MATERIALS
Once the platter is in balance, the proper work may begin. A good piece of hardwood, well-cut, is capable of the sharp, precise edges of machined metals. And each is different.
Oak is a mean wood, tough and unforgiving, while purple heart skirls sweetly off the blade. Ebony screeches out grains like gunpowder, and padauk throws off peelings bright and red as blood in SoCal sunlight. Zebrawood develops a soft and soapy texture under fine grits of sandpaper, but wenge – a notoriously stringy and difficult African hardwood – mounts an all-out battle for control.
At the border where wood meets epoxy, you enter another world. White ribbons of resin curl off then float down, dimming the lathe light in a warm, milky cocoon.
After working in a blur, focused on the cutting edge of steel, there is that moment when you shut it down and wait as the platter slows and slows and then – suddenly, like the truing moment – stops to reveal, in intense clarity, the details of the work. Done.
“Once the platter is in balance, the proper work may begin.”
CONTACT US
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