I turned two oak platters recently, both from the same slab, in two different styles. One has a foot, a curved profile, and shallow cavity, the other has a flat bottom, steep edges, and a deeper cavity.

A couple years ago, my aunt and uncle in north Georgia had a big Post Oak (in the white oak family) blow over during a storm. My parents went down for a visit and my Dad and uncle milled the tree into slabs. Dad blogged about it here:

Milling timber in Georgia

Some of those slabs eventually made their way to me and have been drying in my garage.

For the first platter, I cut a circle out of the slab, which had bowed a little bit. This was very difficult to turn, as the blank was completely out of balance. My lathe shook a lot even at the slowest speed. So for the next one, I paused and planed the slab down flat before I cut out a blank, which helped a lot with the balance. It is almost impossible to get them completely balanced because wood doesn’t have a uniform density.

The turning process for a platter:

Flatten the slab to balance it out.

Cut out a circle on the bandsaw.

Attach a faceplate and turn the bottom of the platter to the profile you want. I generally do some push cuts in toward the center to flatten it out in relation to the lathe, then mark and cut the mortice, then cut the profile. All done with bowl gouges.

Sand the outside.

Flip the platter over, remove the faceplate, then put the four jaw chuck in the mortice.

Shape the rim.

Hollow out the cavity.

Here is a video of part of the hollowing process:

Sand the inside. I use a progression of 80-120-220-320-400-600-0000 steel wool.

Apply finish. I used Tried and True Original (raw linseed + beeswax), which dries and hardens.

These are both between 10.5 and 11″ in diameter.

These are the first two platters I’ve made, and it was definitely a learning process. They are going to my aunt and uncle as a thank you for the wood.

Now that I’ve made two different styles, I think I prefer the kind with a flat bottom and steep sides. More coming in the future form different species of wood! Amanda wants some out of pine and walnut.