Second birch kuksa - power tools this time

[Paracordist]

Progress on my second birch cup. First is big - 12 ounces for beer. This will be 6-8 for coffee. Different approach from first time where I used only hatchet, pocket knife and fire. This time I'm using table saw to rough it out and square it up. Made a few cuts and just one dumb mistake over cutting on underside where I couldn't see. Sliced handle almost in half. Forced to abandon long handle as originally sketched. Used drill holes throughout bowl, then chisel to start hollowing. I don't own a hook knife yet so the bowl is a challenge. I'm going to investigate a wood rasp bit for my drill.

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[Monikieman]

I succummbed to the power tools as my elbow was too sore and it means you can carve more with less pain!!!

Looking good. Sure someone will have an unloved Mora kicking around. You should ask!

 

[Paracordist]

Got this far tonight using the two drill bits I got today and another sanding disc bit I bought to restore axe heads. The rasp does a decent job inside. I did some chisel work too. Right now it holds just under 6oz. I'm hoping to get deeper and thinner to get 8oz final.

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[Robson Valley]

Fantastic! Now you have to go really slow and easy with a crooked knife to pare away all the fuzzies.
If all you can get is some Scandi spoon knife, so be it.
I would prefer a C-blade from thses guys and get it done correctly and properly, the first time.

http://kestreltool.com/index.html

 

[Paracordist]

Can't afford it now. It's on the list for future. Thanks for the link!


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[Paracordist]

Rotary rasp is a kick bottom inexpensive tool! Just grinds up wood to hollow out that bowl. So far, after table saw I've used pocket knife, the drill bit rotary sanding tools, and a simple chisel. Feels like cheating but I want my coffee cup!

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[Robson Valley]

No! There's no such thing as cheating to hog out the waste wood.
If you had to use a chainsaw to hack out the guts of a big feast bowl, so what????

I like the design. I like your approach to the wood form. I like the ideas of the fine crafts which come next.

All that does is to get you into the close association with the fine carving to finish the piece.
Which seems to be exactly what I had hoped that you would do.

 

[Paracordist]

No! There's no such thing as cheating to hog out the waste wood.
If you had to use a chainsaw to hack out the guts of a big feast bowl, so what????

I like the design. I like your approach to the wood form. I like the ideas of the fine crafts which come next.

All that does is to get you into the close association with the fine carving to finish the piece.
Which seems to be exactly what I had hoped that you would do.

Great reply! THANKS


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[Monikieman]

+1 for 'cheating'. 😜


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[Fraxinus]

Nice one and I agree with Robson Valley too, though I enjoy using just hand tools for most of my carved projects.
I just binned my second kuksa after getting it roughed out I hurt my back and it has split during the past week or so while I was laid up. I have to get one made soon as it is intended as a present, so a pillar drill and big forstner bit may be employed

Rob.

 

[Robson Valley]

Here's an example. Eventually the dish became some 4" deep.
Best progress to go down about 3/4", knock out the webbing and go again and again.

Of course, the center point of any Forstner bit makes a little divot in the wood.
What you can't see is that there's nearly that equivalent of crushed/compacted wood fiber ahead of that, again.
As a rule now, I stop 3/8" above the designed floor of the dish so I can carve all that away with crooked knives.
The crush will show as a white spot when the finish is applied.

 

[dewi]

Very very nice.

Now cheating with power tools... hadn't thought of that. I was waiting until I could find a good axe but now.....

 

[Robson Valley]

"The carving was done by hand."
How I got to the roughout stage is nobody's business but mine.
Of course, you all can keep the collective secret?

 

[dewi]

I genuinely hadn't thought about it from a power tool perspective... I work with wood all the time, but I use a mixture of basic joinery hand tools and the usual power tools.

Making my own cups and bowls that I've made myself in wood... be good... so as you say, doesn't matter how the roughout work in done.

 

[Robson Valley]

The really amusing thing about making bigger and bigger dishes is the wood waste loss. You might be left holding 15% of what you started with.
I whacked and carved off about 16lbs of wood for that corn dish. I'd think that any kuksa would be about the same.

In the Pacific Northwest, native potlach celebrations might require feeding upwards of 500 people for a week.
This is/was stone age but the PacNW coast abounds with food.
Anyway, in the University of British Columbia, Museum of Anthropology, there is a train of feast dishes in the Great Room (big enough for totem poles).
The cedar feast dishes are about 3' wide, 4' long carved log pieces, recall there are 3, maybe 4 of them in a row. .... on wheels!

 

[Paracordist]

Getting nearer to completion. Sanded outside up to 2000 grit. One coat of flaxseed oil. Still plastic bagging to slow drying and avoid cracks. She holds about 7oz


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[Ed the Ted]

Doubt if it'll be dry yet. Oiling seriously slows down the process in my experience, and not enough to prevent cracking if a piece is brought indoors if its not completely dry yet. I have been accused of being paranoid but I wrap up spoons and stuff of that size in kitchen roll and newspaper and leave for a month in the garage, then open in the garage for a week, then in the house in kitchen roll for a week. Bowls and cups get two months at least in the garage.

My advice is to wrap it up, stick it somewhere cool and forget about it for a while. I've tried to rush the process in a number of ways before and none have worked for me (microwave, plastic bag inside the house turning it inside out daily, etc.).

It looks lovely and I hope you get many years of happy use out of it!

 

[Paracordist]

Doubt if it'll be dry yet. Oiling seriously slows down the process in my experience, and not enough to prevent cracking if a piece is brought indoors if its not completely dry yet. I have been accused of being paranoid but I wrap up spoons and stuff of that size in kitchen roll and newspaper and leave for a month in the garage, then open in the garage for a week, then in the house in kitchen roll for a week. Bowls and cups get two months at least in the garage.

My advice is to wrap it up, stick it somewhere cool and forget about it for a while. I've tried to rush the process in a number of ways before and none have worked for me (microwave, plastic bag inside the house turning it inside out daily, etc.).

It looks lovely and I hope you get many years of happy use out of it!

Thanks!!'


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[humdrum_hostage]

Not a fan of powertools as i think it gives a better story without but very nice result! And we all know it looks 10 times better in the flesh. I would be proud of that mate ;0)