Scandinavian Shrink Boxes

[Greg Just]

Scandinavian Shrink Boxes – For those of you who went to the AAW Symposium last June in St. Paul, you might have attended to a session with Jim Sannerud. Jim demonstrated how the shrink box is made from a hollowed tree branch with a small kerf in the bottom to fit a dry piece of wood. If all the steps are done correctly, the green wood will shrink around the dry base and create a water tight vessel. The Vikings used these open vessels for drinking or would make tight fitting lids creating containers for storing salt and spices. I was intrigued by what Jim made. Then in the February 2012 edition of American Woodturner there was an article about making the shrink boxes. Soon after the article, I acquired some green birch perfect for this project and decided to give it a try. My first attempt was a failure. I cut the bottom too big and when the wood shrank around the bottom, the sides cracked. I played around a little more and completed these two boxes. It was a fun project that I got to include some carving and painting. The finish is rattle can lacquer, which I think is a little too shiny and I might dull it up a bit with some steel wool. Comments please.

[Ted Calver]

Pretty cool Greg. I'm guessing by the index lines that the tops only fit a certain way?

[Greg Just]

Ted - the top is actually made after the base is completely dry. I made the blue one oval and tried to keep the orange one round. The tops were carved to fit and only fit one way.

[Bernie Weishapl]

Cool boxes Greg.

[Doug W Swanson]

Nice job, Greg! I agree that the colors are a little bright but they still look good.

[Billy Tallant]

Nice boxes Greg! Looks good...

[robert baccus]

That's certainly outta the box turning.----love it----------old forester

[John Keeton]

Greg, I saw the article and found it interesting. Looks like you did well with these.

[Michelle Rich]

very cool ..I have taken the pith out in a big vessel, and then put in a plug when it was dry..never like this. thanks for sharing with us

[Steve Schlumpf]

Pretty cool work Greg! First I've heard of this style box... will have to look up the article. Thanks for sharing!