'Shut The Box'

'Shut the Box' is one of my favorite ways to pass time with friends. It is perfect enjoyed with some decent beers while listening to good records. This is a prototype for some I am going to make today. It is pine, poplar and mahogany and unlike ones I have built in the past, has a money slot to encourage gambling. Yep, for some reason that makes the game more fun, even if it is just a quarter a game.

On the prototype I stenciled the numbers on and although I have done this in the past, was unhappy with it. I decided to try and hand draw and paint them on. 

 I chose to do the numbering in a cream color I mixed up. The tiles oscillate from mahogany to poplar.

 In this photo the boxes I made are almost complete. Numbers are in, as is the 'leather' bottom pad. They have been sanded and hand waxed. This project (and something a friend, Hayne Davis of Davisound, said to me) really made me rethink staining wood. I feel like if you want a darker wood, use a darker wood. Pine is beautiful just the way it is. Poplar has such a sweet green tint to it. Mahogany is classic wood brown. I love using multiple woods on the same project.

This is the first completed production model, with money slot. When all was said and done I have a couple hours in each one, so with materials, I am working slave labor wages. At least it is a labor of love. I really hope folks dig playing 'Shut the Box' on them half as much as I do.