This beautiful round cheese board is made from a piece of heavily spalted Sycamore that was harvested from a tree in Kelvingrove Park, Glasgow in 2015. The tree was diseased and lost a limb during a powerful wind storm. Spalting is a common woodworking term used to describe the colorations and patterning created by the growth of fungus in wood. Once the wood is dried the fungus is no longer active but the patterns and colours remain.

A square piece is sawn off of a 75mm thick rough sawn sycamore board. This is then resawn into smaller thicknesses and left to settle for a few days before dimensioning. I mark out my circle then each corner of the square is removed using a fine tooth saw, this creates smaller corners which are also removed. The board is then shaped into round and given a soft, roundover edge by hand using a number of different files. It's then given a thumbhole followed by sanding and finishing. The board is finished with two coats of food safe mineral oil followed by two coats of Sloyd mineral oil beeswax blend polish

Spalting can cause differences in wood density, making certain areas of the wood softer than others. This piece of wood however is rare in that it has retained its standard wood density in all areas of the spalting.

25cm X 25cm X 2.5cm