Tea boxes-Discussion and Plans

Hi Everyone,

Well, the temperature has gone up and it rained nearly all night last night and so this means that the snow and ice are on their way out! Yay!  Flowers and lots of green stuff are just around the corner.

While we're waiting for the trees to leaf out, let's make a tea box.

Discussion

Tea boxes are not terribly difficult to make if you use kiln dried wood for both the lid and the box. Green wood is more problematic as it can distort some while it dries. This can leave you with a lid that doesn't fit or a box that wobbles on a flat surface. Very slow and careful drying is required for that. We are going to be using both kinds of wood for the tea boxes I have planned.

Here is a photo of the blocks I have in stock at the moment:

The block on the left is laminated, kiln dried pine. The block on the left is a solid block of silky oak that is coated in wax. The pine block is 6" square and about 5 1/2" high. The silky oak block is 4"x4"x7".

These two blocks are both 6"x6"x3" and they are a mix of various colored hardwoods. These are dried wood as well and they can go on the lathe for turning at anytime:

All of these will make nice boxes. The silky oak is green, unseasoned wood. It's sealed in wax to prevent it's drying out prematurely before we have a chance to slowly dry it out ourselves.  The pine block is dry and so that can go on the lathe right now and be turned and we won't have to worry about it cracking or distorting as we move through the production process.

Plans

The first thing I'm going to do is take the silky oak block and turn it into a cylinder and take off all the wax and then wrap it in several layers of heavy paper for several months. Doing this will allow it to dry slowly and hopefully not crack. While it's drying out we'll use the pine block and the other laminated kiln-dried blocks to make several tea boxes. We'll go through the whole process step by step together and when we're done we'll have a useful and lovely gift for someone.

So grab some coffee and stop by the wood shop-we have another adventure ahead!

Have a good weekend,
VW