Karlsson adze

[robin wood]

I just had a play with a friends hollowing adze and thought I would post a quick comment since I liked it. It was made by Hans Karlsson of Sweden, they are available in UK via Woodland Craft Supplies (http://www.fxferry.demon.co.uk/tools.html) or US via Country workshops.
I am not use if the one I used was the 600g 5cm one or the 700g 6cm one. Hollowing adzes are tools which are difficult to get just right and if they are not quite right they simply don't work. This one works very well and I would recommend it, not cheap at about £90 but I hollowed a kuksa with it and it saved a lot of time with the hook knife.

John had the sheath made for it.

 

[bushtuckerman]

Robin, how big is the kuksa? I'm interested to know how much hollowing can be done with a tool this size. It looks fantastic.

 

[robin wood]

Inside the finished kuksa is 3" diameter by 1 1/2" deep, I reckon I took out a 3/4 of the wood inside with the adze in less than 5 minutes then went onto the hook knife. It definitely speeded things a little and I find that sort of fast deep hollowing with the knife can be hard work on the hands. How much you can do with what tool also depends on how much you have used it. In 1998 I watched romanian turner carver Ion Contantin carving spoons in less than 10 minutes and he took the bowl out of a small cooking spoon with the corner of a hollowing adze with a 5" wide blade.

 

[Hoodoo]

I'd love to get one of his 5 cm adzes but they are not available here that I know of. His gouges and chisels are excellent, as are his spoon knives. I have one of the larger Gransfors adzes and one from North Bay Forge I put a handle on. The nice thing about the NBF model is you can save a lot of money just buying the adze and then you can tune it to fit you.

 

[bushtuckerman]

Inside the finished kuksa is 3" diameter by 1 1/2" deep, I reckon I took out a 3/4 of the wood inside with the adze in less than 5 minutes then went onto the hook knife. It definitely speeded things a little and I find that sort of fast deep hollowing with the knife can be hard work on the hands. How much you can do with what tool also depends on how much you have used it. In 1998 I watched romanian turner carver Ion Contantin carving spoons in less than 10 minutes and he took the bowl out of a small cooking spoon with the corner of a hollowing adze with a 5" wide blade.

He sounds like a carving don. I know what you mean about the hands, mine have permanent calluses solely from the use of the spoon knife. So you can get a fair amount out then, it might be worth investigating, but I want a new axe first...

Nice handle Hoodoo. Are Karlsson's spoon knives significantly better than the Frosts equivalent, or similar?

 

[Hoodoo]

Nice handle Hoodoo. Are Karlsson's spoon knives significantly better than the Frosts equivalent, or similar?

Definitely significantly better.

 

[bushtuckerman]

My my, he's put some work into that! Nice spoon, it looks like a chinese soup spoon(?), now that's an idea!

Does he do one with more of a curve for deep hollowing?

 

[Hoodoo]

My my, he's put some work into that! Nice spoon, it looks like a chinese soup spoon(?), now that's an idea!

Does he do one with more of a curve for deep hollowing?

Not sure. This one inspired Schwert to contact Del Stubs and have him make a more open, shallow spoon knife. I'm thinking I'm gonna need one of those new spoon knives from Del. But Del's other spoon knives will get ya down there and they are superb.

 

[robin wood]

I have just been playing with the Karlson hook and also with Del's 2 new sweeps of open hook. First impresions are very good for the Karlson but I am not sure about Del's, they seem a bit long to me.

 

[weaver]

Robin,

That one made by Hans Karlsson just looks right! You know sometimes you can just see that a tool is going to work or not. I have seen a lot of them that are all wrong, I may have to save up for one of those.

Thanks.

 

[ranger]

I bought one of these about 2 weeks ago. I haven’t had a great deal of time to play with it as yet, but from what little I have used it I’m very pleased. It’s not cheap, but is well crafted and beautifully balanced. I was also pleased with the size, it was smaller than I had expected and is easily adaptable for large spoons or bowls.

