One of Two Projects in Progress

Carved Lid for Tool Box

Since returning from the OPA show in Wyoming I have two projects in progress, this is one of them.  Carving is an aspect of woodworking that I want to hone my skills on and create something other than picture frames.  Picture frames demand fairly small carving just because of their size.  Any project is more interesting if there is an end purpose and that's what you see here.  I need a place to keep my cabinet scrapers and related items like files and burnishers.  As it is, they are kept in a couple of different places in the shop which is pretty inefficient! This box will be my solution to that.
It's made of materials I had left over in the shop and it's the finger jointed, Oak box that you see in the background.  The lid slides in and is made of Cherry that has been resawn and turned into a book matched panel.  The image is of Ali, my buddy -- she's an Oriental Shorthair and this is how she spends much of her day, splayed out on top of the couch watching over the house.  She's a really cool cat but like my father in law says: "jeez, don't get him started on that d#%&* cat!".  Suffice to say she's truly captured my heart and made me her chosen one.
The other thing I want to experiment on with this box is a finish I've read about that is better suited for dining tables.  Less maintenance than the finish I've always used.  Basically it's several coats of polyurethane brushed on, then lightly sanded and followed by hand wiping gel polyurethane onto the surface.  Although I stay away from surface coatings and prefer to hand rub in oil and my own top coat concoction this should stand up better to a surface like a dining table that is subject to spills.  Time will tell and I'll share the results.