how to make this box

[Woodworm!]

Looks like the wood is sliced, but how to get it square and uniform to make cubes from showing the growth rings. guessing it is 1/2"=3/4"

[Gary G™]

It’s slices of end grain; mill first, then cut off equal thicknesses.
It could be a 2X4 of old growth pine.

[MstrCarpenter]

I'd start by finding a few 3/4" boards with the center of the heart on both ends. rip a 3/4" strip keeping the center on both ends. I'll need 5 or six of these pieces about 2' long. Edge glue the strips together (like butcher-block) and run thru the thickness planer to clean up both faces. Cut the new board into 5 pieces and glue together. Clean up the sides and then cut to length.

[Woodworm!]

Thanks for the ideas.

[WoodCzech]

Almost looks like it's made from smaller branches seeing the tight grain and a lot of small knots.  When I trim lower branches from jack pines on our property, they look a lot like it.  Of course milling those would take some patience

[Paul K. Murphy]

    Look at the background on this tabletop. This was built by Gerrit Jensen if I’m not mistaken. Late XIIIX Century. (English, Jensen was a Huguenot immigrant)
This type of woodwork with the end grain veneers put together like tiles is called oyster work, or sometimes oyster marquetry.
The Australian blogger, “Jack Plane” constructed a walnut tea table with oyster work. You can see how he did it here: https://pegsandtails.wordpress.com/2009/...a-table-2/

(I devour everything on this blog. The man’s knowledge and skills are superlative.)