CREATING A LETTERBOX

by Kirbert

Updated 4/14/2011

Where you begin when creating a letterbox is a matter of preference. You might be inspired by stumbling upon a really juicy location, and then design a rubber stamp and prepare a container that are fitting for that location. Or, you might decide on a theme for a letterbox, or a series of letterboxes, design the rubber stamps accordingly, and only after they are in hand do you set out to find places to hide them.

Whatever gets you started, one of the first steps will be to make a rubber stamp. I provide Rubber_Stamp_Carving_Tips on a separate page.

CONTAINER

The next job is to find a suitable letterbox container. Ideally, the container will provide both protection from physical damage and a watertight seal against the elements. The watertight seal is harder to come by than you might think, however, so in some cases one must rely on baggies to keep the log book dry and accept that the container will only serve to protect the baggies from damage.

With letterbox containers, smaller is only better in a small percentage of hiding spots. For most hides, a larger container will hide just as well as a tiny one. With the larger container, people don't have to cram to get the stamp and log book back in -- which bodes well for the durability of your baggies. Also, it's nice to choose a container with some extra room for hitchhikers.

The ammo box so popular with geocachers is typically much larger than you need for a letterbox, although it will work if you have the space to hide it. The ammo box is the gold standard of physical protection and reliable sealing against water intrusion, and they can be purchased for reasonable prices from your friendly army surplus store.

There is another container available from an army surplus store that's more appropriate for a letterbox. It's commonly called a "decon container" and it's a small plastic container with a snap-on lid, in camo green of course. It works very well.

The "entree" size plastic food storage container is a typical size for a letterbox, but nearly all of them seal surprisingly poorly. The thin plastic Glad and Ziploc containers leak, and they're not all that great for physical protection either -- they tend to crack, especially in cold weather. The premium Rubbermaid containers with the rubber seal around the edge of the cover are physically tough and may seal fairly well when new but the rubber lip always seems to get contaminated with dirt and starts leaking.

The best food storage container is the Lock&Lock container -- but be sure to select a rectangular one in which the latches run the full length of all four sides. The round Lock&Lock containers typically have four puny latches around the circumference and hence don't latch as reliably.

The only downside of a Lock&Lock is that some people manage to put the lid on upside down -- which will latch but it won't seal. You can't believe anyone can be so stupid until you find a letterbox with the top on upside down and the contents soaked.

There are other brands of latch-top containers available, and many of them work well. SnapWare looks pretty much like a Lock&Lock except the latching tangs are on the flaps rather than on the sides of the base. As a result, the lid cannot be installed upside down, which avoids the one issue with Lock&Lock -- but SnapWare containers have been known to have the latch break completely off, which is not good.

Other ideas for containers include plastic screw-top food containers such as those used for pretzels, nuts, mayonnaise, coffee, or peanut butter. You'll want to remove the original gasket under the cap; it's probably paper, which won't really keep water out, and it probably smells like food. To provide a reliable seal, go to a building supply store such as Lowe's or Home Depot and purchase some "shower pan liner". It comes on a big roll, four or five feet wide, and they cut off however much you want for you. It's usually about $1.20 per square foot. From this shower pan liner material, cut out suitable gaskets and insert them in the screw caps for your jars.

Also, make sure the top edge of the jar itself is smooth; sometimes a foil seal isn't removed cleanly and leaves a ragged edge. To clean it up, lay some sandpaper on a flat surface, turn the jar over, press it down on the sandpaper, and move it around until it cleans up the edge of the jar. You may also want to burnish the inner and outer corners of this edge so people don't cut themselves reaching into the jar.

This author has been using screw-top jars with shower pan liner gaskets for years, and the results have been outstanding. Contents typically look as good as if they had been stored in a dresser drawer all that time, no dampness or mildew at all. There are only two downsides to the screw-top jars: 1) Some elderly people with arthritis have some trouble getting them open and closing them securely when done. And 2) sometimes the gasket falls out of the cap and finders can't figure out what it is so they just jam it into the container and screw the top back on without it. I've taken to writing directions directly on the gasket itself to make sure it's in position in the cap when closing.

