Twice Turned Platter?

[Edward Weingarden]

I've done many twice turned bowls, but never a platter. I looked on Youtube but didn't find anything showing a twice turned platter; only single turned. Is there any reason it wouldn't work like when doing a bowl? For example, too much distortion? Thanks.

[Reed Gray]

My first guess would be that since platters are thinner than bowl stock, most will use dry blanks rather than green ones. Best platter blanks are quarter sawn, straight through on either side of the pith. You get less cupping that way... If you take a plank size blank, rift sawn I think they call it, about half way between the pith and the outside, you can get a lot of warping, Twice turned will work if you start with green wood though.

robo hippy

[John K Jordan]

I like dry stock since as Reed said, green will likely warp. Wide platter stock is often plain-sawn which will warp even more in the middle close to the pith. If twice-turning green I'd want to start with a pretty thick blank and leave it fairly thick to dry. But then, why not just let the blank dry first and not have to deal with the warping? A 1.5"-2" blank usually won't take more than a year or so for some species like soft maple, walnut, cherry. With a platter there is not much hollowing which makes turning green appealing for deep bowls.

JKJ

[Edward Weingarden]

Thanks for the feedback. I think I'll try one green, leave it thick, let it dry (and hopefully it won't crack), and try to re-turn in the future. Only thing I have to lose is a piece of wood I picked up on the side of the road, and time.

[Al Wasser]

I would ask what do you gain my rough turning a platter! Wax it and let it dry.

[Thomas Canfield]

I often turn large natural edge pieces thick that end up being "platters", say 18" long by 10-12" wide by 3-5" high turned to about 3/8" to 1/2" thick. The middle has little if any height to call it a bowl so I call them platters. The platters can handle cards, fruit, and display items. Some are oil finished for food use and other finished with Danish oil blend and waxed . The platters will fit on a shelf where a 18" D piece will not fit on normal shelf. Platters are cut from green tree sections. Yes, they warp and some will crack beyond use, but I can get 3 or 4 blanks out of a 20+D tree section and better utilize the tree.

[Edward Weingarden]

Al:
What I'm trying to accomplish by rough turning the platter is not having the slab sit in the shop for 3+ years before I can finish turn it. I do twice turned hollow forms that I can do the finish turn after about 4 months, and bowls after about a year. I just don't have the space to allow things to accumulate for that period of time.

[Pat Scott]

What I'm trying to accomplish by rough turning the platter is not having the slab sit in the shop for 3+ years before I can finish turn it.

I used to rough turn my platters but don't anymore. Two main reasons why I don't are: 1) I didn't allow enough thickness to the rough turned piece and it warped and distorted so much that when I trued it up I had a small plate instead of a platter. This may have been because I didn't cut a quartersawn blank (too many years ago). 2) When you rough turn a platter you are committed to which is the top and bottom. Sometimes during the drying cycle a crack or other defect will occur that would look better on the bottom instead of top, or if you were to orient the blank the other way around you can turn the defect away. For example if a crack happens in the rim area, reverse the blank and make that the bottom of the platter and turn the crack away when shaping the bottom.

Now I just cut a 2" thick quartersawn slab from either side of the pith like Reed said. I cut it round on the bandsaw, wax it, and let it dry. I don't clean it up or turn it round, just leave it as is (providing your chainsaw cut is straight). After it dries I'll decide which is top and bottom.

With all that being said, if you want to rough turn I would not make it any less than 1" thickness. That should give you enough to straighten the rim after it dries.

[John K Jordan]

Al:
What I'm trying to accomplish by rough turning the platter is not having the slab sit in the shop for 3+ years before I can finish turn it. ....

Many species will not take that long to dry. I have soft ambrosia maple 2" thick that was dry in less than 1 year. (my shop is heated/air conditioned which might help)

I weigh the blank and write the weight on a piece of tape stuck to the wood. If the weight doesn't change over a period, say 2 months, the wood is as dry as it's going to get. (I don't weigh every piece - if I have several about of similar size I just weigh one or two. When that one is dry, I use a pinless moisture meter to compare values from the other pieces.) This does take a bit of space but you can fit a bunch of platter blanks on one shelf.

