How to Turn a Serving Dish

10 March 2025 Stan

When I was working as in-house turner for the Vermont woodworking and ceramic artisans ShackletonThomas, I made scores of dishes and platters in cherry and walnut. They were simple forms with a single bead at the rim. I always admired the elegance and utility of those designs, and this serving dish is inspired by them. Here I’ve used bubinga, choosing it for its hardness, durability, and—with this particular stock—for its marvelous quilting, chatoyant grain, and brilliant natural coloration. This isn’t a complex piece to turn, but to make it really sing, the surfaces should be super clean and the transitions and details extremely crisp.

Side one

Begin by bandsawing a circular blank between 9 in. and 11 in. across. Then screw a faceplate to what will be the top of the dish. The screws should protrude from the faceplate at least 1/8 in. less than the depth of the dish’s hollow. Here I added a spacer beneath the faceplate to compensate for the length of the screws I had on hand. After mounting the blank on the lathe, true up the perimeter and flatten both faces.

With the bottom of the dish facing out, your next move will be to lay out the ring-shaped foot. Measure the span of your four-jaw chuck with dividers and transfer that dimension to the blank; it will be the inside diameter of the foot. Use a pencil to mark the outside diameter of the foot. It should be 1/2 in. to 1 in. greater than the foot’s inside diameter. On the edge of the blank, make a pencil mark 1/4 in. from the front face; the material below this line will be removed as you turn the ogee-curved underside of the dish.

With a bowl gouge, roughly shape the bottom face of the dish, using push and pull cuts between the foot and the rim. Before making the finishing cuts on the softly sweeping ogee curve, use a square-end scraper to create the recess inside the foot for the four-jaw chuck. A depth of 1/8 in. is adequate. Clean up the ogee curve and cut any fine detail you like on or inside the foot. Then apply finish to the bottom face of the dish.

Side two

After unscrewing the faceplate, remount the workpiece on the four-jaw chuck. Begin work on the upper face of the serving dish by truing the whole surface again. Then make a push cut from the perimeter inward to establish the broad flat band just inside the rim. Roll a small bead right at the rim with a bowl gouge, then flatten the rim band with a convex square-end scraper.

Finally, using a 60° interior gouge, begin hollowing the dish. Start at the center and work your way outward, making your hollowing cuts just slightly deeper than the screw holes for the faceplate. After completing the hollow, wet-sand the upper face with mineral oil, running through the grits from 220 to 600, and then, lastly, buff with carnauba wax.

—Matt Monaco turns at home in Kansas City, Mo., and teaches turning all around the country.

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