A bit ago a lady had asked me to make her some wood lids for mason jars, years ago she had purchased some from a wood turner who has retired and no longer makes them. I thought about it for awhile, put in on my to do list but after getting my sweet Elite Ball Jars for the board butter I got to thinking some wood mason jar lids would be beautiful on those jars. I styled the first ones just like the ring itself with the little notches to give a grip and attached the ‘real’ ring on the inside of the turning…love them.
They are so wonderful to use, the wood feels nice when you twist the cover on. A collection is stunning on open shelving with different size jars, I make them in both regular and wide mouth, have also made some deeper ones to fit on my collection of vintage atlas and crown jars.
A bit of trial and error when coming up with the best way to go about making them.
Turning the outside profile
There are a few steps…..first you need a wood thickness of about 7/8 ths of an inch. Then after marking the circumference you have to cut out the circle blanks and turn them. I used double sided tape on a false faceplate, secured with my tailstock and turned the outside to the dimension and profile that I wanted.
Using the chuck and jaws to turn the inside to fit the metal ring
Then I put them inside the jaws of my chuck to turn the inside, keeping care to size for a good fit to the outside of the metal ring and the right depth so the metal of the ring will be hidden. I do not like a sloppy fit with space showing around between the ring and the wood, I am weird like that..haha
The top of the lid is carved a bit to give the lid some grip for your hands. The metal ring is attached and then they are oiled with sunflower oil, left for a couple of days to dry and buffed with a topcoat of board butter.
They are wonderful things, so great to dress up a jar of homemade preserves or pickles that you are gifting, they allow you to keep the seal on your jar, just changing the ring. A special gift that can be used for years, I made them in both regular and wide mouth sizes. To ship, I do not have to send the jar which adds to the shipping costs, just the lids.
I made the little fired stoneware tags and add them to orders if you are thinking of giving a gift from your kitchen or a ‘food in jar’ gift. I have made some with layers of recipe ingredients in the jar, they were a huge hit and so pretty, I wrote the recipe directions on a nice gift card and tied it to the jar with twine.
Every once in a while you make something that suits your own lifestyle and no matter how many you make you still LOVE them . These lids are one of those things, just a wonderful way to use up small pieces of leftover wood from my kitchen boards. I used to have a large supply of small scrap wood too beautiful to put in the wood stove, not any more.
Wonderful housewarming gift for a friend or just to add some warmth to your own kitchen shelving or pantry organization.
I have listed these in my Cattails Shop, you can choose the species of wood and the sizes.
The post Wood Mason Jar Lids , for beautiful Pantry and Open Shelving appeared first on Cattails Woodwork by Brenda Watts.