Black Walnut Slipcase for a Prized Book

I bought a new Greek New Testament that is the same size as a dictionary I already had.  I want to be able to carry both in a canvas bag, but without something prying its way between the pages and crumpling them.  I decided on a wooden slipcase from black walnut.  This is it all finished.

Step 1: Material

This is the piece of black walnut I used.  Someone was discarding it.  It is 9/16 inch thick, about 6 inches wide, and about 18 inches long, more or less.  It has some nice grain figuring in it, but there is also a knot in that part of the board near the far end.  The part directly around the knot is not useful.

Comments

[80$man]

Very good ibble Phil! This would be great for a gift, it is more personal that just giving a book and one could inscribe the slipcase!
Like your choice 'valued' books, I will make my dad a slipcase for his "hebrew and English lexicon of the old testament". Many thanks!

[Phil B]

Thank you. I have been carrying that slipcase daily in my canvass bag. The slipcase has held up well with very few wear marks. It also keeps my prized Greek/German New Testament like new. It sounds like the Hebrew - English lexicon could be Brown - Driver - Briggs. I think I wish my Hebrew were as good as your father's, but I will work on that.

[IzNoGuD]

Das neue Testament?

Ich darf Ihnen gratulieren, ich genieße Ihre Anleitungen sehr.
Sehr viele nützliche Ideen, Danke Sehr.

[Phil B]

Recht herzlichen Dank für Ihre Bemerkungen. Ich bedanke mich bei Ihnen, dass Sie meine Anweisung probiert haben. Ja, ich bin ein lutherischer Pfarrer in den Vereinigten Staaten, und fast täglich benutze ich mein Deutsch. Die deutschen Theologen geben vielen guten und hilfreichen Bescheid. So habe ich einige Studienbibeln, usw. aus der Deutschen Bibelgesellschaft: Stuttgart.

Stammen Sie aus Deutschland, oder?

[IzNoGuD]

Nein, ich bin aus dem Osten in Österreich aus einer 50:50 Gemeinde (evang. AB / röm kath.).

Also sind Werkstücke aus Ihre Anleitungen nochmals 500km weiter östlich zu finden ;).

Ich bin wirklich begeistert über Ihre handwerklichen Fähigkeiten und Ihr einwandfreies Deutsch.

Liebe Grüße aus Österreich.und weiterhin gute Gesundheit und viel Erfolg

[Phil B]

Noch einmal, recht herzlichen Dank. Ich bin dem Herrn Gott dankbar, dass ich einige Fähigkeiten habe. Auch habe ich während der vielen Jahren viele, viele Übung. Noch mache ich viele Fehler. Das wichtigste ist üben, üben, üben.

Auch bin ich Ihnen dankbar, dass Sie mir und meiner Projekte jetzt folgen.

Vor einigen Jahren hörte ich oftmals Radio bei der Kurzewelle an, und oftmals hörte ich Radio Österreich gern an.

Alles Gute!

[cbm104]

Functional and beautiful, very nice!

[Phil B]

Thank you. I use it everyday. So far it has not picked up more than a couple of very small dings.

One thing I wanted to do in this Instructable is explain some basic aspects of woodworking that could be applied to many other projects, like gluing up a table top from cabinet grade hardwoods.

[rimar2000]

VOTED!

[Phil B]

Thank you, Osvaldo.

[OnlyUsernameAvailable]

You're a genius! I had been working on how to protect a concordance, commentary, dictionary, and others that I frequntly transport. I had been thinking of making a rolling bookshelf (like a small travel cart), but it would be a bit heavy. I'll be making one of these! I may make my first instructable to show how to make reading/studying multiple books easier. Excellent job!

[Phil B]

Thank you for your comment.

If you have access to some veneer plywood, you can use that for the side pieces rather than re-sawing, fitting, and gluing up the side pieces. I made one of these years ago for a Bible with soft covers and used 1/4 inch walnut veneer plywood on the side pieces. I glued a strip of solid walnut over the exposed edge. The only disadvantage is that the veneer is very thin and any scratch could go down to the plywood substrate.

A slipcase like this works well for multiple books if they are very close to the same size (except perhaps for thickness). I wish you well with your project. Please show us photos when you are finished, or a complete Instructable.

[RedneckEngineer]

Is there anything you do use your Arm Saw for??? Just another face palm moment, why didn't I think of that. Love this!

[Phil B]

Did you mean, "Is there anything I do not use my radial arm saw for?" I can now afford more tools than I ever thought possible, but bought it because of the many operations possible with a radial arm saw together with a few jigs and accessories. Thank you for looking at this.

[RedneckEngineer]

Looks like my fingers don't always follow what I think, at least you knew what I meant.

[Phil B]

Thanks. I am not sure my response made as much sense as I intended. I bought the radial arm saw with the intention of getting as much as possible out of it because I never expected to have enough money to buy various individual tools. I also got a 30 per cent discount back in 1972 because they were introducing a new model and needed to move these out. It has worked out well for me, although sometimes I have had to take down a setup to do another operation and then had to duplicate the previous setup.

[rimar2000]

Good work phil, and what a beautiful wood!

[Phil B]

Thank you, Osvaldo. I see Argentina has its own type of walnut with even more figure and darker than our North American black walnut. You must have some beautiful furniture available in Argentina made from it.

[rimar2000]

Probably so, but I have understood that it is a very expensive wood. I searched for "nogal" (walnut) on Mercado Libre (argie eBay) and only found used furniture, most veneers. It is known that antiques do not have a standard price, each worth according to the circumstances surrounding it (and what the buyer is willing to pay). Maybe if you come to Argentina and see the price of antique furniture you salivating, but they are very expensive for us.

[seolfor]

Very nice. I like that you used someone's "trash" wood for this project. It looks very good. Thank you for sharing.

[Phil B]

Thank you for your interest and your comment.

[mikeasaurus]

"step 1: ..Someone was discarding it.."
disgraceful!

Great job on the reuse, the slipcase looks great with the Danish oil. Love the texture

[Phil B]

Thank you. There was a small cabinet shop across the street from us. It had been closed after the death of the owner. His sons opened it again for a few months and then decided to convert it to a house and sell it. About the time of the final closure they set out quite a few wood scraps. Most of it was kindling, but I was watchful and got a few pieces of cabinet grade hardwood. But, I felt really sick one day when a tree west of our small town was cut and sectioned like firewood. From my bicycle I could smell the distinctive odor of black walnut.

[Sabata]

The slipcase is beautiful, Phil!

I feel your pain re: the black walnut tree turned into firewood. A neighboring church once did the same thing to a black walnut tree during an expansion project. I wanted to cry.

[Phil B]

Thank you. Seeing a walnut tree destroyed needlessly reminds me of a story from a friend. Someone he knew had kept a box of baseball cards from when he was a boy. Included in it were some very rare cards. His wife wanted an addition to the house, but they could not afford it. One day she went on a cleaning rampage and tossed his box of baseball cards. He told her, "You know those cards you threw out, well, some of them would have paid for an addition to the house." I do not know what was said after that.

[omnibot]

Nice job and good idea for keeping books safe.

[Phil B]

Thank you. A black walnut slipcase would be overkill for anything but a very special book. A simpler slipcase of cardboard would be good for a more ordinary book.