How to look after
a box that outlives you.
Every box leaves the bench under a hand-rubbed oil finish, which is a living surface rather than a sealed one. It asks very little of you: a dry cloth, somewhere out of the sun, and a fresh coat of oil about once a year. Do that and the box will comfortably outlast the person who bought it.
- Dust with a dry, soft cloth. Nothing more.
- Keep it out of direct sunlight.
- Room temperature, room humidity — no radiators, no damp basements.
- Never let it sit wet, and never submerge it.
- Re-oil once a year, or whenever the wood looks thirsty.
Everyday cleaning
A dry, soft cloth is the whole routine. Wipe along the grain, and the box keeps its sheen for years without anything else being done to it.
If something needs more than that, use a barely damp cloth and dry it straight away. Avoid furniture polish, spray wax, and anything containing silicone or ammonia — they sit on top of an oil finish instead of joining it, and the haze they leave behind has to be sanded off to remove.
Re-oiling
An oil finish cures into the timber rather than forming a film over it, which is why the box feels like wood instead of plastic. It also means the finish slowly wears where the box is handled most — the lid, the front edge, the finger pull.
Once a year, or whenever the surface looks dry and pale, refresh it: a few drops of oil on a lint-free cloth, worked along the grain, left for fifteen minutes, then every trace of the excess wiped off. The wiping off matters more than the putting on — oil left standing stays tacky instead of curing.
Let it cure overnight somewhere with moving air before you put anything back inside.
Light and colour
None of these timbers are stained. The colour is the wood's own, and it moves.
Padauk and purpleheart shift the most — a vivid orange-red and a deep violet that both settle towards brown over a year or two of daylight. Cherry darkens to a russet. Walnut goes the other way, lightening and warming. This is the wood behaving as wood, not a fault, and it cannot be prevented — only slowed.
Keep the box out of direct sun. If it lives somewhere bright, turn it end for end every few months so it ages evenly rather than in a stripe.
Humidity and heat
Wood takes on and gives up moisture for the whole of its life. A box built in a workshop at ordinary room humidity is happiest in a room at ordinary room humidity — roughly 35 to 55 per cent.
What does damage is the extremes, and how fast they arrive: a radiator, a sunny windowsill, a damp basement, a parked car in August. Sustained dryness can open a joint; sustained damp can swell a lid until it binds.
If a lid ever feels tight, give it a week somewhere ordinary before deciding anything is wrong. Most of the time it corrects itself.
Spills
Blot immediately, along the grain, and dry the surface. Water left standing raises the grain and can leave a pale ring that no amount of wiping will lift.
Never submerge the box, and never try to dry it out on a heater — forcing moisture out of one face and not the other is how a panel cups.
Brass and the hinge
Brass darkens. Left alone it takes on a warm patina, which most people come to prefer; if you want it bright again, a little brass polish on a cotton bud will do it. Keep the polish off the wood — it will stain an oil finish.
The lid is on a soft-close hinge and does not need help closing. Don't press it shut, and don't let it swing past its stop. If the action ever changes, the fixings have usually worked slightly loose — tell us rather than tightening them yourself, because the screws land in end grain and strip easily.
The engraving
The engraving is cut into the surface, not printed on it, so it can't rub off. It can collect dust and oil in its lines. A dry, soft brush — a clean paintbrush is ideal — lifts it straight out. Don't scrub it, and don't leave polish sitting in it.
If something goes wrong
Everything here is repairable, and we would far rather repair a box than watch it be thrown away. A joint that has opened, a hinge that has loosened, a finish that has been marked — write to the workshop and tell us what happened.
We built it. We can usually put it right.
Still not sure?
If your box is doing something this page doesn't cover, describe it to us — photographs help. There is no wrong question about a thing you were meant to keep.