When your fruit crate is securely glued together, use sandpaper on a straight sanding block to sand back any protruding ends. The crates can be roughly sanded as they were usually made from rough rather than finished lumber.
Sharpen a hard drawing pencil (2H) to a fine point and use it to mark tiny nail heads on the ends of the wooden sides of your crate where it meets the end. These crates were assembled with small tacks and smaller strips of wood would have two to three nails on each end. The end of a full sized crate would have as many as twelve nails holding the sides to the end. Using a hard drawing pencil allows you to indent the mark for your silver nail head slightly (a softer pencil will break if pushed gently into the wood) .
Fill your crates with your choice of produce. Many of the labels for fruit and vegetables from Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the United States can be found in label museums on the internet.
