Help needed to identify a edged tool I simply have to have !

[pumbaa]

Hello ,
Not this year but last , I was at the wilderness gathering in 2012 and on one of the stalls that was selling kuksa's the guy had this tool . It was a long bar with a loop for a handle and a spoon like piece on the bottom . He stood a piece of wood on the ground and twisted this thing into it . It cut the wood out in a one piece spiral , to leave a nice hollow ideal for kuksa and bowls etc . It seemed to make mincemeat of the job when compared to a crook knife .
Does anybody know what this tool might be and most importantly , where I can get one ? I'm not sure I can cope without having such a gadget lol
Cheers
Pumbaa

 

[Mr Adoby]

I suspect it is a variant of an auger. Normally they are a form of big spiral drills used for timbering. But the original shape was like a sharpened spoon. In swedish they are sometimes called "spoon drill" (skedborr or navare). Similar to a spade bit, but curved. A spiral drill is much more efficient and a spade bit is better for power tools. For a hand tool to make a hole for a kuksa or a big spoon, a big variant of the original type of an auger could well be used.

For power tools there are spade bits especially for use when making for example a kuksa. Or an egg cup.

On the Wikipedia page for auger you can see a picture of the original type of "spoon" auger being used.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auger

On the following page you can see several examples of old "spoon drills", skedborr. Skedborr were used when making wooden clogs or just drilling, before there were spiral drills.

http://marcuskarlsten.se/verktygssamling/borrning.html

 

[Dave Budd]

sounds like a spoon auger. I make them (got a few in stock and am making some more for some shrink pot makers soon too).

They haven't been made commercially for generations, so much so that I've never managed to find an antique one to copy and have had to use archaeological reports and museum photos to make the prototypes! They start to appear in the archaeological record in the Iron Age and remain unchanged to this day. You do get a few varieties inf shape, mostly this is down to how well they work into end or side grain and whether you are wanting to undercut a hole (such as when fox wedging a tenon joint in furniture making). They are very effective tools, much less hard work than a screw auger in terms of the cutting ability, you just have to keep pushing to drill whereas a screw auger pulls itself in. Clog makers used a similar tool top open a pre-existing hole up (the one in the above Swedish link that has a curved up blade is one of these. rubbish for drilling but great for carving open a hollow), I make those too

a couple of pics..

 

[robin wood]

I have an old one from a French clogmaker, rarely use it. You would need to clamp the wood very securely to resist the twist and I tend to like working hand held rather than clamped. I hollow most of the wood out of kuksa's with a small adze.