You can make a very durable container out of PVC pipe. You can select the size and length pipe you need. Glue a cap on one end. Some just jam a cap on the other end, but that's not recommended; it often ends up really difficult to get off. A better idea is a test cap, which is a rubber cap that's secured with a hose clamp and generally available nearby in the plumbing supply section. For this job, you can omit the hose clamp and just push the rubber cap in place. Another idea is to glue on a threaded fitting and use a screw-on cap, although sometimes those are difficult to get loose as well; some letterboxers have gone so far as to glue a handle on the cap to make it easier to unscrew. There are also rubber couplings intended for connecting two sections of smooth pipe with two hose clamps; you can use such a coupling to connect two sections of pipe, each with a hard cap glued onto the other end. There are also fittings known as "unions" which involve a flat face with an O-ring for sealing and a big nut to hold it together, and those are usually easy enough to get apart by hand. The downsides of all this: Although PVC pipe is pretty cheap, by the time you buy all these caps and fittings and the PVC cement to assemble it, it's probably going to be considerably more expensive than most other containers.

A few other container ideas to mention:

Film canisters: popular for hitchhikers because they're small, but they are not reliably watertight -- and having to use baggies inside is not likely to work because the space is so cramped. In general, only use film canisters indoors, inside other containers, or otherwise where they won't be exposed to the elements.

Prescription pill containers: These are not reliably watertight, and they can also easily get cracked. If used outdoors, make very sure the contents are securely protected by baggies. Interestingly, the ones with a snap-on cap have proven somewhat better at remaining watertight than ones with push-and-turn childproof caps.

Glass jars: The usual recommendation is to avoid containers made of glass because children finding the letterbox may accidentally break it and hurt themselves. Perhaps this is sound advice, but there are exceptions. This author placed the "P-51 Mustang" letterbox in St. Petersburg, FL using a plastic screw-top container, and within a couple of weeks received reports that the container was all torn up. Evidently that location is a popular place for people to walk their dogs, and the dogs would sniff out the container and chomp on it. Amazingly, the box never went missing -- evidently the dogs' owners would retrieve it from their dogs and rehide it. Visiting letterboxers applied duct tape over the tooth holes to help keep water out. The next time I was in the area I replaced the plastic container with a glass screw-top container, and it remained far more secure after that.

Here's an idea for a long, slender container to fit in that crevice you've been wanting to hide a letterbox in: Take two small containers and connect them end-to-end with aluminum tape. With some containers, you can tape them together butt-to-butt so there's a cap on each end, and with others you can tape the caps together so the jars unscrew from the junction. Either way you end up with one long two-compartment container. Put the log book in one end, the rubber stamp in the other.

I've found some prescription pill containers that have a cap that goes on one way with a push-and-twist, but you can just flip the cap over and it simply screws on. With this type cap, you can make a double-compartment container without taping; just screw one container onto each side of the same cap.

Two pill containers sharing the same cap

Unfortunately, prescription pill containers are not reliably watertight, so you'd need to hide them somewhere protected from rain.

Make sure it's easy to get things in and out of your container. If the container is large, an opening large enough to fit your hand into is a good idea. For smaller containers, an opening with smooth sides so you can turn the container over and things fall out is good; prescription medicine containers and 35mm film canisters fit this description. What you do not want is something with a small screw-on cap that's necked down from the body of the jar, like most vitamin bottles, because it becomes a battle to get anything to come out. When a finder must try to get ahold of one bit of a baggie and tug to try to get stuff to come out, the baggie will soon be torn and everything inside will get damaged pretty quickly.

Some letterboxers skip the entire idea of a container at all and simply put all the contents into a baggie and hide that. If it's an indoor hide, this can actually work -- but it won't work long for an outdoor hide. The squirrels will chew through the bag. You need more physical protection than that.

