Small Serving Dish in Quarter-sawn Australian Silky Oak by Bob Gilmour

I recently bought some perfectly quarter-saw northern silky oak - Cardwellia sublimis - from one of my timber suppliers. My guess it was originally cut as guitar wood but couldn't find a market so finished up as cabinet timber. I already had an order for three pairs of salad servers in figured silky oak, so this was perfect.

I created this small dish from a left over. The wood was only 25 mm (1 inch) thick so there wasn't a lot of scope to go too big.

The dimensions are 25 cm (10") x 9.5 cm (3.7") x 2.5 cm (1").

The wood is extremely highly bar-figured and has nice warm colour with pink tonings. I opted for a functional finish, so this dish can be used for serving or presenting food on. The finish is fine with 'wet' food items and the dish can be washed with water and normal detergent … please keep it out of the dishwasher, though. The finish is the same as that which I apply to my cooking utensils, and is quite robust.

I suspect that most people would opt to keep this piece as a small display item due to the unique appearance of the highly figured wood.

This item is available for purchase @ Forest Treasures on Esty ...

http://www.etsy.com/listing/76510582/small-serving-dish-in-highly-figured?ref=pr_shop

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