wolf
Settler
why do they hang of your sash?do you walk around say when you are hunting with them on,or only when in the canoe,what is the purpose ???pierre girard said:
thanks..kuksa making instructions
- Thread starter mmcniven
- Start date
thanks..
wolf said:why do they hang of your sash?do you walk around say when you are hunting with them on,or only when in the canoe,what is the purpose ???
More likely walking around. It's a traditional thing. In the canoe, I stuff it in the top of my pack or, using the toggle, attach it to a thwart. In the canoe, if we are on a large lake, I drink from the lake. In streams or smaller lakes, I am more careful due to giardia.
Purpose is - find a spring - take a drink.
PG
pierre girard said:
The salt-water boiling is done to slow the drying of the cup. The initial carving is done in green wood, and then this is boiled in salt water to drive salt into the grain. This causes the wood to dry out much more slowly, which reduces the risk of cracking as the wood dries, especially since the wood has been carved to a quite thin wall.
The two steps I added - the London Finish and boiling in oil are both optional, but the London Finish gives a much nicer (and smoother) surface, making it nicer to drink out of and less absorbent and the oiling drives the oil deep into the grain meaning that even hot liquids and things with strong flavours don't make their way deep into the grain.
wolf
Settler
match said:
I've done all my burl carvings in dry wood. Very hard work, but guarantees my work has not gone for naught. The cups I've made in green aspen and basswood are quickly done, and it is no great loss if they split, though I do some cups in green straight grain birch and maple that might benefit from the salt treatment. Thank you. Always good to learn something new.
PG
wolf
Settler
hi pierre i was inspired by your cups,and the use of the toggles,so i added my own antler toggle to my cup,now i just need to make the canoe...pierre girard said:
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cheers.....
wolf said:hi pierre i was inspired by your cups,and the use of the toggles,so i added my own antler toggle to my cup,now i just need to make the canoe...
cheers.....
Toggle looks good!
You want to have the thong long enough so it can go around your belt. The toggle needs to be long enough to go between the looped thong and hold it in place. Making a canoe is a little beyond what I can convey on a website. If you can come up with 12 to 14 pieces of birchbark 3 feet X 4 feet, 1/8 inch thick, and pliable - flatten them between two pallets - the top one filled with rocks, in a dry place, for a couple months, and we'll talk.Truth is - I sold my birchbark canoe. Just too much trouble. I have eight others and it was just too much upkeep.
My grandfather and his fathers family never really liked birchbark canoes. Lot of work, and they'd only last two years in the rocky rivers near where they lived. They also built dugout canoes - some of which are still around. They would name the dugouts. My grandfather's dugout canoe was named "The Lone Trapper." Get two people in it, and it would capsize. They were very beautiful canoes. Looked more like a piece of parlor furniture than a canoe.
Here is how they would build them:
They would start with a piece of clear virgin white pine log. White pine is a very special wood - in that you can drive a large nail within a short distance of the end of a board and it will not split.
They would square one side (which would end up being the "top") with a broad-axe, draw the outline of the canoe, and take after it with axes to get the exterior roughed out. Then they would go after the exterior with drawknives and crooked knives. They would finish it with flat smooth stones and sand. Once they had the exterior looking the way they wanted it, they would drill a series of small holes the exact depth they wanted the thickness to be.
They would take an adz after the interior, followed by chizels, crooked knives, stones and sand. They would take out wood until they hit the small holes they'd drilled. They would plug the holes with the proverbial square peg in a round hole. When they had the tool work done, they would fill the dugout with water, and heat stones, lifting the hot stones into the dugout with two antlers. They would wedge the belly of the canoe out until the canoe reached the correct form. They later used a Model T jack for this. The wedging often took three or four times to get the shape correct.
These were extremely beautiful canoes made by people learned in their craft. They were about 5/8 inch thick on the sides, though they were thicker at the bow and stern. The texture was smooth as a gunstock. They were very heavy to portage though, and that is why they also made birchbark canoes.
Care of the dugout canoe included sinking them in deep water every winter, and laying canvas over them, so they wouldn't crack, when they were out of the water. The virgin white pine was very rot resistent.