I should also mention the "planter's pouch". The idea is to take a freezer bag and cover the entire exterior with duct tape. The usual design involves creating a flap made entirely of duct tape that folds over the opening and tucks under a strap -- also made entirely of duct tape. Surprisingly enough, these things work really well! The duct tape protects the freezer bag from getting damaged. The biggest downsides are that 1) finders often fail to reclose them properly; and 2) big nasty bugs like to hide under the flap and scare the bejeezus out of the finder when opening.

CAMOFLAGING YOUR CONTAINER

With some containers -- and some hiding locations -- you may want to paint the container. For hiding in the wilderness, ideally you should apply a camo paint job -- which is not a single color but rather a hodgepodge of two or three colors to break up the silhouette of the object. Flat black can be one of the colors, but for the others you'll need genuine camo paint -- regular flat green or flat brown doesn't work nearly as well, trust me on this. The Krylon and RustOleum camo paints come in three different colors, an olive drab, a brown, and a gray. For most woods hides, you can get away with just the dull olive green camo and a generic flat black. Apply a first coat of one, and a second coat with another, making sure the finished product is blotchy.

For the flat black, Painter's Touch by RustOleum is highly recommended. It's a bit cheaper than the camo colors, but it's also better quality paint and has better coverage. Rather than drying in a couple of minutes, Painter's Touch takes a full half hour to dry. It sticks remarkably well to most plastics, but not to the lids of screw-top plastic jars -- I always apply black or brown duct tape to the lid and then paint over it.

You can also consider automotive trim paint, which is available at auto parts stores, commonly in "satin black" for painting rubber and plastic bumpers and trim. It's much more expensive than regular flat black paint, but it's also more durable. It works great on bumpers, too.

The paint job will get scratched and dinged up in the wild. It may not be pretty any more, but it'll still be difficult to see under a bush.

If you prefer not to paint, you need to either find containers made of the right color plastic to begin with, hide them where color won't matter, hide them inside a camo bag, or cover them with camo tape. Camo tape is available in sporting goods stores (including the sporting goods department at Wal-Mart) as well as army surplus stores. Camo tape is kinda expensive (twice the cost of regular duct tape, for some reason) and it doesn't last more than a couple of years exposed to the elements, but it provides effective camo while it lasts. Also note that there is some really terrible camo tape out there with colors that really don't blend well, the greens are too bright. Finally, note that there are two general types of camo tape, camo duct tape and some tape that's intended for wrapping gun stocks. The latter stuff is designed to peel off easily while not leaving any residue, and it reportedly falls off a letterbox container too easily.

A camo bag works well. The trick is to find some material that is both camo (that blotchy pattern of olive green and brown again) and durable enough to hold up without rotting or falling apart. Then sew it into a bag to hold your container.

You might note, in this age of terrorism, that there may be an issue with painting plastic containers. With deliberately hidden containers, especially ammo boxes and capped sections of pipe, sometimes a muggle will find one, conclude it's a bomb, and call in the authorities and get everybody all excited. As a result, some area authorities have requested -- or even required by law -- that letterboxes and geocaches be hidden in clear plastic containers so that the contents can be verified without touching them. In some cases, you can effectively camoflage a clear plastic container by just painting blotches on it, leaving clear areas for seeing the contents. I dunno if this would meet the letter of the law. If you leave the container transparent, it becomes important that the contents are camo colors, too; you don't want a bright red log book in there.

Some people go to much greater lengths to camoflage their containers. Taped-on plastic ferns and leaves, dangling shards of camo-colored fabric, you name it.

It's usually a good idea to write "LETTERBOX" on the outside of the container; it helps accidental finders realize it's not litter. One method that works for me is to paint one area with the camo paint and then write on that area with black permanent magic marker. That maintains the camo while still providing a clear, readable label. I also sometimes use a silver or white colored pencil, which shines a bit but doesn't really harm the camo.

