Thread: Blackwood Serving Tray

A friend gave me some Tasmanian Blackwood offcuts a couple of years ago and I decided it was time to find a use for them. The Blackwood is an extremely hard timber, with delightful patterning in its grain, varying from dead straight to quite complicated whirls. The offcuts were all dressed 70 x 21mm and varied in length from 500 to 800mm. I saw a photo of a serving tray which, with changes to suit my purpose, became the basis of something for elderly hands to assemble in the nursing home environment where I volunteer .

It's pretty simple and those who might like to adapt it to their own purposes will have no difficulty doing so. Two longitudinal pieces, cut from 90 x 19 DAR pine, offer a contrast in colour, bond it all together, and provide the risers at each end, drilled to take 25mm pine dowel as handles. The Blackwood was cut to 500mm lengths, the pine cut and shaped to suit. The whole thing is biscuit jointed and bonded with PVA. I made a template for assembly purposes to ensure everything aligned and used light clamping to hold it together as the glue dried. Two strips of 21 x 8mm Blackwood act as ties on the underside and also act as feet.

The first photo shows individual pieces in preparation and the last photo shows one nearing completion, with a second almost ready for its parts to be sanded The template can also be seen.

As you can see, even with just the first coat of clear varnish, the Blackwood comes up a treat.

Carrier.jpgMelmen, Carry Tray.jpgMelmen, Carry Tray 2.jpgMelmen, Carry Trays, Under Way.jpg