Before I joined here I was mainly whittling small items, then I was inspired by all the carvings on here and decided I wanted to make a Kuksa. My first attempt was with a small piece of Birch I had and it had a small split which I was advised it would cause a problem and it did! it soon developed into a wide crack. My second and third attempt were way too big and I was only using a hatchet and spoon knfe by this point. MY fourth attempt was with a hard piece of poplar which was horrible to split and carve so that soon got put to one side. I was starting to think that the Kuksa was going to be my Achilles heel!
Shortly after this I started a large bowl and spent hours on it till it split straight down the middle! By this point I started to get very disheartened and was thinking of throwing in the towel completely, then got a small bit of beech from a large Ring that was no where near the middle so I was confident this was going to be the one! and here she is.......
I also made a spoon for swmbo out of a piece of Willow, She wanted a Ladle and the first attempt didnt look the way I wanted so this became more of a deep spoon. I wanted to keep the handle basic and the other half wanted to keep the outside of the spoon with the tool marks to show it was hand made.
and the two together
Shortly after this I started a large bowl and spent hours on it till it split straight down the middle! By this point I started to get very disheartened and was thinking of throwing in the towel completely, then got a small bit of beech from a large Ring that was no where near the middle so I was confident this was going to be the one! and here she is.......
I also made a spoon for swmbo out of a piece of Willow, She wanted a Ladle and the first attempt didnt look the way I wanted so this became more of a deep spoon. I wanted to keep the handle basic and the other half wanted to keep the outside of the spoon with the tool marks to show it was hand made.
and the two together
