Small footed platters

[John K Jordan]

I've made a pile of these, none perfect, of course! About 9" across, pretty easy to make. These are Cedar, Cherry, and figured English Walnut. I make the base thick so it is heavier and more stable.

Good for chocolate and cookies. I like to give these for birthdays and weddings.

The first one I tried, the cedar, came apart twice at the bark inclusion while turning. Superglue.

penta_plates_comp_small.jpg

I just made another one from Basswood for chip carving. It's ironic how softer wood is sometimes harder to turn.

JKJ

[George Conklin]

Beautiful work, Sir!
I have recently tried my hand at similar forms and found those quite challenging. Dealing with the proper tool angle to avoid chip out and sanding proved so much more difficult. After working with one of these I had to make a simple bowl just settle my nerves.
Again, your work here is outstanding.
Thank you for sharing.

[Thom Sturgill]

I would generally go for a larger base, but these are nice! Of course most of my plates have just been canvases for carving and burning...
Did you shape the rim before or after turning?

[John K Jordan]

Dealing with the proper tool angle to avoid chip out and sanding proved so much more difficult.

George, Thank you for the kind words!

I use small (3/8"?) Thompson bowl gouges with a very sharp mild fingernail grind to shape and scrape and spindle gouges with long swept back grinds to shear scrape. The softer wood is more of a problem, works better for me with high speeds, sharper tools, "whisper" cuts, and moving the tools very slowly.

I have a secret about surfacing and finishing, don't tell anyone: I sand very little and much of it off the lathe. Often 400 grit is enough, sometimes 600, but sometimes I have to start with 320. The real secret is this:
scrapers_.jpg
...cabinet scrapers. I use them to remove any tool marks resulting from my shaky hands, both with the work spinning and with it stopped.

Those with the broad curves are great for the inside curve of the little platters. Smaller rounded ones are good for the tighter curves on the bottom.

I also ground some small scrapers from Thompson tool stock (he sells round bars) and from some of his shallow spindle gouges. These are small negative rake scrapers with flat and rounded tips. The round rod makes them perfect for negative rake shear scraping on the bottom of the foot which then needs nothing but a bit of 600 paper if anything. (The small negative rake scrapers are the best think I know for glass-like surfaces on end grain in hard woods, such as on the lid and bottom of a turned box.)

I've been using the little cabinet scrapers for many years now. I use them mostly for face work but the small rectangular ones are good for smoothing long, very thin spindles too (such as for conductor's batons) where even a sharp skew will sometimes cause too much chatter. One advantage is the lack of sanding dust - I haven't done any power sanding for years, there is simply no need. It also saves money on sandpaper! The biggest disadvantage is they need to be sharpened often.

OK, off my cabinet scraper soapbox now!

BTW, I put a few pictures of turnings on a Facebook album if you are interested in taking a peek. I mostly do small things with an occasional 18" platter or something for variety:
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?...1&l=7913a23da6

JKJ

[John K Jordan]

Thom, Thanks! I have made some with larger bases but kind of like this size and shape.

As for carving and burning I tend to decorate, carve, or put detail into featureless wood and leave wood with interesting figure alone. For example, magic wands made from holly and figured maple:
wand_holly.jpgwand_maple_point_P7203960s.jpg

The rim is shaped before turning. I turn these exactly like a bowl, starting with a 9x9x2" or so blank:
- Mark center, trace outline, bandsaw, belt sand curve
- Use screw chuck in face to turn bottom with recess for chuck
- Chuck in base recess and turn top/face.
- Use sandpaper glued to strips of plywood to soften edges.

Good clean fun!

JKJ

[George Conklin]

Scrapers and being able to start with 320. Outstanding!
Thank you for freely sharing your "secrets" with me, (us).

[mike pockoski]

Thanks for sharing, John... i think I know what i'll give a spin tonight! Those are really nice.

thanks for urging me to get off my butt to get some scrapers too... They've been on my "to buy" list for a long time, and i do way too much sanding!

(btw, that 16 inch platter on your Facebook is really beautiful. did you texture that band by hand, or with a knurling tool?)

[John K Jordan]

(btw, that 16 inch platter on your Facebook is really beautiful. did you texture that band by hand, or with a knurling tool?)

