A New Experience- Building a Fancy Humidor

 

Part 1- Always listen to that little voice in your head

 

A while back, I received a phone call from a turner friend asking if I wanted some American Black Walnut- at a good price. Excited and wary at the same time, I agreed to make the trip to see the guy. Turned out the owner of the walnut is a gun maker. His guns are flintlock rifles and his woodworking processes mimic those of the early American gun makers. He had an overabundance of wood (if thats even possible) and was willing to part with some of it. After admiring his guns and the processes he uses, the haggling began. I should mention the Walnut was air dried, dead flat, straight grained, a little over 2  thick, to 15 wide and at least 8 long. I had previous purchased some walnut from the saw mill, so I knew what the going rate was going to be. Well, I have $100. I'll take whatever you think is fair, said I. At this point, my turner friend spoke up and started describing some of the items I have made- which piqued the Walnut owner interest. You ever make a humidor? he asked. I think- only a fancy little box and then I hear myself saying- No, but I'm sure I can.Tell you what he said, you make me a humidor and you can have all 10 pieces of the Walnut and I'll even throw in some smaller pieces of Curley Ash and English Walnut. Funny how the little voice in your head gets drowned out when faced with that big pile of wood. We exchanged emails, agreed he would send me a picture of what he wanted and I would build it. We loaded the old 86 Dodge Ram and headed home- avoiding the Interstates and any large hills- finally unloading the stash in my friends garage.

 

A day or so later, the first images arrived.

 

 

 

 

We discussed the size and modifications. More images arrived.

 

 

 

 

More discussion. Another image.

 

 

There are features from each image that needed to be incorporated into his specifications. Using Sketchup, I created what would become the end product- more or less.

 

 

Not the simple box I had envisioned during my wood pile high.  

 

 

In part two, we'll start the woodworking.

Yep, that lil ol voice! Should have been two flatbeds full of walnut in exchange for that humidor Lew!

Can't argue with that!