Thursday, April 12, 2012

Camphor wood platter

Hi Everyone,

I'm back with photos of the camphor wood platter. This was a totally new experience for me as I've never turned camphor before and let me tell you, this was amazing. The scent is incredible!

Here are some photos:

This first photo shows the block mounted on the lathe. It's heavy, unseasoned, and even with a very heavy coat of wax, the scent of the wood comes through:



This next photo shows the blank after about 10 minutes of turning. The wood is not at all hard to turn and it has a lovely honey gold color with areas of pink wood. I've cut a shallow foot on the bottom and you can see the beginnings of the rim:



Here we are after about 45 minutes of turning. The outside is finished and sanded to 100 grit paper. Time to turn it over and hollow it out:





It took me about 10 minutes to roughly hollow out the platter after I turned it over. I'm going to leave the bottom and the sides about 1" thick to allow for shrinkage and distortion while it's drying out. The interior of the wood shows deep orange, gold, and some soft gray colored mineral staining. Here is a photo of the platter from the top and the side:




I'm finished with the preliminary turning of this piece. It goes into the drying bag now for 4-6 weeks. Keep your fingers crossed that we don't get any cracking or severe distortion in the sides. More about this project next month.


Now tomorrow I'm after some wood for the coffee table and some supplies for the wood shop. And tomorrow is my husband's birthday! So tomorrow will be a full day and a good day too.

See you then,

VW





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