Making Family Heirlooms with Mike Mahoney

The first presenter that I saw at the Southern States Symposium X was Mike Mahoney.  I had never seen him in person before, although I had seen him present via a DVD that I purchased from his arch-nemesis Stuart Batty.  The two of them made a great team in the video.  His presentation was on making family heirlooms.  He turned a beautiful platter for the demo out of dried cottonwood.  Actually, it was shaped more like an offering plate, and he intended to pass it around at the end of the session!

The first thing that he talked about was wood selection.  He suggests using a ‘soft hardwood’ for items that you want to stand the test of time.  Poplar and maple make good utility pieces.  Wood with figuring will make a beautiful piece.  Most of what Mahoney makes are to be ‘for use’ instead of ‘for show’.  For this reason he chooses woods that can stand up to everyday use.

Dimensions are more important on a utility piece than on an art piece.  You can’t expect a bowl to stand upright with too small of a base.  For a bowl, he suggests a base diameter of about 1/3 of the total diameter of the opening.  For platters, this increases to 50%-60%.  Having a base this size or bigger will help keep the piece from wobbling during use. 

He spoke a little bit about finishes.  Finishing a utility item is a lot different from one that will sit on a shelf unused.  Shellac, for example, breaks down fast and is not durable.  Washing a bowl finished with shellac will cause the finish to rub off unevenly.  This is the case for any film-style finish.  Use a penetrating finish on utilitarian items instead of a film finish.  Good penetrating finishes include mineral oil and walnut oil.  Mineral oil is one that the end customer is the most likely to be able to get their hands on in order to touch up the finish.  Alternatively, leaving it unfinished is an option, as well.  Whatever you do, make sure that the customer knows not to leave water standing in it for long periods of time, as it will raise the grain and give it a fuzzy look.

In turning a bowl or platter, Mike prefers not using a recess on the bottom to hold it to the chuck.  Using a recess makes the piece the thinnest in the area where it needs to be its thickest.  To do his finish cut on the platter, he lubricated the surface with walnut oil (the finish he intended to use on the platter).  This gives you a cleaner final cut.  He also used walnut oil on the ceramic sanding pads that he used to sand the platter.