I though it was about time i made a new Kuksa today, well i had to try out the new Karlsson gouges on it as well, so i grabbed a lovely bit of Cherry from the wood pile, cleaned it up with the axe and then laid out the dimensions for the Kuksa on it.
Then i attacked it with the Adze and gouges, got a lovely deep and smooth bowl carved out in next to no time, the new Hans Karlsson Dog Leg gouge i bought in the week made life very easy when it came to carving the bottom of the bowl,
Having carved the hollow out to a point where i felt i could move on to the exterior shaping, i removed the blank from the bowl horse, cut off the surplus wood from each end and just as i was about to start shaping the exterior with the axe, it split, not in two or anything so dramatic, but within minutes you could see loads of cracks appear in the end grain and within the bowl i had just painstakingly carved out, ah well, **** happens i guess, so that one is now fire wood, and no it did not split anywhere near the remnants of the pith that you can see on the top of the blank.
Not to be deterred, i grabbed a piece of Ash from the wood pile and set to on that with the Adze and gouges
about an hour later i had got to a stage where the bowl has been carved and most of the axe work on the exterior is also complete.
The Ash Kuksa is now sitting in a sealed zip lock waiting for me to do some more axe work on it tomorrow, before i get to the knife work and begin to refine the shape and thin the side walls down to a reasonable thickness.
Hopefully this one will behave itself and not split.
Then i attacked it with the Adze and gouges, got a lovely deep and smooth bowl carved out in next to no time, the new Hans Karlsson Dog Leg gouge i bought in the week made life very easy when it came to carving the bottom of the bowl,
Having carved the hollow out to a point where i felt i could move on to the exterior shaping, i removed the blank from the bowl horse, cut off the surplus wood from each end and just as i was about to start shaping the exterior with the axe, it split, not in two or anything so dramatic, but within minutes you could see loads of cracks appear in the end grain and within the bowl i had just painstakingly carved out, ah well, **** happens i guess, so that one is now fire wood, and no it did not split anywhere near the remnants of the pith that you can see on the top of the blank.
Not to be deterred, i grabbed a piece of Ash from the wood pile and set to on that with the Adze and gouges
about an hour later i had got to a stage where the bowl has been carved and most of the axe work on the exterior is also complete.
The Ash Kuksa is now sitting in a sealed zip lock waiting for me to do some more axe work on it tomorrow, before i get to the knife work and begin to refine the shape and thin the side walls down to a reasonable thickness.
Hopefully this one will behave itself and not split.