Another popular idea with transparent plastic containers is to mask off a rectangular area while painting, and then write backwards on the inside so it can be read through the clear plastic.

It is recommended that you write the name of your letterbox on the outside, and also the web site where the box is listed (atlasquest.com, letterboxing.org, etc.) This way, if the bomb squad finds it, they can look it up online and confirm what it is.

LOG BOOK

You also need a log book. You'll be amazed how difficult this is, because you need one with no lines! A high percentage of the books you can buy with unlined pages are either waaaay too big for a letterbox (artist's sketch pads, etc.) or are cute little things with inferior binding so the pages are falling out by the time you get through the checkout line. You also either need pages that are heavy enough that ink won't bleed through to the other side, or enough pages that there's no need to use the back sides of pages.

My solution is to make logbooks. The easy way: buy a package of 100 unlined 3x5 cards. Holepunch one corner, run a piece of string through and tie it, you're done. I've found, though, that 3x5 is bigger than I like, so instead I buy 8-1/2 x 11 "cover stock" at Staples (which is slightly lighter than card stock) and cut each sheet into eight 4-1/4 x 2-3/4 pages. Or, 4x6 unlined cards and slice each one into two 3 x 4 pieces. Or, 5x8 unlined cards cut into four 2-1/2 x 4 pieces each. It helps to have a big heavy-duty paper slicer to do this job, but the little plastic sliding slicer type intended for home use will also work if you do only one card at a time. If your paper slicer doesn't have some sort of adjustable paper stop, you might try taping a ruler down on it so you can slide the paper right up against it and make every cut exactly the same size. You can also opt to cut the paper into a special size and shape needed to fit inside some particular container you intend to use -- or into the baggies you plan to use.

Find some flat sheet plastic from some packaging that would otherwise get thrown away to make "covers" for this little log book. I make the covers just a hair larger than the paper on all sides. Don't try to cut such plastic with the cheap sliding-cutter type paper slicer; instead, lay a ruler on it and run along the ruler with an X-Acto knife (which you have on hand for making rubber stamps). Trim the sharp corners with a fingernail clipper. Ideally the covers and/or the pages themselves should provide enough stiffness that a rubber stamp can be successfully applied while holding it in your hand, no need to find someplace flat to lay it on while stamping.

Another idea is to tie the book together using a bolt and nut in one corner. Or you can use a keychain, if you have spares.

Alternate plan B: I sometimes use containers that are entirely too small for such loose-leaf logbooks. Here's what I do there: buy a package of cash register paper, which comes in rolls 2-1/4" wide or 1-1/2" wide. One package will have hundreds of feet of paper, all unlined. Cut off about 10-15 pieces about 11 inches long, stack them neatly, and staple them together at one end. You can then roll this little "book" up really tight -- in fact, the 1-1/2" version will fit inside a 35mm film canister! The paper is thin, but you can get a lot of it in there. It's curly and constantly tries to roll up on you, but it's pretty easy to hold flat when stamping -- but the stamper will need to have a flat surface to work on.

The reason to cut them to 11" long is that someday somebody might want to lay the pages on a flatbed scanner and scan them. Most flatbed scanners won't handle pages longer than 11".

BAGGIES

Usually you will want to put the log book inside a plastic baggie. Besides the regular food storage baggies you can buy at the grocery store, you can also buy a package of 100 smaller "craft bags" for a couple bucks at crafts stores. It's also usually a good idea to put the rubber stamp, wrapped in cloth or paper towel, inside a baggie as well, but always use a separate baggie.

I say "usually" because sometimes a baggie is counterproductive. Some letterbox containers have a very reliable seal, such as a Thermos bottle that I used once. And sometimes the baggie gets caught in the lid when it's being screwed on, causing a leak that wouldn't have happened if the baggie had been omitted. Assembling a letterbox without baggies is called "going commando". The only problem with that idea is that some helpful letterboxers decide the baggies are missing and install them, causing leaks in the future.