JKJ

[Leo Van Der Loo]

Larger platters in the 15 to 20 inch range are hard to come by in quarter sawn, as you would need 35 to 45 inch trees, solid hardwood trees that large are not commonly used to make turning blanks from.

406715 406716

I just finished 7 larger trays/platters, they where rough turned and have been stored in my heated shops, here and in my previous shop in London, having sat for several years they have had both very dry winter air and humid summer air conditions endured and have had the wood move as it does from wet to dry.

406714

I have tried the shorter drying and returning of platters (1 year or so), and they always will move some more over the next year or two, so they are wobbly, not what you would like.

Returning after that is problematic as the piece is also not exactly round anymore, flattening the foot ring (if you turned one on it) is about all you can do, and that does work.

406717

I have finished 6 or 7 large platters in the last week or two, 15 to 18 inches, these have sat at least 6 years and longer and these will move very little from now on as is my experience, though some still will still move a hair later.

I like to use platters with the crotch or feather showing in them, and you pretty well have to use the center of the log to get that, and you need a bit thicker blank to be able to flatten it when returning them (2 inches or so).

406718 406719

A couple I did return twice to get them to stay flat, but they are worth doing that IMO

And yes sometimes a rough turned piece will do exactly what you are afraid it might do, and you get something like this one, where all I could use it for was a wall hanging decoration, that worked OK that time :).

406720 406721.

[Edward Weingarden]

Pat, John, and Leo:
Thanks for all of your wonderful insights and suggestions.

[Brice Rogers]

I got a nice 24" slab of Magnolia. Gorgeous. But it was cut a bit to close to the pith. I cut it down to make an 18" platter. I rough turned it to a thickness of about 10%. I stuck it into a thin cardboard box made to fit it perfectly. I periodically weighed it and when the weight stabilized I pulled it out. Yikes, it looked like it folded down the middle. The two sides had an angle of about 150 degrees. Rather than making 2 or 3 eight-inch bowls, I sawed it in two and then ran it though my jointer. Then I glued it back together. It resulted in a gorgeous platter about 17" in diameter.

If I was going to do it again, I wouldn't have used a slab so close to the pith.

[Leo Van Der Loo]

I usually don’t have so much warping that I do loose anything from the size of the blank as it was rough turned to, except for the shrinking of the width of the wood, to keep the crotch figure you have no choice but to cut right at the centreline, like the platter with the feather here, there is another one from other side of the pith.

And pretty well al my platters are from slabs cut next to the center, what does help some is turning a higher rim when rough turning, it does give the wood a lot more strength to resist the warping while drying.

As I have been doing a bunch of platters (for setting up reasons) I have several finished but have a few that I might return still, or not and place them back to do another time, so I made a couple of pictures of what I’ve done so-far and what is still to be done.

406893 406894

Just mounted for picture making, and some that will have to be returned yet.

The 22” rough turned platters have about a ⅜” higher edge against the lowest part of it, something there is plenty of wood for to deal with when flattening when returning them.

406895 406896

[Mike Nathal]

Mike Mahoney has a nice video on twice turned platters (quartersawn)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6TJlEOzF5wI&t=849s

[Leo Van Der Loo]

Mike Mahoney has a nice video on twice turned platters (quartersawn)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6TJlEOzF5wI&t=849s

yes the quarter sawn wood is much easier to turn and has less problems with drying, however besides it often looking boring wood, there is less than half of the size piece of wood from a tree, to get some better size platters you have to find very large trees, and these are getting very rare, like the Oak tree Mike lucked into, try to find another one regularly in that size for turning stock.

Even large logs like these will get you less than a 15” rough turned Quarter sawn turning, and after drying and returning maybe 14” finished if you are lucky.
406943