Spalted Maple Platters

I did a series of bowls last year for a commission from a tree that had to be felled on a guys property. Last fall the same fellow brought me four not-so-great log sections from 2 other trees requesting shallow bowls and platters. The wood, maple & ash, was wet, punky and cracked. After shortening the logs and running them through my bandsaw I ended up with about 20 2”-slabs from which I cut disks. I only ended up with 4 usable pieces and even then they were cracked throughout but the beautiful spalting made the extra effort needed to save them, worthwhile. Here are 3 of the platters for your perusal. It was only when I started to upload these pix that I realized I had no single pix of one of the platters. The 4th piece became a beautifully spalted 7” shallow bowl but you’ll have to take my word on it. The client came by yesterday and happily took all 4 pieces before I could get a picture. All pieces were heavily dosed with CA glue to counteract the punkiness, sanded to 2000 grit and given 3 coats of tung oil. They were then buffed and waxed.

-- Ken in Sharbot Lake, Ontario