Sweet Gum Plate

Sweet gum plate

Over the past few months, I’ve been working on this plate. It’s made from sweet gum that a friend sent me. I started with a piece that was roughly 12 inches square (300mm) by 3 inches thick (75mm). I finished with a plate that is just under 12 inches in diameter, and about an inch thick, and which isn’t quite flat. Sweet gum moves a lot as it dries, and I didn’t account for this movement in my initial turning.

The thickness of the plate itself is under a quarter inch (6mm), probably closer to ⅛ inch at the thinnest spot, but I don’t have a caliper that can measure it accurately.

Back of sweet gum plate

But I think the plate is finally done. The finish is tung oil and shellac, applied by french polishing, after a number of initial coats of oil. It’s food safe, but I don’t know that anyone will ever eat from this plate.

In my numbering of turned bowls, this is number 48.

This plate was large enough that I needed to turn the head of my lathe and work with the plate parallel to the ways of the lathe, rather than the usual perpendicular arrangement.

Turning the sweet gum plate with the head of my lathe turned 90 degrees from the ways

#bowl #plate #sweetGum

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