Christmas Tree Trunk Coasters
With the holidays coming up, it's time to start thinking about your Christmas tree! We love to get a real tree each year, and we hate to just throw it away after the holidays are over. So, we came up with an easy way to hold on to our memories from that year - making our Christmas tree trunk into beautiful coasters!
Let's get started!
First, remove all decor from your tree.
Take the tree to a clear space outside or in the garage.
Cut the branches off of the trunk so that you have 4 feet of the trunk cleared.
If you don’t have loppers a pruning tool would probably work too.
After that, cut off the bottom 6+ inches of the trunk that was sitting in the water stand.
Otherwise this part may rot since it was sitting in water for so long.
After that, you can hide it away to dry for a while (letting it dry for a while makes everything easier).
If you don't have much patience, you could go right at it! We started to try this to demonstrate, but got sap everywhere pretty quickly. If you take this route have some good gloves on hand and check out some of the tips at the end of the post. Otherwise, wait as long as you can for the next step.
Next, cut slivers off of the trunk for the coasters.
If you don’t have power tools, I think the best way to get good flat coasters is to use a miter box. Put the trunk on the miter box, hold it about a half-inch past the square cut and clamp it down. Start slowly sawing.
Once you have the slivers cut the coasters are ready for finish.
There are a lot of options here. My favorite is wax. You can get this at your hardware store. Shellac and tung oil will also work well.
If you can wait a few days for a delivery, Darbin Orvar makes and sells a few types of wax. Check them out! She is one of our favorite YouTubers.
Additional tips
Getting started using a miter box: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_d5g6yDWUBA
How to finish wood before it has properly dried: http://www.finewoodworking.com/2011/10/14/how-to-set-wood-sap
Reapply finish annually to keep the coasters looking great!
Resources for this project:
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Comments
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Great idea! Thank you!🎃
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I unfortunately had to have a tree cut down in my backyard and I had a smaller limb (about 7 inches around) cut like this and i use them for trivets. I love them.
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Great idea!
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Frequently asked questions
Have a question about this project?
Any sap leakage?
How do you get the rubber see meant, or some thing like that out of a glass pot. It was holding a artificial plant . I’ve cut around and that worked OK I just don’t know how to get the rest of it out .
Thank you!!