Richard Raffan making a loquat plate from a short board

This simple project is turned using three traditional tools - a ½-in spindle gouge, a 1-in skewed radiused scraper, and a ½-in skew chisel to refine the undercut rim. You see all the turning in real time.

[@curtisalliston8958]

Thank you for all woodturning knowledge you share with the world.

[@RichardRaffanwoodturning]

And thank you very much for the appreciation.

[@jrk1666]

your scrapper produces such lovely shavings

[@josephpotterf9459]

Thanks Richard

[@johnnyb95678]

An excellent master class in turning a small plate. Thank you so very much for all you do for the turning community.

[@DiemenDesign]

Great little plate, lol, the turning wasn't bad either, haha. Another enjoyable lunch time video, thanks Richard.

[@pamlico53]

A fine demo with the usual pearls of turning wisdom.

[@jackthompson5092]

Beautiful little plate Richard.

[@sethwarner2540]

Man, you make this look SO EASY...

[@glencrandall7051]

Very well done Richard. Thank you for sharing. Have a great day and stay safe.🙂🙂

[@jimphilpott902]

Simple. Beautiful. Simply beautiful!

[@terryyancy3957]

Nice little plate. Thanks for sharing

[@stevenhansen8641]

Very nice Richard. Thanks for sharing.

[@terrysharp908]

Excellent as always, thanks

[@frenchcreekvalley]

There seems to be a fine point between scraping and "gouging" with that bowl gouge. Mostly scraping this time?

[@MarklTucson]

Another very informative video; watching your technique is really helpful. A project like this that uses a 1 inch board is really helpful as it provides ideas for being able to turn bowl projects with thinner, more available stock.

[@dougsutherland6694]

What is the bevel angle on your shear scraper Richard?

[@RichardRaffanwoodturning]

The bevel angle on the shear scraper is 45°. The edge is occasionally honed but usually used straight off an 80-grit CBN wheel.

[@jorisdemoel3821]

A lovely little plate. I have heard that loquat is used for the same sort of thing as pear, but does it work differently? It seems the shavings are finer from other videos I have seen. Many thanks for another insight in your skills and expertise.

[@NativeEarthlingAI]

Love your vids. Not sure why some turners don’t even blow off the piece with compressed air before finish. The pores are filled with dust

[@RichardRaffanwoodturning]

Many don't have a compressor, including myself.

[@jackhawkpiper97]

Hi Richard, hope you are well. I had an issue last night, and I realized that I may be able to ask the master himself! How do you approach turning a bowl from a wood that doesn't scrape well? I'm thinking specifically about the inside "corner" and valley portion, and the wood I was fighting with was American Elm. Love the videos, and I really appreciate the no-nonsense, straightforward approach to demonstrating and teaching.

[@RichardRaffanwoodturning]

I find scraping or shear scraping with minimal pressure against the wood generally takes care of difficult grain, but after that I resort to shear-cutting using a gouge, ensuring that the portion of the edge cutting is at around 45° to the oncoming wood. On small diameters, say less than 4-in/100mm diameter, endgrain can be particularly difficult to cut because the tightness of the curve doesn't offer much support to some of the fibres in the wood, and especially on enclosed forms.

[@jackhawkpiper97]

@@RichardRaffanwoodturning That makes perfect sense. Thank you!

[@kenvasko2285]

Nice little piece. I am not familiar with loquat wood. It looked it up and it seems to be an evergreen. It appears to look like maple but it must be soft since it is an evergreen. Can you describe it for me?

[@RichardRaffanwoodturning]

As a wood in appearance and workability, loquat is near identical to Bradford pear or Manchurian pear. Loquate trees produce small edible fruit.

[@kenvasko2285]

@@RichardRaffanwoodturning Is it susceptible to splitting?

[@RichardRaffanwoodturning]

@@kenvasko2285 The bowls roughed in kzbin.info/www/bejne/opKlgZSmpcqmhpo, which at first I thought were Manchurian pear warped rather than split. You see them finished in kzbin.info/www/bejne/jmG9nHeopdSFgck

[@glenndornak6410]

Another great job. I have noticed in your videos that you sand up to 240 grit. Do you sand higher or there’s no need to sand higher?

[@RichardRaffanwoodturning]

I do occasionally sand to 320 grit and even 400 on some boxes, but generally find 240 is sufficient, especially on the utilitarian pieces I make.

[@Pendragonau]

Thanks for showing how you start a plate off i could not figure that out which has stopped wanting to try it out. Question what speeds are you running your lathe at curious ask mine is a smaller version that only has 6 fixed speeds via belt change?

[@RichardRaffanwoodturning]

You should be safe running an evenly balanced 200-240mm blank at around 900-1200rpm. So much depends on your lathe and how it's set up to cope with vibration. Always start slow and when turning th lathe on, be sure to stand clear of the line-of-fire - the direction the blank might go if it comes off.

[@pkaul5012]

Amazing as usual Richard!! So why did the foot not get bruised from the chuck? Or did it?

[@RichardRaffanwoodturning]

If you turn a foot or tenon to the correct diameter for a set of dovetail jaws with unchamfered rims, the jaws won't mark the wood. This shows how and why: kzbin.info/www/bejne/eoeVhWmlf8x2n5Y

[@pkaul5012]

@@RichardRaffanwoodturning thank you for the link Richard! So a shoulder isn’t a requirement to safely a small diameter bowl or dish? And one doesn’t need the exact angle of the dovetail either to hold the workpiece steadily?

[@RichardRaffanwoodturning]

@@pkaul5012 You definitely don't need a flat against the top of the chuck jaws on facework, but it's good practice turning larger endgrain blanks. With facework, having the jaws up against the base of a curve is more than adequate but there needs to be a well defined corner into which the jaws fit, thereby locating the part-turned work accurately on centre. As you'll see in the chuck video, I tend to grip beads rather than dovetails, but that's mostly for aesthetic reasons.