Inspired by JohnnyT's platter yesterday....

[Jenx]

I've found two 13" x 11/2" Sycamore Blanks in the 'wood mound'... so they will do nicely for further attempts. They're a little bit 'bland', but.........

I got told a little trick by a turner at a craft fair Sunday, he had these little oak boxes that were jet black and he said you do it by soaking wire wool in vinegar for a bit,then rub it over the oak and hey presto. The reason I tell you this is that he said it also works on sycamore but darkens it rather than turning it black. This gave me an idea to try it on a sycamore platter, doing the rim bit dark and leaving the 'bowl' bit light. I haven't tried it yet because I haven't any wire wool and all my sycamore has these nasty brightly coloured 'stains' through the middle :lol: :roll: .
Could be an idea to make your (as yet unmade)sycamore platter less bland?
If you already know of this technique and its rubbish(like I said I've not tried) then just disregard all of the above :roll: :wink: .

JT

Cheers for that JT ... i knew about steel wool and its effects on the tannin-rich oak, but hadn't heard of this with vinegar for the sycamore..
Doesn't have to be Sarsons does it ? ..
be tempted to give that a go ! .. I have some small blanks in Syc', so may try a test on one of those..
--I've a wee plan to try some chestnut spirit stain to try and 'lift' the otherwise slightly bland pieces that I have, at least on one of them, anyway .. Not sure whether i'm in favour of staining in that manner or not.. I guess it'll depend on the end result ! .. I'm thinking the royal blue stain with the contrast against the pale of the sycamore 'could' work... Guess I will have to see it in the flesh, before deciding whether its nice or not
Thanks again for the tip ... has anyone else tried the vinegar / steelwool trick that John refers to ? ..

 

[penman]

Hi Alun

Dont know what you meen about Sycamore being bland :lol: :lol:
How about this one.

It is about 14" dia by 3" deep (sorry about the small label on the front(price tag)) :lol:

Malcolm

Pleased you liked the cake

 

[Jenx]

Thats lovely Malcolm .. super piece !
Is that a recent one ? ... really lovely !

Its only the two bits that i've got which I'm meaning are 'bland' a little ...
there's just "not much" to them by way of grain / figure / feature ...
so I guess it'll be up to me to try and make the best of them !

With your piece there, and the spalted Syc' that JT has been treating us to seeing, It definately shows that sycamore can be fantastic stuff. 8) 8) 8)

 

[penman]

No Alun I did this one about 12 months ago it is spalted rippled sycamore.

I still have most of the tree drying in my woodshed but having said that there is still about 20 feet of the tree standing, which has yet to be cut down for me.
The last piece that was brought for me was about 3 foot in dia. so I don't know how big the rest of it will be :lol: :lol:

Malcolm

 

[TEP]

Hi Guy's.

You've been airing the steel/vinegar colouring. Bit of advice, don't use wire wool. It breaks up into an all mighty mess, then when you use it you get bits of rusty wool all over the place. Can also make a right mess of your work.

The idea works, but really only on the tannin rich woods. What you really need to do is get a couple of dozen small nails and leave them in a dish of water outside for a week or so. When nice and rusty chuck them in a bit of vinegar, this way you have got a nice clean solution to work with.