Kuksa problems

[aelf]

Hiya
I've had a couple of goes at making kuksas without much success.

I've used the traditional 'bloke' approach - seen a picture of one, thought 'I can do that' and had a go with the kitchen knife and a lump of wood off the wood pile. Stage two is to ask people who know how, so any tips would be appreciated.

What sort of knife (or knives) is best? how do you tackle the job? How long does it take? Why do my palms ache so much and so on.

I'm determined to finish one so please help me ....

 

[Shewie]

Have you looked at the tutorial Jon did in the Articles section ?

A crook knife would make things easier or you could burn out the hollow

 

[aelf]

Have you looked at the tutorial Jon did in the Articles section ?

A crook knife would make things easier or you could burn out the hollow

Thanks Shewie - I did the bloke thing again - asking before reading it for myself

 

[Scoffham]

Well this is my method.. might not be the best, but it might not be the worst!

Firstly your palms ache probably because you are using a different technique or muscle groups -leading to fatigue of course coupled with skin abrasions. Your hands will toughen up after a while.. so stick with it!

Wood- when carving a kuksa, its best if you choose some wood that is freshly cut- as green as can be. Wood hardens as it dries, making carving more difficult. If choosing a log, split down the center, then remove another 10mm from the split outwards. This will keep spliting to a minimum whilst drying.

I then rough out a kuksa shape using an axe, making sure to finish the outside shape using my bushcraft knife, before starting on the middle. This is so depth can be accurately gauged whilst carving the bowl.

I then start on the bowl with the spoon knife, carving across the grain at all times, gradually working your way into the kuksa.

Making sure that the walls are all roughly the same thickness, leave to dry slowly in a coolish place.

Once dry you can either sand, or continue carving leaving a fine finish. I often use a detail knife to add a nice bit of personal carving into the side.

The tools i use are pictured below;

 

[Shewie]

Well this is my method.. might not be the best, but it might not be the worst!

Firstly your palms ache probably because you are using a different technique or muscle groups -leading to fatigue of course coupled with skin abrasions. Your hands will toughen up after a while.. so stick with it!

Wood- when carving a kuksa, its best if you choose some wood that is freshly cut- as green as can be. Wood hardens as it dries, making carving more difficult. If choosing a log, split down the center, then remove another 10mm from the split outwards. This will keep spliting to a minimum whilst drying.

I then rough out a kuksa shape using an axe, making sure to finish the outside shape using my bushcraft knife, before starting on the middle. This is so depth can be accurately gauged whilst carving the bowl.

I then start on the bowl with the spoon knife, carving across the grain at all times, gradually working your way into the kuksa.

Making sure that the walls are all roughly the same thickness, leave to dry slowly in a coolish place.

Once dry you can either sand, or continue carving leaving a fine finish. I often use a detail knife to add a nice bit of personal carving into the side.

The tools i use are pictured below;

Good advice there Scoffham

Another thing to mention is to keep it sealed in a zip loc bag to stop it drying out as quick.

 

[bushscout1]

One bit of advice I'd add (from experience) is that you need to carve the bowl out if you're 'green woodworking', the method of burning the bowl out only works on seasoned wood...

I spent ages carving a kuksa, got the outside just right, started to do the bowl but found it hard work (the wood wasn't completely green, but definitely wasn't seasoned), so thought that by using a coal to burn the centre out it would make life easier...

Everything was going well - until the wood dried too fast (as a hot coal does whilst burning) at which point the whole thing split !!!

(I won't be doing that again.)

 

[aelf]

thanks guys
Seems the kitchen knife wont do then? I was thinking of investing in some decent carving tools eventually. I have made myself a spoon knife out of an old file and I'm off to the woods this weekend for suitable wood,

Watch this space.....

 

[brancho]

If you want a knife for carving only its hard to beat a Frost 106 Look HERE

A 4mm thick woodlore clone would be as bad if not worse than your kitchen knife.

Here is my third Kuksa in birch and very when started kept in a plastic bag between sessions to prevent drying.

 

[aelf]

Thanks for the info Bracho, and wow - the kuksa looks great

 

[stuartmac5]

My Kuksa was made from a split Birch log that had seasoned for about a year.
I guess I didn't make it the most traditional way.....axe, saw, bushy knife and rasp for the outside, then when it came to hollowing out, the wood seemed like kryptonite so I used a crook knife to a couple of inches, then the process became blowtorch assisted!!
Thats still traditional though isn't it? use what you can and have to hand??
Still used traditionally though...occasionally filled with water, tea, cofee but more commonly whiskey