Osage Orange Platter
Dominic Greco in Richboro PA
>Hi Everyone,
Below is a picture of a Osage Orange platter (or shallow bowl) I completed last night.
This rouged out Osage Orange blank was sitting around for a bit. So it was very dry when I turned it to final profile. I had planned on making the bowl a bit larger in diameter, but cracks in the walls prevented this.
I decorated the rim with a series of three burned lines. I think that they "frame" the bowl nicely. To add some details to the base, I turned three concentric beads there. You can't really see it from the pictures, but where the exterior of the platter meets the base, the transition is a bead. Hopefully, this "carries" the base motif of the turned beads over to the exterior of the bowl.
With Osage I've found that I can get an ultra smooth finish by wet sanding with 50% varnish/50% mineral spirits mix (you've probably heard me speak of this before). The resulting slurry fills the open grain of the osage and really helped to eliminate any (minor) evidence of tear out on the end grain.
Osage Orange Platter Specs:
Outer dia.: 10"
Height: 1 1/2"
Wall thickness: 3/16"
Base dia.: 2 3/4"
Sanding Method: Wet sanded to 2500 Grit.
Finish: Watco's Danish Oil
Final: Buffed with Beall Buffing System
Thanks for viewing.
See ya around,
Dominic