Thanks! That sapele platter was textured with a Sorby texture/spiraling tool. I was hanging out with Frank Penta at JCC and he, a texturing maniac, urged me to texture the fool out of it! I was somewhat more restrained so I textured the band with the Sorby then used a vibrating engraver to texture by hand around the edge, which you might be able to see on this:

platter_PC012780_e_comp_med.jpg

This platter did work out nicely and it has a story afterwards. We auctioned it off to raise money for a young mother with terminal cancer who had two little girls. When I got the address of where to send the platter to the winning bidder it turned out to my oldest son who lives in another state! Surprise, surprise. :-)

I did disappoint Frank when I failed to texture another, larger, platter and its little brother I made at the same time. The larger of these is over 18" in diameter, also of Sapele. My Lovely Bride uses these for cookies and such.

platters_two_comp.jpg

JKJ

[John Grace]

First...I'm envious of what you consider 'not perfect'. Second...I now have two great ideas to 'borrow'. Question...how did you achieve the gentle curves on the pieces in your first pictures? Those pieces are simply lovely. As for the scrapers...that's another one of those 'I never would have thought of it' moments...can't wait to try it out.

[John K Jordan]

First...I'm envious of what you consider 'not perfect'. Second...I now have two great ideas to 'borrow'. Question...how did you achieve the gentle curves on the pieces in your first pictures? Those pieces are simply lovely. As for the scrapers...that's another one of those 'I never would have thought of it' moments...can't wait to try it out.

Thanks, good fun!

For the curves: I liked the idea of what I saw on Franks plates but I modified the curves to suit me. I drew a square on a big sheet of paper and drew long center lines on the horizontal and vertical axes. I used a big compass to draw a gentle curve as an arc on each side then made a template. The outline is bandsawn then belt sanded to the line before turning. (That's what's not perfect on this one. I need to be more careful.) After turning I use sandpaper glued to a block to not only round the edges but to ease the corners between each curve.

Hey, in writing this I just had an idea for a variation I can't wait to try. Well, rats, I'll have to wait.

Oh, here's a different view of the walnut one. This is some very old english walnut which was just above the black walnut graft in on a huge walnut tree in California. A guy gave me three thick (3-4") slabs of this maybe 30" across that he got from his dad so who knows how old it is. I'll have to thank him again if I ever run into him. I've made several of these and some other things from this wood and the figure is always spectacular. Scrapers again for this, front and back.

penta_plate_walnut_small.jpg

The scrapers: I bought little scrapers at Highland Hardware over 10 years ago and few more at Woodcraft a few years ago. These are pretty thin. I also have cut and ground my own thicker small scrapers from larger scrapers. They do have to be sharpened with a grinder/file occasionally and a burr properly turned with a burnisher.

Note that I use these held in the air away from the tool rest and often with the lathe turning in reverse, sometimes alternating. What ever works - if I have trouble I try something else. Note: I use a VERY low speed and often with the lathe turned off.

Over the years this has become my primary way to smooth face-turned things and a few spindles. Remove the nub at the bottom of a bowl - no problem (with lathe off only). I seldom have the problem of dips in softer areas like sanding sometimes does. Once I was turning a horribly pithy (half rotted) spalted yellow poplar 3-corner dish (using the cube method) and having a terrible time. The combination of repeated application of thin CA glue to stabilize the wood, the scrapers to smooth and some very fine sandpaper gave a glass-like surface. I may have given up or ended up with junk with just sanding.

The cherry one in the picture was so close to firewood but was rescued with a scraper. When turning the surface looked fine. After applying the finish I almost gagged - it had horrible concentric ripples that didn't show up until then. A friend looked at it and said no one would probably notice it, but I did. The large, gently curved scraper took all the rings out. I rechucked it and held the chuck between my knees to work on it.

Note that using scrapers is not necessarily a fast way to smooth compared to sanding, but to me it is more controllable and more enjoyable without the clouds of dust. Fortunately I turn for fun instead of money and the time means nothing to me. And I'm long retired. :-)

One caution. When discussing this on another forum a long time ago someone mentioned he was injured when trying to use a fairly large hand-held scraper on the inside of a vessel - it got away from him, lodged in the hollow, and turned the thing into a food processor. Don't do that!

I've told many people about this and showed it in some of my demos but AFAIK not many people use it.

BTW, I first started using scrapers about 15 years ago when I made my second bowl ever. My first one was from glued-up red oak board scraps. This one was eastern red cedar and I, a complete novice, dutifully sanded away my horrible tool marks and considerable tearout. (I also learned about sharp tools that day.) Unfortunately the heat of the sanding caused tiny checks to form in the cedar end grain. Ack!!! In trying to solve this I grabbed a large curved cabinet scraper which I had never used and found it worked as well as sandpaper but without the heat and all the dust. Hey, if it works for fine furniture makers, why not woodturning.

My second bowl, long time ago:
cedar_bowl.jpg

JKJ