How to make wooden dishes with your own hands?

Not only the original appearance and pleasant natural aroma of wooden homemade dishes makes it valuable and preferable - it is equally important that it can carry a positive energy boost, make food more tasty and healthy, and in some cases change a person’s attitude to many things.

Plates, bowls and wooden cups have a number of advantages. which can not be mentioned:

• they are useful for consumption because they are made from environmentally friendly natural material;
• wood has high mechanical strength and at the same time is light in weight, moreover, such a material is able to keep food fresh for a long time;
• The tree itself is distinguished by its aesthetic appearance, and, depending on the breed, it has an original natural ornament - such dishes become a real decoration of the table, and it is pleasant to eat from it, but even as a decorative element such an unusual attribute looks beautiful;
• due to the fact that the tree does not conduct heat, it is impossible to burn it, and the food stays hot for a long time.

Another advantage of hand-made wooden utensils is the ability to create any conceived forms for the most unusual sketches. In this case, the material itself is not too expensive, therefore, independent production is considered to be financially advantageous.

The disadvantages of wooden products consist in their shorter service life compared to glass and polymer fiber dishes; wood can darken and crack if it is used improperly and stored. For a thing to serve as long as possible, you need competent care and periodic restoration.

Basic material requirements for the production of wooden utensils:

• high-quality and plastic wood with high strength characteristics, and it happens when it is harvested recently, that is, it still retains its freshness;
• the tree must be of the first or second grade, there is a minimum number of knots on it;
• Inadmissible marriage is the presence of cracks, chips, rot and blue;
• in the production of dishes for food, only living forest is used, and dry-end blanks are not suitable for this, especially since they may be contaminated by bark beetles;
• for the master of manufacturing products, the large diameter of the tree is also important, since it allows the production of a large number of table accessories.

Most commonly used for the production of such species as elm, oak, birch, maple, mountain ash, juniper, cedar, larch or aspen, olive and bamboo are considered suitable materials.

In the distant past, our ancestors made different types of dishes - sliced, chiselled, dugged or cooperage, which was assembled from rivets and then sealed with hoops. The most popular in Russia was chiseled wooden dishes - this method produced plates, mugs, mortars and glasses, as well as cutlery (pestles, spoons, scoops). In addition, the ancient masters attached considerable importance to the healing and magical properties of individual tree species, which is why they took for their work:

• a birch tree, from which it was intended mainly for women, since it could cure fertility;
• a nut that helps to find loyal friends and give life energy in return for spent forces;
• olive contributed to the elimination of migraine, opened up new opportunities;
• Oak, symbolizing a strong male principle, helped relieve urinary organs and liver from ailments;
• girls who wanted to get married faster, tried to eat from dishes made from the trunk of an apple tree - it was believed that the female tree would help to find the second half.

If the production of a large batch of wooden utensils is envisaged, it is best to do it on a lathe. However, before this, you will need preparatory work, including the preparation of the material, preferably of high quality, and therefore will require:

• inspect lumber;
• remove excess knots and minor defects;
• To lay the timber off - to divide the cross-cleaned logs into multiple parts, in accordance with the required length of the blanks.

After turning on the grinding or turning device, the product will need to be coated with varnish (if desired - with a drawing).

But if you plan to manufacture a small number of products or a piece copy, when performing manual work, you can get by with a minimum of tools:

• planer for processing wooden surface - a plane;
• for sawing the workpiece will need a jigsaw;
• a set of hacksaws of different sizes with different teeth;
• several chisels (cutting hand tools);
• a set of incisors, necessary for grooving and planing work;
• emery cloth for sanding wood.

For those who are just beginning to master the production of tableware made of wood, it is better to start with products of a simple form.

Stages of work.

• First, make the required harvesting, cutting off the unnecessary part of the lumber, but leaving the stock, because the wood still have to be processed. If it is a plate, then it is better to take a sawn wood of the required diameter.
• The markup of the future thing is applied on the blank with a marker.
• After that, the workpiece is fixed with a vice and cut off excess parts, including recesses and special relief.
• After marking the side contours proceed to a more subtle process, using a chisel or figured cutters.
• Inexperienced craftsmen should preferably secure the workpiece and work carefully, since any inaccurate movement can lead to the removal of excess layer.

As a result, the plate acquires its originally conceived shape, but it still needs to be properly polished with emery stone and paper (the canvas is used to process curved and inner surfaces).

If a drawing is supposed (an ornament, a dot painting), then it should be done immediately before impregnation and varnishing or painting composition.

A protective layer is necessary because the dishes are designed to be eaten, which means that the food can be hot or liquid. This can adversely affect wood. But the antiseptics commonly used for this in construction are toxic, so linseed oil is used for this purpose. They need to soak the product and wait at least 24 hours until it fully penetrates into its structure.This is done simply - the finished accessory is immersed in boiling oil for a few seconds, twice in a row.

Another variant of the coating is a special food varnish, which is not exposed to UV light., water, fungal microorganisms and insects. This is a durable tool that will help protect wooden utensils from low and high temperatures, the range of its use - from -30 to +60 degrees. If such paints as acrylic or gouache were used for painting, the varnish is applied on top and perfectly preserves the ornament. Also, the tree is allowed to cover with special glue, which is an impregnation of vegetable oil and beeswax.

How to make a plate of wood with their own hands, see the video below.