 

[Grey Owl]

Does Hans Karlsson have a website that presents his range of tools? I have searched to the limit of abilities and have not discovered any hint of a personal website. Only the previously mentioned online retailers in US and UK.

Thanks.

 

[Hoodoo]

One of the things I like about the Karlsson knife is the curved edge. This allows that knife to bite into the wood with more ease. A very nice design, imo.

 

[bushtuckerman]

Hoodoo, do you have any other spoon knives for comparison? For instance I'm interested to see a direct comparison with the Stubbs version and/or the Svante Djarv knife.

This second shot of the karlsson knife makes me more interested because now I can see the width of the blade. what do you mean about a curved edge? Is it that the outer surface of the blade is convexed and moves smoothly along the wood? I read the same about the Stubbs knife.

 

[Hoodoo]

Hoodoo, do you have any other spoon knives for comparison? For instance I'm interested to see a direct comparison with the Stubbs version and/or the Svante Djarv knife.

This second shot of the karlsson knife makes me more interested because now I can see the width of the blade. what do you mean about a curved edge? Is it that the outer surface of the blade is convexed and moves smoothly along the wood? I read the same about the Stubbs knife.

I have one of Del Stubbs and you just can't go wrong with his regular spoon knife. Del is the master of sharp. I also have 3 from Hudson Bay Forge. Long handles for going deep. Also come very very sharp.

I don't have a Svante Djarv knife. When I bought the Karlsson, I had a choice between the two and went with the Karlsson for no particular reason. Both appeared to be good quality.

You can see them both on this site, which is where I bought mine.

 

[robin wood]

This link may be of interest. I try to keep one of all the decent hook knives I can find for people on courses to try before they spend their money, different folk like different knives.
http://www.bushcraftuk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=29840&highlight=hook+knife
since that passaround was done we have added a Djarve big hook which I like more than the small one, and a couple of Del Stubbs new open curves. I am also carving tonight with the Karsson. It is certainly a nice knife though quite expensive. My one complaint with it is that it really only has one curvature where I like a knife to have shallow curves for the sweep across the opening of a spoon where you want it shallow and a tighter curve to get a bit more depth where the spoon meets the handle. Having said that the sweep is a very good one and I rate it as one of my 3 or 4 favorites.

 

[bushtuckerman]

Thanks for the link, the pictures and reviews are handy at this stage of the game.

My one complaint with it is that it really only has one curvature where I like a knife to have shallow curves for the sweep across the opening of a spoon where you want it shallow and a tighter curve to get a bit more depth where the spoon meets the handle.

If I understand you correctly then I agree. I found that with the one I bashed out I needed to sharpen more of the flat part to use for shallowing:

It has been ok for use but it's looking a little rough these days and it 'chatters' too much. Also, given my total inexperience when making it I bevelled the inside of the edge...If I can't decide on one to buy then I still may try to make another, but I think I'd benefit more from an expert tool.

Ever since I first saw the Djarv knife handle I really liked the look of it, and given this new info. the blade seems pretty good too, but someone's comment on that thread that its point digs in worries me. Can you confirm this from your own use?

I like the look of Stubbs' more tightly curved tool as seen on that thread and if the handle is a worry then I suppose I could reshape it a little. from appearances only, I find his knife the most attractive, partly because of the apparent backward twist of the blade that should make it smoother in use and also because I was impressed with the advice to sharpening he gives on his website along with a few other things he writes.

Maybe this is illogical, but from what people have said, the Bo Helgesson and Karlsson sound similar to me. Btw, is the Helgesson this one?:

http://translate.google.com/transla...ev=/search?q=Bo+Helgesson&hl=en&safe=off&sa=G

the location is: sortiment>verktyg>skedkniv

The tang on that does look curiously short.


The tools site that you posted in the OP seems to stock Djarv but not Karlsson spoon knives. As for the Stubbs knife, I suppose he does ship abroad?

 

[ranger]

Hi Grey Owel, here is the URL for the Karlsson site:

http://www.klensmide.se/index.php?page=0&link_id=47c6e6bd1637a&lang_id=0