Cleaning and Maintain Wooden Tea Tray (Cha Hai)

[DailyTX]

Over the years, I have collected a number of Tea Trays/Tea Boats/Cha Hai made from various materials. Most of them look good over time aside from a bit of tea stain. Recently, I was cleaning my wooden tea trays (I have 2, both have carvings), and I noticed a few scratches, a bit of glaze wearing off. I want to prolong the life of those two trays, anyone have experience/knowledge on refinishing your tea tray surface? A lot of tea shops have those giant tree root tea table, anyone know how they maintain the wood and glaze to make it look nice over time?

[Bok]

Isn't chahai the term for the pitcher? Otherwise also know as gong daobei.

[Balthazar]

Two meanings according to Babelcarp:

Cha2 Hai3 (Cha2 Hai3) = (茶海) literally Tea Sea, in gong fu tea preparation different sources use this for two different tools: (1) serving vessel into which tea liquor is decanted from the brewing pot, and (2) a wide vessel to catch the spillage and perhaps keep the pot and/or cups warm in a bath of hot water

(sorry about the OT )

[Victoria]

I apply mineral oil on bare wooden trays a few times per year. Mineral oil doesn’t go rancid or smell, and is food safe. Let it soak in a few days before using. If yours is varnished, or sealed with something, first I recommend you identify what seal was applied, then use a few grades of fine sandpaper and reapply a light finish wherever needed. You might need to do this a few times to get a good thick reseal.

[lUKAV28]

Few months ago I bought really nice tea tray from Michael Vermeij and he has really thorough instructions for maintaining his (or others) wooden works. Hope it helps.

“ Care & Food Safety

Cleaning
Hand-wash your handmade wooden boards after each use with mild soap and warm water. Wipe by hand and allow it to dry upstanding & separately from other boards. Most important, never allow your board in a dishwasher or standing water… your beautiful board can split or crack under those conditions. White vinegar or lemon can be used to disinfect and remove smelly odors.


Maintaining
Use a food-safe or mineral oil to polish your board when it starts to look a bit pale or dry. Grapseed oil is a good choice for a few reasons. It’s a non-allergic and odorless product that, in contrary to olive and sunflower oil, doesn’t interact with water…..and thus doesn’t grow rancid. Doing so, it helps to maintain a beautiful finish, it prevents cracking and protects the grain against bacteria or undesired odors.

Warm the oil a little bit before applying. Rub the oil with a clean cloth, or better, with your hands, best is in the direction of the grain. Allow the oil to soak in between each of the 2 or 3 coats required. Wait a few hours to allow the oil to penetrate, usually up to 6 hours. Wipe off the excess that did not soak in all the way.”

[klepto]

Thanks for this information as I was very curious how to clean mine.

[DailyTX]

Thanks for this information as I was very curious how to clean mine.

@klepto
Members here are super resourceful
@Victoria& @lUKAV28
I did some reading on mineral oil and other wood oil products, I came across a Tung oil. There is this brand that is popular for food safe:

I wonder if anyone has any experience with this product?

[OCTO]

Just cleaned my solid wood tray. Sharing some photos. I use food safe cleaning agents like denture cleaners to remove some stubborn tea and mineral stains. I just keep it simple, if it's safe to clean objects we put in our mouth, it's safe. Otherwise, it's just a simple hot water rinse after every session.

Cheers!

Before

IMG_0154.JPG (240.76 KiB) Viewed 10725 times

After

IMG_7267 2.JPG (217.72 KiB) Viewed 10725 times

[DailyTX]

Just cleaned my solid wood tray. Sharing some photos. I use food safe cleaning agents like denture cleaners to remove some stubborn tea and mineral stains. I just keep it simple, if it's safe to clean objects we put in our mouth, it's safe. Otherwise, it's just a simple hot water rinse after every session.

Cheers!

@OCTO
Your tray served you well
I may have an addiction on adopting tea tray lol. For my recent acquisition, I decided to use a mineral oil product (Food safe) to clean the whole tray, and when the cleaning process is done, I purchased a bottle of grapeseed oil for polishing. I also picked up Butcher’s block oil for maintenance. Hopefully this tray will serve me many years to come

[OCTO]

Just cleaned my solid wood tray. Sharing some photos. I use food safe cleaning agents like denture cleaners to remove some stubborn tea and mineral stains. I just keep it simple, if it's safe to clean objects we put in our mouth, it's safe. Otherwise, it's just a simple hot water rinse after every session.

Cheers!

OCTO
Your tray served you well
I may have an addiction on adopting tea tray lol. For my recent acquisition, I decided to use a mineral oil product (Food safe) to clean the whole tray, and when the cleaning process is done, I purchased a bottle of grapeseed oil for polishing. I also picked up Butcher’s block oil for maintenance. Hopefully this tray will serve me many years to come

@DailyTX

I think we may be in the same boat... hahahaha.... I would usually keep oil based products far away from my tea trays. Don't want to risk getting my pots oiled up... hahahaha....

Cheers!

