Rotten Acacia Plate fixed and finished

[Kathy Marshall]

I posted this plate a few weeks ago after it came off the lathe. It had a lot of punky areas and rotten wood, but being a little stubborn and against good advice, I went ahead and cleaned it up and filled the voids (almost 1/2 of the bottom was gone), turned it a little thinner, sanded and finished. Since I turned off the tenon the 1st time, I glued a waste block on the base, then chucked it in my cole jaws to turn a tenon from the waste block, then rechucked it in my bowl jaws to re-turn the inside, then back to the cole jaws to finish turn the outside and turn off the was block.
About 10" x 1 1/4" (didn't measure) voids filled with epoxy mixed with black and gold metallic flakes, finished with DO, a coat of shellac, about 6 coats of WOP then buffed and Ren wax.
It's far from perfect, but I learned a few things so in my mind it was a success. This was by far the largest epoxy fill job I've done, and with that much epoxy, it's really important to get the mix of epoxy and hardner just right, and a little bit of the gold flakes go a long, long way!

Here's a before pic (all of the lighter colored wood was basically rotten and was removed in the cleanup)
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Thanks for looking!
Comments and critiques are welcome.

[Josh Bowman]

Kathy,
Nice job saving the platter. For my eye though, I liked the rotten one. But the epoxy job looked like it worked out.

[Bernie Weishapl]

Really nice looking platter Kathy. The epoxy mixed with gold looks really good with the dark wood. I probably would have just finished it like it was in the first picture.

[Kathy Marshall]

Thanks guys!
I didn't post a pic of the bottom (it's in another thread), but if you had seen the bottom you probably would have agreed with everyone else to toss it in the firewood pile, which is what I would have done if I hadn't wanted to see what I could do with it.

[Paul Heely]

Nice job Kathy. I'm a fan of finishing those pieces that should just be tossed. They give you a chance to try something new and learn, with no real risk.

[Russell Neyman]

I recall the first post and all the "abuse" you took for even considering keeping this piece. Well done. Congratulations!

[Tim Thiebaut]

Wow what a nice save Kathy, that looks beautiful!!

[Peter Lamb]

Kathym
What a sense of the hidden magic. Creative, imaginative, determination, patience and a magical result. Not the burn pile.
Thanks
Peter

[Jamie Donaldson]

Hard to believe that's the same piece of wood! Good save Kathy!