Questions about my next project - a tea caddy

[Christian Thompson]

Forgive me if any of this has already been covered. I ran a few searches and didn't turn up much. I am about to start a project building a tea caddy (something like the picture below, but probably a lot less fancy :-) as a gift for my Mom and I have some questions:

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It looks like most of these boxes have mitered corners. How were these joints traditionally reinforced (if at all)? Most of the instruction I find these days uses machines and horizontal splines. I'd like to do this by hand and keep the reinforcements invisible. Is a vertical spline a traditional way to reinforce this joint? If so, how was it normally cut?
The middle compartment has a felt lined receptacle for a crystal mixing bowl. I haven't found anything about how to create the shape of the receptacle. Maybe carve it out of a softer wood like balsa or cork or make a mold out of something?
The two side tea compartments are lined with lead foil. I have found a few suggestions to use aluminum foil attached with spray adhesive. Another I saw used gold leaf painted on. Anyone ever done something like this or have any better ideas? I guess the idea is to have something food safe and relatively water proof to keep the tea from drying out.
Thanks,
Christian

[Chris Griggs]

It looks like most of these boxes have mitered corners. How were these joints traditionally reinforced (if at all)? Most of the instruction I find these days uses machines and horizontal splines. I'd like to do this by hand and keep the reinforcements invisible. Is a vertical spline a traditional way to reinforce this joint? If so, how was it normally cut?



If you look closely at the picture you can see that it is actually a rabbet joint, probably reinforced with nails or pegs. I don't know how miters were traditionally reinforced but, the easiest way I know of to do it by hand is to put a couple horizontal spline at the mitered corners. You can use very thin splines by cutting the kerfs with a DT saw or thicker by using a handsaw.

Edit: I take that back. It looked like a rabbet to me at first (something with the shadowing of the photo tricked my eyes), but looking again, it looks like a miter now. And regardless, I agree that most I've seen of these are mitered - although most the pics I've seen are probably of modern ones, so I do wonder how historically these were made. Pretend I never posted - clearly I don't know what I'm talking about!

Anyway, I'm curious how others will respond, because there have been a number of times when I've wanted to invisibly reinforce a miter, but didn't know how to without using power tools as you described.

[James Owen]

Don't know how it was done traditionally, but if you are looking for strength with the look of a mitered joint, a secret mitered dovetail joint might do the trick.

For the receptacle, you could use a built-up construction of several layers, with the appropriate shape cut out, then cover with felt, velvet, etc.

For the foil-type linings, there are several types of gilding foils available -- genuine gold and silver (both pretty pricey), imitation gold and silver (very reasonable), aluminum, copper, etc. -- that you could use. There are also a number of books on gilding that are oriented toward first-timers, and go through the steps in great detail -- Cambium Books has a couple in their finishing section, and Amazon has some, as well.

[john brenton]

George Wilson would be your best resource on this, so hopefully he'll chime in.

Hidden mitered dovetails aren't easy to make, I have yet to make a good joint with them. I've gotten the outside to look ok, but the imperfections on the inside jump out at you. I've only tried a few times though, as nothing I do really warrants that kind of work. But, if you're doing only handwork I'd say that a hidden miter would be easier by hand than doing splines on a 45* by hand.

You could just glue the miters and add strips going up vertically in the corners on the inside if that doesn't interfere with the function of the box.

Well done butt joints wouldn't look bad, nor would half blinds on the front and full tails on the back. Alot of times I'll do butt joints on the back and half blinds on the front, not just for drawers but on any frame. I think it looks cool.