About 1918 my grandfather bought a stove-in Oldtown canoe from the US forest Service, repaired it, and they never made another birchbark or dugout canoe. By the time I wanted to make a birchbark canoe, he really couldn't remember much about making them and I had to go elsewhere to find out how.
PG
wolf said:do you let the oil dry before actually using the cup?
Surprisingly with the boiling technique, very little drying is needed. As the wood is hot when you take it out the oil, you just need to hang it up, and as the wood cools it traps the oil in the wood pores. After hanging up overnight it was dry enough to use for hot and cold liquids. The first cup or two had a very slight film of vegetable oil on the surface, but this soon disappeared.
Interestingly, I thought I should re-oil after trying out various liquids, so I rubbed some cold oil into the kuksa and hung it up to dry. The oil didn't really absorb at all and just dripped off the cup onto the floor, making a mess but showing that the wood really has sealed well
I never knew the London Finish actually had a name before. I just thought it was wetting and sanding...
Mad Mike said:This boiling in oil - how similer is this to deep fat frying
I was wondering how high a temp you use
Krispy Kuksa is not something I would want to make by accident
Actually, its pretty similar
Although I tend to use the oil as cool as possible, I've not tested with a thermometer, but I guess its probably around 100-120C - I put the hob on its lowest setting, put the kuksa in the oil (completely submerged) and put that pan on the hob and it starts to bubble (millions of tiny bubbles of air/water come pouring out of the grain).
As soon as it is bubbling well I turn off the heat so it doesn't get any hotter, and leave it for 3-5 minutes, til the bubbles start to slow, then turn the heat back on to get it bubbling again - basically hot enough to drive the oil into the wood, but as cool as possible so as to not burn the wood at all (to be truthful, there is a darker patch on the bottom of the kuksa where the wood touched the metal pan, but if I do this again a small piece of pine or similar at the pan bottom would stop this).
And yes, when its finished , it does smell like a cross between freshly sawn timber and making pancakes
match said:And yes, when its finished , it does smell like a cross between freshly sawn timber and making pancakes
Sounds nice!
What do you do with the oil afterwards?Have you considered boiling one in milk?
BorderReiver said:Tried a couple of them Stew,the original Finnish was easier to understand.
I just look a t the pictures...
Stew said:Sounds nice!
Have you considered boiling one in milk?
I'm guessing you mean oil in that first sentence
I just poured it back into the bottle once it had cooled, and shoved it in the corner with 'wood oil' on it - I did point out to others that seeing as its vegetable oil, and all I did was boil non-toxic wood in it it would be fine for cooking, but this idea was not greeted with approval
Milk is my next project, although now I have a kuksa, it will probably be something else - maybe a nice spoon to go with it...
I also want to try making earth-fire pottery at some point, in which case milk-boiling is definitely what I'll be trying.
match said:I'm guessing you mean oil in that first sentence
That's what I said!
match said:
I've used milk and it requires more care than I gave it. I overboiled and ended up with lumpy bits on the spoons.
The only reason I'm posting on this thread is because it contains all the information that I've been looking for on making and treating Kuksa Cups. There seem to be a endless string of people wonting to make Kuksas, including me, many of them making new threads on the subject. Despite that I couldn't find half the information I was looking for until I found this one.
For some reason this thread didn't show up on any of the searches I did on the subject, maybe its just to old, I only found it vier a link from a nether old thread. so i thought I'd revive it and bring it to the attention of all the other newbe carvers like me.
For some reason this thread didn't show up on any of the searches I did on the subject, maybe its just to old, I only found it vier a link from a nether old thread. so i thought I'd revive it and bring it to the attention of all the other newbe carvers like me.
Thanks doc for putting this tread on here , i recently made a kuska cup , pics posted on here .
I thought i would use it last week so i opened a bottle of wine it was great to drink from , but when i looked at it the next day it had cracked along the side and is stained badly , the sunflower oil i used didnt seal it at all , though the crack has now sealed its self back up again as the cup dried out .
Im gonna sand it back to clean wood then try the boiling in oil method
Hiker
I thought i would use it last week so i opened a bottle of wine it was great to drink from , but when i looked at it the next day it had cracked along the side and is stained badly , the sunflower oil i used didnt seal it at all , though the crack has now sealed its self back up again as the cup dried out .
Im gonna sand it back to clean wood then try the boiling in oil method
Hiker
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