with tools ranging from screwdrivers and balldrivers to tweezers and pliers. Its hard to predict the hole diameters in advance, but it works out.

The range of grain types is impressive, and evokes links to my other hobbies. The swirls in the pine wood are reminiscent of the cloud bands on my Jupiter photos, and the layers of wood resemble geographic strata containing mineral specimen pockets!

The back side of the tool holders are one continuous series of wood grains, shown here. The black lines are the divisions between the levels.

Height = 7.5", length 9", depth 5". The length was limited by the scrap wood I used. Three coats of satin gloss polyurethane were used to protect the surface, and felt on the bottom corners protect the desk. All pieces are glued together.

Custom designs offered at $399, delivery in 90 days. Shipping and handling extra.

Inquiries at dbruns@stellarproducts.com

All text and images are owned by Stellar Products, 1992-2011. Any use by others without permission of Stellar Products is prohibited.

 

Links to other Stellar Products pages:

Stellar Products Home

Image gallery

Adaptive optics tutorials