Some letterboxers insist on two baggies on each item, and note that often one baggie has failed while the other saved the log book. I like to point out that, if you've got one baggie inside another, usually one or both of them will fail. This is because it's such a PITA to be fiddling with all those baggies. When you're all done, it can be difficult to figure out if you've closed them properly. One sound baggie is probably better than a lot of fiddling with multiple baggies.

Always make sure your baggie is plenty big enough for the stuff you're putting in it. There's no surer formula for a torn baggie than one that you must cram something into to get it to fit.

Note that baggies come in different "mil" ratings, the measurement of the thickness of the plastic. The craft bags are perhaps the thickest and most durable. Some heavy-duty freezer bags are also very durable. At the other end of the scale, the "sandwich bags" that come in a box of 200 are so thin you can scarcely tell they're there, and they tear at the drop of a hat.

Whether or not you get the type of baggie with a little zipper on it is a subject for debate. I have found the little zippers to be unreliable -- they often zip right off the end of the baggie. I also believe they don't seal as well at the corner where the zipper rests. However, they are a great deal easier to use, especially for older letterboxers with arthritic fingers. Having a baggie that may or may not fully seal when the zipper is closed is better than a baggie that the finder couldn't close at all.

You might also consider containers within containers in lieu of baggies. For example, you could put your rubber stamp inside a prescription pill container instead of a baggie and then put the pill container inside your letterbox. This would actually be better, since a prescription pill container will protect the rubber stamp from physical damage as well as water damage (rubber stamps are actually not particularly susceptible to water damage). Similarly, you could roll up a log book made from cash register paper, put it inside a pill container, and put that entire container inside your letterbox. Pill containers are not reliably waterproof, but they may be as good as a baggie; they're definitely better than a torn baggie.

INK PAD

It's optional whether or not you include an ink pad in the letterbox. If your rubber stamp demands an unusual color ink, it's a good idea to include one. I offer a separate page on ink pads. A baggie may help your ink pad last longer without drying out. A baggie may also help prevent disaster.

If the stamp image just calls for black ink, or it doesn't matter what color is used, it's a better idea not to include an ink pad. Letterboxers will bring their own. You can tell them what color to bring in the clue listing.

PEN

Unless you require an odd color ink or something, there's no need to include a pen in the letterbox; letterboxers will bring their own.

COLORING PENCILS AND MARKERS

You may want to provide colored pencils or markers for coloring the stamp image after stamping. Judging from this author's experience at earning Blue Diamonds on atlasquest.com, letterboxers really like coloring stamp images! It is my opinion that stamping an image in black and then coloring it with colored pencils or markers is much more fun and results in a much better image than trying to use multiple colors of ink on the stamp itself.

Colored pencils are great for coloring stamp images; they come in zillions of colors and you can cut them short enough to fit in the box even if the box is really tiny. Remember you must include a sharpener in the letterbox -- and the blade in the sharpener can rust, so provide a dedicated baggie for it.

You can also provide highlighters or other felt-tip markers for coloring. You can often find them in really tiny versions, made to be used as a key fob or something. This author isn't terribly fond of markers; it's difficult to use them without getting a "blotchy" appearance, they sometimes bleed through the paper, and the colors will usually run when wet. And of course the markers often dry out in the letterbox.

Never, never, never put pens or pencils inside the baggie with the log book! They will punch holes in the baggie. Put them in the container outside the baggie; moisture generally won't damage pens or pencils.

INTRODUCTORY MESSAGE

You will want to include a message to any non-letterboxers who find the box by accident. This printed message likewise needs to be protected from water. One way is to have it laminated, but make sure to cut out the paper first and then cut out the lamination leaving at least 1/4" around all sides of the paper. If the paper comes to the edge of the lamination, moisture will seep in along the edge and ruin it.

