I recently purchased a small wooden flip-top snuffbox off of Ebay, and I’m finding that some snuff will leak out around the edge of the lid when it’s closed. Any suggestions on how to make it fit tighter? Would you suggest the steam technique (putting it in the bathroom when I take a shower), or something else?

Possibly as a last resort, or a second to last resort. Warping can go very badly if you are not careful. Clear nail polish or super glue would be my ultmate last resort. Begin with something you can remove easily like beeswax.

Ok, pardon my ignorance, but how does one go about doing that? Do I just get a beeswax candle and rum it on the edges of the lid?

More or less. Get a small piece and lightly rub along the seal. It may work. The trouble with all these remedies is that they can all makes things worse than before, but if you have a leaky snuff box and want to use it you take a shot. Go with wax first. If that doesn’t work, a very light steam, maybe 10 minutes in the bathroom with nothing more than a hot shower running. Leave it somewhere at room temp to dry and then re-assess, gauge how much more warp you need or if its solved the problem. Very hit amd miss and the sort of thing long discussions are made of, but this is essentially it. Nail polish, or various varnish layers as a last resort as Xander says. Anything after that and you’re getting into conservation techiques.

gents … while not a flip top … one of my single compartment PC snuff boxes lid/top is sliding right off. would either the steaming or bees wax candle option be good for tightening the fit for this? i know there is a thread to address this, but search didn’t yield the result i wanted. thanks …

I had a Heartwood box (slide top) with a loose lid and I did as Pieter advised. Put a drop of superglue on the edges of the lid and spread across in very thin layer then allow to completely dry (and I mean COMPLETELY!) then put it back in the box. If it is still too loose repeat the process, if too tight then get very fine grit sandpaper and gently sand it down until it fits right. I did this to my box well over a year ago and with daily heavy use it still fits perfect.

Remember that PC boxes are quite fragile. I wouldn’t do anything other than a very light coat of beeswax along the join. Failing that I would put it on display. Steaming such a thin lid would probably warp it beyond use or even split it. PC boxes are beautiful but I have had one literally fall to bits in my hand through over use; that says something about what they can stand. Heartwood boxes are much weightier; a PC box won’t stand much sanding. PC himself warns about doing pretty much anything to them. There’s a thread somewhere but you would have to google it given the state of our search engine.

thank you both n9inch and snuffster … this particular one doesn’t go anywhere with me … so i suppose i can just leave it in a drawer and pull out for occasional use. snuffster … i did not realize how fragile PC’s boxes were … that is something i will keep in mind going forward. the seal on the rest of them are very tight. quite frankly i use the triple tech’s tap box functionality as my method, so overuse of opening and closing lid won’t be an issue, just refilling. thanks again!

They are robust enough for ordinary use - they just wont take being carried in a pocket full of change for a long while, as a Heartwood or one of the old clover leaf Jura boxes would; so using a few in rotation is all thats needed. The lids just wear down with use and slacken off; just a vaguery of the type.

I’ve been using my PC box pretty much every day since I got it (courtesy of @Snuffster, actually!). And whilst it doesn’t look as beautiful as it once did, it’s perfectly serviceable and demonstrates no real signs that it’ll fall apart any time soon. I’m not sure whether I’ve just been lucky , but it’s definitely a case where peoples experiences may differ.

I have about half a dozen of Patrick’s boxes. Never had any problems. Stefan

And you likely won’t. I was very remiss in treating my first PC box like an old tin. I liked it so much it went everywhere and it just spit in two, the body, one day. My fault, not the box, buts thats how I treat my battered old jura - PC boxes are fine for normal use but take his own advice and don’t try to do too much with them.