Wooden Cheese Boxes - Handmade and Painted - the Argobuilder; Craftsmanship, Adventure, Enjoying Life!

Handmade Wooden Cheese Boxes for Artisanal Cheese

December 2021

I wanted some nice wooden cheese boxes for some soft Epoisses style cheese I made; here is how I made and painted hardwood WOODEN CHEESE BOXES, 4 1/4" diameter.

Soft cheeses have been packed in wooden cheese boxes for centuries. Before I get to how I made them, here are the finished wooden cheese boxes I made for the Epoisses-style cheese I made.

Cheese Boxes with hand-painted tops.

Steps to make a round wooden cheese box:

I started with sheets of 5.5" x 100" x 1/42" Curly Maple Veneer sheets

I bought the veneer from www.veneersupplies.com and they shipped rolled up in a nice compact cardboard box.

I drew out circles for the bottom and also the lid tops.

Cut the lids out on a high speed jig saw; I cut them over size!

I cut the sides for the box and lid using a razor knife.

Below is a picture of the four parts I used to make each wooden cheese box:

1.5" x 14.5" strip for the box sides
1" x 15" for the lid sides
4.5" diameter circle for the bottom
4.75" diameter circle for the lid top
The circles at this size, are oversized and will be trimmed down later.

Wooden cheese box: box and lid sides, top and bottom.

I made these gluing forms for the lids and boxes. It took me a couple times to get these diameters just right to get a good fit between the box and lid. There was trial and error and I had to throw away 2 boxes and lids before I got it right. The lid form is 4 7/16" diameter and the box form is 4.25" dia.

Wrapping the sides around the form, the wood overlaps itself about 3/4" and I glued these together with gel super-glue.

See the gel super glue on the top of the box sides?

Gluing the lid top to the sides, the dowels in the form, help me pull the form from the lid after the glue is dry.

Here is a glued up wooden cheese box base; I chose to trim the corners at 45deg as shown, I did that before gluing them up.

Here is a wooden cheese box lid glued to the sides, you can see how over size it is. After dry, I trimmed the top flush to the sides with a sharp razor and then sanded it smooth.

After gluing on the flat tops and bottoms of the wooden cheese box, I let the glue dry, and then I carefully trimmed them with a sharp razor, finally sanding them smooth.

Used a pencil to sketch out the text on the lid

On the right, you can see the paintbrush I used and the small caps full of red and black paint.

And here is the finished handmade and hand-painted wooden cheese box!:

Here is the finished wooden cheese box

I was very pleased with this homemade Epoisses style cheese which even included a rind washed in Marc de Bourgogne.