Im going to continue today with some work on the white ash and cumaru wood plates.
Here is the white ash plate as its the easiest of the two turns:
The White Ash plateI really enjoy turning white ash. Its got a lovely color that food looks great on, its not as hard as some of our other domestic hardwoods here in the US, and it has a very bold grain pattern. It also turns very well. Im often surprised that it isnt used by turners more than it is.
I found several pieces of it last week at my friends the cabinet makers at Forrest Wood Products in Oakdale and bought them both and I cut out a platter blank from one of the pieces:
Here is the underside of the plate about 10 minutes later. Its got a nice arc and Ive smoothed with with my skew chisel. Time to flip it over and hollow out the top of the plate:
Here is a photo of the finished plate. This type of a design cant have any surface imperfections. It must be smooth and have a nice arc and I think Ive managed to get that in this plate:
And here is a photo of the plate with some wood shavings on top in order to convey depth in the photograph. This will need a very smooth, fine sanding:
The Cumaru Wood plateCumaru wood is an imported hardwood from Brazil that is mostly used here in the US for flooring and decking. It is very very dense and it has an interlocking grain which makes machining it difficult to do. It tends to dull tools very rapidly and it is hard to work with. The upside of this wood is that its really beautiful. It has a deep golden brown color and a beautiful grain pattern to it and I think it will make a neat plate.
Here is a picture of the blank on the lathe. You can see the sharp corners. If one of those corners should hit my hand or arm while the blank is spinning, it could result in a very, very bad accident so set up with this type of turn is important and this certainly isnt a turning project for the inexperienced turner. (and heres my diclaimer: this is dangerous and so Im not showing the process photos for this. Dont do this turn on your own.)
Here is a photo of the turn after about 15 minutes of turning. You can see how the surface is dished out. This hollowed area will have to be taken all the way to the edge of the blank without damaging the corners. This is more difficult than it sounds as I cant see the corners as theyre spinning. All I can see is a shadow and so I have to very carefully sculpt away the wood at the edge. The total turn time for this was about 90 minutes. I did it very slowly.
Here are some photos of the finished plates from todays session. This is the cumaru wood plate. You can see how it appears "bent" and the corners are still there. The surface is really beat up and this is going to take quite a bit of sanding to fix:
This is the walnut plate. Ive narrowed the rim somewhat and sanded it a little. Im not sure if Ill eave the inner rim in place. Ill have to think more about this:
And here is the white ash plate with a small candle on it to convey depth. This also needs a lot more sanding:
All of the plates are going to need considerable sanding before finishing. I think all of these plates will look great with a coat of linseed oil on them so thats probably what Ill do. Im going to do the sanding off line (not much to see there) and let you know when the plates are ready for oiling and well do that together so you can see the finished products.
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