Wood US idea

Make a toe pincher coffin candy dish for Halloween

For some reason Ive been meaning to make a Halloween candy dish for a long time and never got around to it until this year.

Coffin styles

I decided a coffin would probably make the most sense as a recognizable Halloween design. My first thought was an ornate, rectangular, Dracula-style casket. The biggest problem with that plan is that a trick-or-treat candy box needs to be seen in dark conditions. A vampire coffin could come across as just another box. The solution would be heavy ornamentation and a silky, padded lining.

Then I remembered the classic "toe-pincher" coffins you see town undertakers building in old westerns. That six-sided shape is uniquely identifiable as a coffin. You probably wont confuse it with a jewelry box!

Making it look rustic

The fun part about building this was making it look as though it had been build by one of those old west undertakers. Individual boards held together with narrower cross braces. To make mine look even more authentic, I used scraps of pallet wood containing splits, stains, and nail holes. Although I glued it all together, I added some rusty coffin nails.

If you would like to make your own, here is the cutting template I made for mine:

• WWMM Coffin Candy Dish templates (pdf) 

You could certainly experiment with the size. Mine is 13" long by 6" wide. It seems to hold plenty of candy.

You will also note that I didnt bother to figure out the angles needed to create the six sides. Since it is rustic looking, I wasnt concerned with cutting anything exactly. I just sort of estimated the bevels and made them work, gaps and all. If you want to turn this into a fine woodworking project, you would probably want to figure out the exact angles and cut them accordingly.


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