Rather than laminating, I usually just use another baggie. Craft bags cost only about two cents each. I arranged that my printed note was exactly the right size to fit neatly inside one. If you can open and print a MicroSoft Word document, you can just download my note and use it. I also have the same note in OpenOffice Text format. I usually print it on green paper, which somehow makes it look more official and it also helps the camo if the container is transparent.

Another idea is to just include the introduction note in the log book. You can print it the right size and include it as the first page.

CONTACT THE PLACER NOTE

Some people add a note asking finders to report on the condition of the letterbox. The traditional method is to place some stamped self-addressed post cards in the letterbox that have already been stamped with the rubber stamp in the letterbox. That way a finder can just take one with him and write on it later and post it at his convenience -- but it also gives complete strangers your home address which some people would rather not do. Another way is to just place tiny slips of paper in the letterbox with your e-mail address, so they can just take one of those with them. The simplest idea is to just to make the request in the log book and hope the finders take the time to read it and respond. Or you can forget about mentioning it in the letterbox at all and just rely on a request at the letterboxing.org or AtlasQuest.com sites to contact the placer.

I must say that all of these ideas have only limited success. After hearing of only a few finds via e-mail or online logs, I often visit one of my letterboxes to find several times as many stampings in the log book as I expected to find. Apparently there are a lot of letterboxers out there who see no point in logging their finds online or contacting the placer.

HIDING THE LETTERBOX

I have not yet written any guidelines for hiding letterboxes and writing clues. I don't consider myself much good at it. If "Red's Bunch" would create a set of guidelines, I'd just link to them! Just as with the carving of the stamp, though, keep in mind that it is an activity to be savored and enjoyed.

I do have one recommendation: Hide your box as securely as possible. Whether or not the box is easy to find should be a function of how clearly you write your clues, not how obvious the hiding spot is. The hiding spot should not be obvious at all; ideally, it should be a place nobody would ever look unless they had clear written instructions to look there.

Here's an idea: When you're at the site, hide the box and jot down a complete description to yourself about how to find it. Maybe even take pictures, not only of the hiding place but of the surroundings, the entrance to the park, nearby road signs or landmarks, etc. When you get home, before posting the letterbox on LbNA and AQ, mull it over for a couple of days. You may come up with something clever, like a story or a poem or a unique method of presenting the info needed to find the box. A couple of days of the box waiting in the wild won't hurt.

In fact, it might help. A geocacher once told me that he was remarkably successful at being the FTF on new boxes because he took his dog along. His dog could smell where someone had been recently, and would lead him right to where the box was hidden. You've gotta wait a few days to prevent this sort of cheatin'.

FLOOD-PRONE AREAS

In the area where this author lives, a remarkably high percentage of letterboxes are hidden in flood-prone locations. A great many of the parks in the area are parks simply because the area is flood-prone, nobody wants to build any buildings on the land. And often the prettiest or most interesting locations are near a river or lake or coastline.

It's really irritating when you are sitting down to watch the news and the first story is about how high the flood waters are and you realize that your letterbox is probably far out to sea by now. It doesn't matter if the container is watertight and the baggies are sound if the box is gone. The first priority in such hides is to make sure it stays put; worrying about keeping the contents dry is secondary.

One method, of course, is to hide the box up high off the ground. This is only good for about six feet, though, unless you expect your finders to climb trees. There are areas here in N FL that regularly flood 20 feet deep or more. Besides, often the opportunities for hiding well off the ground are limited at best.

My method of choice is to tie the letterbox down with a length of string. Not only will this greatly improve its odds of still being there after a flood, it also helps muggles note that it is not litter so they don't just throw it away without first looking to see what it is. Sometimes I will include a clasp that allows the finder to disconnect the box from the string to carry it away for stamping in and then refasten it when done, but that's not really essential; he can just open the container and remove the contents to carry off.

If you have any comments or suggestions -- or additions -- please write me at "palmk at nettally dot com" or visit http://www.letterboxing.org or http://www.AtlasQuest.com and look me up (Kirbert) and use the "contact the placer" function to drop me a note.