We got a whole lot of rain around Halloween of 2015. A real gully washer, with floods and all that good stuff. I make a point to take a stroll down near the creek after rains like that, looking for interesting pieces of wood that I can do something with. It's a treasure trove of stuff. I used to bring home pretty much anything, but have become more selective over the years. These days I have a rule: if I want to add something to the pile of stuff out back behind the garage, I have to get rid of something that's already there: either I made something from one of the pieces, or I give away something (or throw it in the burn pile). Fortunately, there's still a lot of questionable stuff in the pile, so I haven't had to burn anything really good.
Anyway, I took a stroll down by the creek on Halloween after the water had receded a bit, and I found this piece of walnut.
platter1.jpgplatter2.jpg
That's right at 36" long, 20" at the widest part, and 11" on the narrow end. The front side is a little over 3" thick.
I didn't know what it was when I got it. I had a pretty good idea what I wanted to do with it, but had to let it dry out for a while.
When I did get time to play, I pulled out my trusty angle grinder (I love that tool) and went to work:
platter3.jpg
I had hoped to keep as much of the found shape as I could, but there was a lot of burned material. That forced me to re-shape the area at the top right in this picture. I took about a half inch of burned material out of the middle. The front is only about 2-3/4" thick now. Oddly, I didn't get a picture of the back side at this point.
Then the thing sat in my garage for a while. A few months later I did some additional shaping with my 2" Foredom angle grinder, and filled the larger cracks with crushed malachite, then put it aside again. For three and a half years.
I finished building out my shop recently, and have begun finishing old projects. (I know nobody here has unfinished projects . . .)
Over the past couple of weekends I ground down the crushed stone in the cracks and sanded the entire thing by hand. Man, that was a lot of sanding. Here it is after I finished rough sanding with 60 grit:
platter5.jpgplatter6.jpg
That burn spot on the bottom was really thick. I probably would have had to take off another 1/4" or 1/2" to get rid of it, and I just didn't want to take that much off. I had originally planned to flatten the bottom some, but it was too much work. The thing rocks a little bit (okay, quite a bit), but that should be fine for a display piece.
In any case, I completed sanding this evening (200 grit on the back and front side, 300 wet on the inside of the platter).
Finish will be many coats of mineral oil. Add a coat of oil, wait a day, coat it again, lather, rinse, repeat. I figure it'll take a week or two for the back, and another week or two after I turn it over. Finally, I'll add a couple coats of that Howard Butcher Block Conditioner, which has some wax in it.
As much as I'd like to keep this piece, I have no place to put it. So I might just see if I can sell it. That'll be an adventure, I'm sure.
Anyway, I took a stroll down by the creek on Halloween after the water had receded a bit, and I found this piece of walnut.
platter1.jpgplatter2.jpg
That's right at 36" long, 20" at the widest part, and 11" on the narrow end. The front side is a little over 3" thick.
I didn't know what it was when I got it. I had a pretty good idea what I wanted to do with it, but had to let it dry out for a while.
When I did get time to play, I pulled out my trusty angle grinder (I love that tool) and went to work:
platter3.jpg
I had hoped to keep as much of the found shape as I could, but there was a lot of burned material. That forced me to re-shape the area at the top right in this picture. I took about a half inch of burned material out of the middle. The front is only about 2-3/4" thick now. Oddly, I didn't get a picture of the back side at this point.
Then the thing sat in my garage for a while. A few months later I did some additional shaping with my 2" Foredom angle grinder, and filled the larger cracks with crushed malachite, then put it aside again. For three and a half years.
I finished building out my shop recently, and have begun finishing old projects. (I know nobody here has unfinished projects . . .)
Over the past couple of weekends I ground down the crushed stone in the cracks and sanded the entire thing by hand. Man, that was a lot of sanding. Here it is after I finished rough sanding with 60 grit:
platter5.jpgplatter6.jpg
That burn spot on the bottom was really thick. I probably would have had to take off another 1/4" or 1/2" to get rid of it, and I just didn't want to take that much off. I had originally planned to flatten the bottom some, but it was too much work. The thing rocks a little bit (okay, quite a bit), but that should be fine for a display piece.
In any case, I completed sanding this evening (200 grit on the back and front side, 300 wet on the inside of the platter).
Finish will be many coats of mineral oil. Add a coat of oil, wait a day, coat it again, lather, rinse, repeat. I figure it'll take a week or two for the back, and another week or two after I turn it over. Finally, I'll add a couple coats of that Howard Butcher Block Conditioner, which has some wax in it.
As much as I'd like to keep this piece, I have no place to put it. So I might just see if I can sell it. That'll be an adventure, I'm sure.
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