A different looking maple

[Frank Parker]

On my last wood haul I got one maple log that had a dark brown heart, none of the other logs had that. I love woods with a great contrast between the heart and sap wood, so I couldn't wait to finish something from it. the problem is that the heartwood shrank and warped way more than the sapwood. This plate started as a 13" bowl, but by the time it finished drying it was a football and all I could salvage was a 8-1/8" by 1-1/8" plate turned to a 1/4" thickness. because of the colors and figure I'm more than happy with it.

Frank

[Frank Parker]

On a side note this was one of hardest pieces of my maple I've dealt with. It dulled one of my bandsaw blades in a matter of minutes and I was always resharpening my gouges.

Frank

[John Fricke]

Did you take any pics of the "football" ? Sometimes the warped pieces are very interesting as art pieces. The finishing process is more difficult though when you can't do as much on the lathe.

[Steve Schlumpf]

Wow - great looking wood! Very nice platter/plate/shallow dish! Love the grain patterns - looks like it moving! Hope you can find some more of this darker wood - it's great!

[Chris Rae]

Beautiful piece of wood!! The grain patterns are really great, very nice job on the plate and finish also.

[Alan Trout]

Frank, Wonderful piece. I to like stark contrast in wood. Looks great!!

Alan

[Norm Zax]

Great piece! Well done indeed.

[Keith Burns]

Excellent platter Frank, couldn't be any better !

[alex carey]

Looks great, everything about it works.

[Bernie Weishapl]

Beautiful plate Frank out some nice wood. I like the contrast also.

[Jim Kountz]

Well you should be happy with it, it came out great!! I really like the colors and your form looks fantastic!!

[Dave Halter]

That's beautiful. You should be very happy with that.

Dave

[Marc Himes]

That certainly is a nice piece! The contrast and grain variation is really interesting. Nice work!

Marc Himes

[Larry Marley]

Wow, that's pretty

[Brian McInturff]

Frank, that's a great looking piece. The form is absolutely perfect for that wood. And a top notch job on the finish too. I think you get 3:cool::cool::cool: for that one!