Trunk 2.0: Moo Cow Edition

Carry all your crap to events is always a blast when you're doing anything other than campaigning. I do enjoy the simplicity of putting everything in a knapsack and that being all that I carry, but occasionally I need to carry more stuff than that. On two occasions now, I have fit an entire tailor's shop into my vehicle. I try to keep all of my stuff in period appropriate containers as much as possible, and for that purpose I purchased a big wooden trunk that I found in an antique shop that needed some love. I did some simple alterations to it, gave it a fresh coat of paint, and effectively turned it into a simple wooden trunk. It looks great, stores stuff great, it's just huge and heavy.

I now present the plans for Trunk 2.0: Moo Cow Edition. These plans copy the dimensions of an 18th century trunk in the collection of the CW Foundation. I will keep my final product pretty true to the original. I plan to use the same dimensions, shape, hardware, and cow hide cover. The only thing that I do plan on changing is the tack design to include my initials, and perhaps the lining paper.

Based on the museum write-up for this piece and from my own building experience building, I believe that the pine wood used to make the box is 3/4 inches thick. I will most likely use solid boards for all of the pieces, but I may cheat and use some stain quality plywood on the side pieces that will not be seen. 

The bottom piece of the box and the two base strips will be done in solid boards  as they are exposed in originals. The small pieces to make the arched top will also be solid as well because bending plywood is stupid and probably more trouble than it's worth for something that will never be seen.

Creating an arched top is essentially making a partial barrel. My next step will be to calculate the angle used on the sides of the staves to create the arch. I will use some geometry to calculate the radius of the circle of which the arch is part. I will then use that measurement to determine the stave angle. It's some fairly simple geometry, but it's complicated enough to warrant a separate post. So with that, I end this one.