Ash Box

 

This is the first wooden puzzle box I made in 1993 when I took a woodshop class in high school. I was 15 years old, had never touched a shop tool before, and wanted to vent all the intense math I was learning the period beforehand. The shop teacher thought I was insane to be designing such a thing. He had never heard of puzzle boxes. I had made similar boxes from cardboard a few years before and was itching to see if I could make something of wood. Ash just happened to be the wood sitting out at the time.

The Ash Box is a 12-step box, based on traditional Japanese style trick boxes.

The Ash Box is proportioned after the Golden Ratio. Both the top and the smaller side of the box are golden rectangles. I now use these proportions in almost all of my future boxes.

I did not get a chance to make another wooden box for five years! Finding shop space to use, especially when you are a young person, is so difficult.