[DailyTX]

Just cleaned my solid wood tray. Sharing some photos. I use food safe cleaning agents like denture cleaners to remove some stubborn tea and mineral stains. I just keep it simple, if it's safe to clean objects we put in our mouth, it's safe. Otherwise, it's just a simple hot water rinse after every session.

Cheers!

OCTO
Your tray served you well
I may have an addiction on adopting tea tray lol. For my recent acquisition, I decided to use a mineral oil product (Food safe) to clean the whole tray, and when the cleaning process is done, I purchased a bottle of grapeseed oil for polishing. I also picked up Butcher’s block oil for maintenance. Hopefully this tray will serve me many years to come

DailyTX

I think we may be in the same boat... hahahaha.... I would usually keep oil based products far away from my tea trays. Don't want to risk getting my pots oiled up... hahahaha....

Cheers!

The tray has a mini island I assume It’s for teapot stand. I picked up replacement tubing for waste water draining. All I need now is a silicon sleeve to cover the teapot stand to prevent direct contact between the pot and tray. Finding a good fit silicon sleeve would be challenging...I may need to consider other material....

[Victoria]

... I would usually keep oil based products far away from my tea trays. Don't want to risk getting my pots oiled up... hahahaha....

Hi Octo, it is hard to tell from your photo how your tray is treated, looks like it is sealed. All woods have natural oils that prevent them from splitting and drying out. For maintaining the wood either a seal like a varnish, urethane or sim is used, or naturals oils are applied. If clay teaware is bathed and ladled in hot water that comes in contact with the wood the best option is a multi-layered food grade seal. Sometimes ten coats are applied for long term use, that can then be resanded in-between to rebuild the seal. If a seal is not used then applied oils like mineral and tung oil penetrates the wood to preserve it for long term use. Some extremely dense hard woods like Ironwoods and Ipe are surprisingly resilient and only require oils every few years, if that.

[Victoria]

The tray has a mini island I assume It’s for teapot stand. I picked up replacement tubing for waste water draining. All I need now is a silicon sleeve to cover the teapot stand to prevent direct contact between the pot and tray. Finding a good fit silicon sleeve would be challenging...I may need to consider other material....

A picture would help. Also are you using a dry or wet teaware sessions? In any case, first you need to identify what was used to seal the tray in the past, most likely urethane or varnish was used for a tray. Sanding it down and reapplying the finish several times will make it like new. The oils you described are fine as well for unfinished wood, just make sure to the let them fully penetrate the wood and wipe off any excess after a few days. For continuous wet sessions a complete seal is the best option for long term care. If I understand correctly you are also looking for silicon tubing connectors, those are available in most hardware stores.

[OCTO]

... I would usually keep oil based products far away from my tea trays. Don't want to risk getting my pots oiled up... hahahaha....

Hi Octo, it is hard to tell from your photo how your tray is treated, looks like it is sealed. All woods have natural oils that prevent them from splitting and drying out. For maintaining the wood either a seal like a varnish, urethane or sim is used, or naturals oils are applied. If clay teaware is bathed and ladled in hot water that comes in contact with the wood the best option is a multi-layered food grade seal. Sometimes ten coats are applied for long term use, that can then be resanded in-between to rebuild the seal. If a seal is not used then applied oils like mineral and tung oil penetrates the wood to preserve it for long term use. Some extremely dense hard woods like Ironwoods and Ipe are surprisingly resilient and only require oils every few years, if that.

@Victoria

I remember a fellow tea buddy who was into woodworks told me it's chemically treated. Honestly, I would just use it until it splits as it's not a 1 piece solid block. Then I'll move on the the next tray... hahaha.....

Cheers!!

[DailyTX]

The tray has a mini island I assume It’s for teapot stand. I picked up replacement tubing for waste water draining. All I need now is a silicon sleeve to cover the teapot stand to prevent direct contact between the pot and tray. Finding a good fit silicon sleeve would be challenging...I may need to consider other material....

A picture would help. Also are you using a dry or wet teaware sessions? In any case, first you need to identify what was used to seal the tray in the past, most likely urethane or varnish was used for a tray. Sanding it down and reapplying the finish several times will make it like new. The oils you described are fine as well for unfinished wood, just make sure to the let them fully penetrate the wood and wipe off any excess after a few days. For continuous wet sessions a complete seal is the best option for long term care. If I understand correctly you are also looking for silicon tubing connectors, those are available in most hardware stores.

@Victoria
I haven't tested the finish/glaze to be sure, I have narrowed down to either urethane, varnish, or lacquer. The finish is still in usable condition, so I think re-finish the tray will be a project later down the road due to the tray has inlay of what I believe are bronzes, coppers, and shells. I did re-finish cabinets, tables, sculptures before, but I have never re-finished a piece with inlay. I'll need to do more research to see how to preserve the inlay. As for tea session, I use mostly Yixing pots, and this tray is perfect for wet session. Here is a photo of the tray, it looks a bit shiny because I haven't wipe down the cleaning oil. For cleaning oil I used this product: