Thread: Platter - design questions

Originally Posted by rsser

As a gift I'm going to turn this chestnut blank as a functional platter. For serving cheeses etc.

It's 14" diam so I'm thinking to turn a rim so's the thing can be carried without a thumbprint on a ripe brie

For the finish I'll use a high resin content oil. To fill the pores and to resist staining.

What do you think?

How thick is the blank? Can you add a raised lip to stop the crackers from sliding off? Maybe come up with some brilliant way to hold a knife on there as well?

Yeah, it's about 40mm thick so there's scope for dishing to keep those pesky water crackers inside.

Good thought about some way of retaining cheese knives. I was assuming the various knives would be stuck into the cheeses. Maybe a partial raised laminate on the rim with slots?

Originally Posted by rsser

Yeah, it's about 40mm thick so there's scope for dishing to keep those pesky water crackers inside.

Good thought about some way of retaining cheese knives. I was assuming the various knives would be stuck into the cheeses. Maybe a partial raised laminate on the rim with slots?

Can you turn / make a matching cheese knife? If you know the dimensions of the knife to be used with it, you could have an appropriately shaped indent somewhere. If you place it in the middle, you could be extra brilliant and work in some handle type thing on the reverse.

I think a simple design where the crackers are on the outside and a flat plateau is in the middle of the platter would do. There are many ceramic inserts you can buy for this purpose. I've used a mixture of tung oil and citrus turps in the past which has worked a treat, it burnishes brilliantly and is food safe. Besides, I thought that, after your AWR experiment, that you're the finishing expert! hehe. We'll have to catch up again sometime, I enjoyed our last get together.

I would probably roll the edge over and under with a decent bead diameter to get the hand that carries it a good grip

Yeah; I was thinking about a slightly rounded over top rim, maybe 15mm across, for the thumb.

Knives: dunno about other folk but I like to serve around 3 diff cheeses and they need diff knives to avoid messing up the tastes. Think I'll back away from that refinement.

Finish: Scott, I'm no expert. After the AWR article tests, all I know is what questions to ask!
The Chestnut is fairly open pored so it needs a finish with a high resin content or it needs wet sanding (aka hard burnishing). I have little patience with wet sanding. OTOH a high resin content finish will if overdone be prone to knife scratches.

Originally Posted by rsser

Yeah; I was thinking about a slightly rounded over top rim, maybe 15mm across, for the thumb.

Knives: dunno about other folk but I like to serve around 3 diff cheeses and they need diff knives to avoid messing up the tastes. Think I'll back away from that refinement.

Finish: Scott, I'm no expert. After the AWR article tests, all I know is what questions to ask!
The Chestnut is fairly open pored so it needs a finish with a high resin content or it needs wet sanding (aka hard burnishing). I have little patience with wet sanding. OTOH a high resin content finish will if overdone be prone to knife scratches.

Using a satin finish might help get around the problem on the last one I did I used BLO and let it dry for several days. Then gave it a rub with 0000 steel wool and finished it off with two coats of satin WOP and again gave it several days to dry out.

I've only done one functional platter so far, for whole fruit.

Used Rustins DO. It didn't cope well with the sweating of citrus fruit. (There's still 3 peeps in the household; I missed that; at $2 per lime for the +1's G&Ts, they sit for a while often).

Having left a recess in the platter bottom it was poss. to cut it back, and another couple of coats of finish, of FW Scandinavian oil that time, performed much better.

Dunno about the effects of cheeses and subsequent washing; still have some of the FW so will try that again. And again leave a recess.

I'd like to see it with a handle, (look up french bread boards), very functional!

Yeah, that could work well too.

But breadboards are a dime a dozen.

With chestnut, there has to be a back story that likely appeals to the recipient as it would to me. It has to have come from the NE valleys of Vic and that's where it'll go back to.

hi rsser,
if you are open for suggestions
how about a platter with a dip section in the middle,
if there is enough ''meat'' in the blank,a bit like this one
21042013.jpg
cheers smiife

Thanks for the suggestion smiife.

Confess I hadn't thought about a dip bowl in the centre. May need to speak to the 'client' about what she wants.

Started in on it this arvo.

Trued the outside from top down. Too big for over the bed so the outrigger was needed.

The wood is fairly soft and very ring-porous. Sharp edges on the tools are essential.

The biggest dovetail jaws in the kit only reached mid radius so I cut a recess for them in a step and then put a bead on the base closer to the rim - as it's a functional piece and knives will be pushed down on it the widest base support is called for. I don't much like the look of the base but can't be bothered with the process needed to tidy it up. It's a gift, not a work of art.

Notes on the pics: I like faceplate rings and the one pictured is the T/tool 130mm that fits on the Titan Powergrips. The centring widget in the pic is not for that ring but for the largest VM faceplate ring I have and is included just for interest. Screws are square drive units that I recommend for faceplate ring fixing.

Does the Chestnut smell like the nuts? Dunno. It sure is offending my mucous membranes.

Outside done.

One coat of FW Scandinavian Oil. Chosen as it has a fairly high proportion of resin without producing a plakky-like result. Another coat will go on tonight.