Walnut Root Platter

[Rob Price]

I haven't been in the shop much lately, or around here, but I had an opportunity last week to get my hands on a fresh-out-of the ground walnut root ball. I happened to have the day off so I took my chainsaw over and did my best to get turnable chunks out of it. My favorite piece was this 16" platter.

By the time I got it round it's only 1" thick at the rim. It's a little thicker through the body, the outside is ogee, inside is hemispheric. I'm a little worried if it moves too much while drying I'll lose the rim and the sapwood. Part of me is tempted to finish turn it 1/2" thick or so and just let it dry. You can see it's got a chunk already missing. It's probably more of a display piece than a serving dish.

Thoughts?

[Wes Ramsey]

Looks like it will turn out nice! Did it have much grit in the wood? The last root wad I turned was full of grit and I spent almost as much time sharpening as I did cutting. I have a walnut root wad myself that I slabbed out. Was thinking about a bookmatched pair of end tables to compliment a natural-edge slab coffee table, but those projects are still a ways out.

[Robert Hayward]

Really nice start on an equally nice piece of wood. I hope it dries without moving to much for you.

[Rob Price]

I turned 4 pieces out of the root so far. Three were just like really wet walnut. Long beautiful shavings everywhere. One piece was hard and just came off the tool like a bunch of sand. Not a single curly. And it's already split big time.

[Rob Price]

Any thoughts on just finish turning it green?

[Wes Ramsey]

This is just my theory...

With the direction of the grain in a sort of V, and the sapwood being to the sides of the V, I would predict it will shrink across the width so you would likely only lose some of the sapwood at the back of the V when rounding it back out. And you'll probably lose some at the front as well which will make the natural edge area smaller. I would also expect it to roll up a bit with the sapwood warping more than the heartwood. Some of the thickness would be lost when flattening it back out, but I'd guess you will keep most of the depth.

And that's just my theory on what would happen if you let it dry before finishing. If I was in your spot I'd wrap the rim in cellophane and store it for a few days and see how it moves. If it looks like it will move too much by the time it dries then chuck it up and finish it out then. My only experience with platters that big is that they move a lot and crack easily if they are very thick. But if you turn it thin you may not have a 16" platter by the time you re-turn it. I'd probably wait a few days and see what happens. If you see extreme warpage or cracks start showing up I'd finish it out thin and let it do it's thing.

[Rob Price]

Thanks for the thoughts. This is my first big Platter. After a couple of weeks drying it is checking, the rim had a couple of cracks. The wood is so figured I want to tray and save it.

Chucked it back up, trued it up, still about 1/2" thick. I put some tinted epoxy in the cracks and let it dry overnight. I hope to finish turning it today or tomorrow and we'll see how it turns out. I'll shoot for 3/8" thick. I'm tempted to hit it with one coat of oil to slow down the drying once it's turned.

Fingers crossed.

[Wes Ramsey]

On such a big piece you may need to go thinner than 3/8" so it can move rather than crack or check. Thanks to Reed Gray I've had good luck avoiding rim splits since I saw him suggest wrapping the rim in cellophane. You wrap just the rim (and some of the bottom if it is a bowl). I picked up a 6" roll of packing wrap from the local big box and expect it to last many years.

[Rob Price]

I'll go as thin as I can. I have some of that cellophane so I can wrap the rim no problem.

[Rob Price]

Okay. It's about 3/16 now. Sanded. Wrapped with plastic wrap around the rim. I wiped it down with mineral spirits for the pics. Fingers crossed.

Edit: apparently I can't do pics from a phone or iPad. I'll update with pics once it dries.

[Bob Bouis]

Does the plastic wrap on the rim thing apply to pieces with such irregular grain?

I've found that plastic wrap can cause some sapwoods (including walnut) to darken. You might consider leaving it off.

[Wes Ramsey]

I don't know how much grain direction matters. My perspective is that it helps the form dry slower at the rim which will help avoid rim splits regardless of grain direction. I don't think I've wrapped any walnut sapwood yet, but it will indeed cause mold and discoloration if the wood is wet enough and it is wrapped long enough.