Contrasting Wood Joints for Custom Boxes

Handcrafted by Dan & Deb McBride

Incorporating contrasting woods in a custom wood box adds a 3 dimensional look and feel as well as adding a decorative touch to an otherwise ordinary box. This is especially noticeable in the corner joints for dovetail joints, finger joints and spline-miter joints, as shown below. Walnut with Maple is a favorite among our clients. Trim around the base, wooden feet and contrasting wood for the box lid are other great options for adding a contrasting wood effect.

Corner Joint Styles ~ by azWoodman.com

Quality Woodworking ~ with the Personal Touch!

Butt Joint

The butt joint is the simplest and least expensive of all joints. It is considered a rather weak joint, however, we strengthen all 'butt joints' by using TiteBond® II Glue and nails. Corner blocks can be added for some projects. Some of our slide-lid boxes require the use of this corner style to function and fit together properly.

Mitered Joint

Next in line is the mitered corner. The conventional miter joint is made by mitering each corner at a 45-degree angle. It hides the end grain and provides a larger gluing area and can be held together with nails or screws. We recommend this joint for boxes made out of woodgrain veneer. Some consider it to be a weak joint unless it is strengthened with a spline of some kind between the joint pieces. This is true for larger projects, but for small boxes this problem is eliminated by using glue reinforced with brad nails.

Rabbet-Butt Joint

For a medium cost range joint, we recommend the rabbet-butt joint. It is stronger and more rigid than a butt joint, and is one of our most requested corner styles for crafters who plan to paint the outside of their boxes. Some of the end grain will show which can add a decorative touch. The joint is not recommended for woodgrain veneers.

Finger Joint

The finger joint is a strong, interlocking corner joint that adds a decorative touch to our custom boxes. For boxes 5" or less in height, we recommend this joint. It is a little more difficult to make and requires that we use our Woodrat joinery machine which takes skill and accuracy. For this we charge extra for applying this style to our custom wood boxes.

Dovetail Joint

Here is a strong joint that adds a decorative touch to a custom box, especially ones that are taller than 5" in height. These are little more labor intensive, requires the use of our Leigh Dovetail Jig, thus making them more expensive than other joints. These joints have very good mechanical strength and like all our other joints, are held together with water-resistant glue.