[Leigh Betsch]

Here is a tea caddy I built last year for Christmas presents (built 8 of the little guys). I built 4 walnut veneered, 2 cherry crotch veneer, one farm cut ash veneer. All the veneer was shop cut and hide glued over box jointed cherry substrate. I also build a mesquite one that did not veneer. I lined the interior of one with camphor veneer (shop cut also).
I have more pics at home if you want to see them

[Christian Thompson]

Here is a tea caddy I built last year for Christmas presents (built 8 of the little guys). I built 4 walnut veneered, 2 cherry crotch veneer, one farm cut ash veneer. All the veneer was shop cut and hide glued over box jointed cherry substrate. I also build a mesquite one that did not veneer. I lined the interior of one with camphor veneer (shop cut also).
I have more pics at home if you want to see them

Those look great! I'd love to see some more pictures. I thought about trying veneer, but decided to keep it simple (I've been buying lots of tools lately and that would probably require some more :-). Do those have the removable tea boxes inside? If so, did you line them with any sort of foil?

[Christian Thompson]

Don't know how it was done traditionally, but if you are looking for strength with the look of a mitered joint, a secret mitered dovetail joint might do the trick.

Hmm... Secret mitered dovetails. Sounds like a fun challenge if nothing else. I think I'll try a few of those on some practice wood and see how it comes out. I am guessing I'll need a plan B, though :-).


You could just glue the miters and add strips going up vertically in the corners on the inside if that doesn't interfere with the function of the box.Well done butt joints wouldn't look bad, nor would half blinds on the front and full tails on the back. Alot of times I'll do butt joints on the back and half blinds on the front, not just for drawers but on any frame. I think it looks cool.

I don't think the vertical strips would work because those two tea compartments are actually separate boxes that pull out. Half blinds isn't a bad idea. I thought about just using through dovetails front and back, but figured I'd see if I can figure out how to do a good miter joint.

Thanks for all the suggestions so far.

Christian

BTW, if anyone has noticed how many times I have deleted and readded this post, sorry about that. I'm still trying to figure out how the reply / nesting works...

[Zach Dillinger]

BTW, if anyone has noticed how many times I have deleted and readded this post, sorry about that. I'm still trying to figure out how the reply / nesting works...

Best thing you can do for yourself (I had the same problem when I first started) is to go to the upper right corner of the thread, click on Display and set it to Linear View. Much easier to follow that way, as it posts them in chronological order. Helped me a lot.

[Jim Koepke]

I'm still trying to figure out how the reply / nesting works...

I have been trying to figure that one for years.

jtk

[Sean Richards]

Most of these little boxes (tea caddys, jewellery boxes, writing slopes) were traditionally veneered over whatever carcass wood they chose to use.

[Jim Matthews]

If I may suggest Delrin (UHMWPE) or other food safe polyethylene as a lining - you could make that replaceable. It can be cut and milled by most tools, and will work with some simple adhesives.

Concerning the joinery, there's no reason why you couldn't make this in any manner of your choosing. The fact that it came from your hand will be more remarkable to the recipient than technical aspects.
Go ahead and make it in solid wood. It will be easier to work with in the first iterations, if you're not familiar with veneers. There is less likelihood of delamination that way, also.

jim
wpt, ma

[Tony Joyce]

Typically these were dovetailed boxs with veneered exterior faces. The removable interior compartments would have also been dovetailed. I can't speak to the linings.

Tony

[Leigh Betsch]

A couple of more pics of the tea caddies I built. This is just the three I gave my girls, other others were pretty much the same. No interior boxes lined with foil or anything, although one (not pictured) was lined with camphor. I guess in the olden days they used camphor to keep the bugs out. I put a note in each one that explained a bit about how the tea boxes were used in the past and a bit about the woods I used. The substrate was nothing special. I used a router for the moldings, I hope to have built a molding plane before I do these again.

[Chris Griggs]

Those are really nice Leigh! Great wood selection and grain orientation. Looks like a fun build that one could do a number of fun little variations on. You are a talented man! I always appreciate the inspiration.

[Christian Thompson]

Thanks for posting these. I'd be happy if mine comes out half as nice!

Thanks to everyone for the comments / advice. I've got a much better idea of what I need to do now. Now to get some wood and get going :).