doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Joined Oak Box ID Help

I'm not sure I have any 20 gauge shells at the house but I really don't think this was a box for ammunition.

good observation on the growth rings. As I'm thinking about it, the simpler way to rejoin the top would have been to attach the strips directly to the inside. The rabbets make me think that, while not fancy or best, the box was not entirely utilitarian.

I had thought about the lack of planing tracks, but wasn't sure what to make of that. Probably speaks to the era of build, as you suggested.

Did you notice the marking gauge lines? They are faint, but present. I love seeing the remnants of hand work

Just purely fun guessing. By era, I think the boards were machine planed? The box lid, to me, is a problem. I am still guessing it's a later repair, not only because of the split, but it might not have been laying flat. The rigid cross grain gluing in the rabbet is not so good, but no doubt it works in this case. I think the rabbet was used to retain the original top, I'm still guessing repair, so that the lid still functioned at its original thickness.

The reason I leaned towards thinking utilitary construction, is because the lid doesn't follow wood movement rules. Back to strips attached inside the lid, rather than in rabbets. Maybe, it was a relatively tight squeeze between the sides and the hinges, maybe it might have been too bulky to close on the intended contents? Yes, I noticed the layout lines. The pins might be safe width at the top and bottom, where the piece might have had better visual balance if they were more proportional to the center pin? Again, just some guessing out loud, seeing what story it might tell, not picking on the box. Take care.

You can pretty much date the box by the nails that they used. I believe they stopped using square nails around the 1890s or so in furniture. So, I would date the box before the 1890s.

Just spotted this, and remembered this thread.

https://www.rstshells.com/store/p/46-Wooden-Storage-Box.aspx

For a while, about 20 years ago, Winchester made these. I used to have one. Thanks for posting.

Earlier in the fall I was meandering through an antique mall and noticed several wooden ammo boxes in a vendors space. In light of this thread, I will look at them more closely the next time I’m there and report back if I see anything helpful.

Back in the area so went by to check. Not surprisingly, all the ammo boxes were gone but he did have 12-15 other assorted wooden boxes. Looked through them all in light of your box but didn’t see anything similar. Sorry.