Finger Pull Failure? Fixing a Double Mistake

During December I built a couple of dove tailed boxes. The second was a bit more adventurous than the first and in many ways more successful. My favorite detail—a sinuous finger pull that echoes the flame-like grain patterns in the box lid—actually resulted from compounded mistakes.

I had managed to plane the wrong angle on one side of the lid, making the lid visibly lopsided: the flat section was not remotely centered. I thought (wrongly) that I might fix this glaring error by placing the finger pull in the center of the flat section, but this turned out to emphasize the error. It seemed likely I would have to start again. Failure.

I stared at it for a while, not wanting to discard so much work and such a lovely piece of wood. Finally the thought came: "Why not try something really different, to move the visual center of that pull back in line with the center of the lid?" It worked beyond what I'd hoped, and I'll bet that if you didn't know the flat of the lid was off center you probably wouldn't notice because the pull draws your eye. In this case failure freed me for success.