A Surprise Buried in the Mesquite

This evening I sorted through my stash of mesquite and found a few boards wide enough to make the 1839 Schoolbox featured last summer in Woodworking Magazine.   I cut the front back and sides to their rough dimensions, jointed one edge of each and cleaned up the other on the tablesaw.   Then I wheeled out my planer--the one I installed fresh blades in just yesterday--and started milling the mesquite to thickness.   I had made a couple of passes on each board when I saw this come out of the planer:

From Mesquite Surprise

That little sliver of white in the knot is actually a little sliver of metal.  My heart sank.  I was sure it was a nail or a screw and my freshly sharpened blade now had a nick in it.

I got out a screw driver and began poking around in the knot trying to dislodge the metal, but it wasn't behaving like a nail or a screw.  For one thing, it was, well, softer, and it wasn't coming out.  Then it dawned on me that the metal was actually lead, and that was a bullet stuck in the board. 

From Mesquite Surprise

From Mesquite Surprise

The good news is that the planer blade is OK.  Now, all I have to decide is whether to hide the bullet on the inside of the box, or let it show on the outside.  I'm leaning toward the latter.