# How it is made

*https://danishfuel.com/production/*

Upcycling means re-using an item without breaking the material down or changing its shape. Danish Fuel designs are made from old, used jerry cans collected from military surplus warehouses. This is how we do it.

![Military jerry can before upcycling](https://danishfuel.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Danish_Fuel_Bar_Cabinet_World_War2_before_psd-1024x537.jpg)![The same jerry can after upcycling into a Danish Fuel bar cabinet](https://danishfuel.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Danish_Fuel_Bar_Cabinet_World_War2_after_upcycling-1024x537.jpg)Before and after upcycling

## Zero waste

Our rule is to stay as close to the original design as possible. We only use salvaged military jerry cans, so the world history icon gets a new life. After decades of military use on the front lines there will be traces of corrosion and dents in the body of the cabinets.

## The eight steps

1.

### Collecting

Our jerry cans come from military surplus warehouses, where they were left to be scrapped. We salvage them and keep them in our warehouse in Denmark.
2.

### Cleaning the metal

Decades of weather and use leave rust, layers of old paint and the smell of fuel. To loosen it all, the cans spend 24 hours in a furnace.
3.

### Sandblasting

A mix of recycled sand and water, blasted under high pressure, brings out the clean metal in every corner of the can. Not too high, though: too much pressure would put tension into the metal. Our master of sandblasting is Kim.
4.

### Laser cutting

Precision is everything. A 3D laser cutter cuts the door and the details with very small margins, so every line aligns.
5.

### Washing and painting

The cans are steam cleaned to remove the sandblasting dust and dried straight away in an oven to avoid rust. Then we paint them in the colours that told the cans apart during the Second World War, when the colour showed which liquid a can held.
6.

### Wooden shelves

The interior is moulded plywood: layers of veneer glued crosswise at 90 degrees under heat and pressure in a press tool. Canadian oak is our base wood; you can also choose black stained oak, American walnut, zebrano or red gum (Australian eucalyptus).
7.

### Assembly

Hinges, mirrors, ID tags, locks: many custom parts go in, and building a cabinet is a bit like building a ship in a bottle.
8.

### Packaging

Some say the packaging is half of the experience of receiving a gift. Ours is a box inspired by the WWII ammunition box, the box used for every kind of supply from food to ammunition. It stacks and has a rope handle.

![](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/wnVhv2-klmA/hqdefault.jpg)
![](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/tjQwFlquQKQ/hqdefault.jpg)