The other part of the project that I accomplished last weekend was cutting the boards for the box. That part went fairly smoothly. I got my hands on a piece of reclaimed heart pine, planed it down to 1/2″, and worked around the various cracks, knots, and holes to get a set of boards for my box. The top and bottom had an extra bit of overhang that I prettied up with the help of a router.
Nothing is actually attached yet, but it looks pretty good so far. Unfortunately, I took a closer look at my primary inspiration (seen here from the back) and saw a problem. My original interpretation was that the hinge went under the lid, with a separate metal piece on top and nails going through everything. A second look, however, made it clear that the hinge only goes under the nailed-on border on the edge of the lid, and is attached right to the top of the lid itself. Unfortunately, the fancy border of the lid I made doesn’t really lend itself easily to this construction method.
I’ve found at least one instance with a similar lid where the hinges seem to just be nailed on from below, but that would leave me with a boring, unadorned lid. Fortunately, I found another example with an oversized lid where the edge was simply cut away to make room for the straps of the hinges and hasp. This is probably the way I’m going to go.