I have some inlaid wood boxes from Italy, and I've always been interested in detailed woodwork like that. Those are difficult to make. I was inspired by some 3" layered blocks I recently made (for the Godly Play Tower of Babel) to make a slightly larger layered wood project. I have been looking for some tool holders in the stationary stores based on pencil and supply holders, but could not find anything appropriate. Making a pair of holders from layered wood was the perfect project.

I chose woods available at Home Depot and used only a table saw and a drill press. I used alternating woods to emphasize the colors and used different pieces of wood to show different grain structures. One dark wood was purchased from a specialty dealer about 8 years ago, and I don't know what it is. The others are pine, fir, oak, birch, poplar, alder, and maple.

Most of the drilled holes (ranging from 1/2" diameter to 1 1/2" and depths from 2" to 6" deep) in both holders are filled with tools ranging from screwdrivers and balldrivers to tweezers and pliers. Its hard to predict the hole diameters in advance, but it works out.