Project Information
A (not so) long time ago in a workshop far far away…
I saw another woodworker make a very similar tray (on Etsy) when photos of his tray went viral on social media. Knowing that I am a woodworker, a couple of friends asked if I could make one for them (after I said that I could). This is the first of what will be three of these. The woods are padauk, osage orange, slightly spalted flamed boxelder, cherry and black locust. Since the piece was too wide to fir through my thickness planer (14.5"), the flattening was done with my trusty Stanley #7 (with some help from my newest planer - my beautiful Veritas #6). The stock removal for the bowl portions was done with my Whitesides 1" bowl bit. The surfacing was done mostly with my Stanley #4 on the top and my card scrapers on the insides. I did final surfacing with my bowl sanding setup (scalloped discs on a cushioned pad attached to my right-angle drill). The finish is USP grade mineral oil thinned mineral spirits. The first 4 pics were taken shortly after the second coat of oil was applied so they still show some sheen that is not there in the final product (i.e. the oil hasn't finished soaking in yet).
The lighting (flash) really changes the appearance of the osage orange. This was my first experience with osage orange, which had worse tear-out problems than purpleheart (in my hands).
The next one will be made with darker woods (by request) and I am really interested to see the contrast between the osage orange and the walnut that I plan to use.
I saw another woodworker make a very similar tray (on Etsy) when photos of his tray went viral on social media. Knowing that I am a woodworker, a couple of friends asked if I could make one for them (after I said that I could). This is the first of what will be three of these. The woods are padauk, osage orange, slightly spalted flamed boxelder, cherry and black locust. Since the piece was too wide to fir through my thickness planer (14.5"), the flattening was done with my trusty Stanley #7 (with some help from my newest planer - my beautiful Veritas #6). The stock removal for the bowl portions was done with my Whitesides 1" bowl bit. The surfacing was done mostly with my Stanley #4 on the top and my card scrapers on the insides. I did final surfacing with my bowl sanding setup (scalloped discs on a cushioned pad attached to my right-angle drill). The finish is USP grade mineral oil thinned mineral spirits. The first 4 pics were taken shortly after the second coat of oil was applied so they still show some sheen that is not there in the final product (i.e. the oil hasn't finished soaking in yet).
The lighting (flash) really changes the appearance of the osage orange. This was my first experience with osage orange, which had worse tear-out problems than purpleheart (in my hands).
The next one will be made with darker woods (by request) and I am really interested to see the contrast between the osage orange and the walnut that I plan to use.