Splitting some Birch and a Kuksa

[dancan]

I had some fresh cut wood dropped off by a friend of mine since I'm not as mobile as I'd like to be for the time being so I can carve up a few spoons and such .
Since I have some time on my hands I decided to carve some kuksa's .
One of the 3' logs was about 8'' at the but so I decided I try to split it leaving the heartwood section in the part that I wasn't going to be using with an axe and wedges , I was amazed at how easy birch split , I'm sure stringier stuff/bigger/dryer stuff would be different and I'm just putting this up to show that you don't need a bunch of equipment if you want to start carving a bit of wooden ware .
Here's a bit of the process and a couple of kuksa's .

I drove the axe in on one side of the heart and then a plastic wedge to get the axe out .

I followed the split with more wedges

With a bit of tapping it split easily to the end and I was left with 2 pieces , heart in 1 half .

X marks the spot to be hollowed out .

A bit of chisel and spoon knife work later , 1 hollow spot .

A bit of axe work later .

Here's the rough one besides a kuksaI made from a piece of beech firewood .

I've got plenty of wood and some time on my hands so I have no excuse for not practising .

 

[Wayne]

Nice work. Lovely rustic shape. Thanks for sharing.

Do you have any issues with the birch splitting?

 

[dancan]

Thanks for the kind words .
I've made a large , heavy duty spoon , ladle and spatula with thick handles for camp use for a friend from this pile of birch that gave no issues , the kuksa's gave me a little grief with a little bit of cracking where thick wood meets thin and the second one had cracks develop while carving at the top edge but these are big enough that I can trim off what has cracked without much of an issue . A couple of go round's through the microwave and it looks like everything has settled .
I'll probable rough out another one tomorrow and try to get deeper sides in the bowl and see what happens , I have plenty of wood but I always hope I'm not making kindling LOL .

 

[Hugo]

Looks good, like the shape of the kuksa's .
I see you have the dreaded plastic boot, hope it comes off for you soon.

 

[dancan]

LOL ''The boot'' I'm not one for plastic things but I have to say it is an improvement over plaster because I can take it off to get at ''the itch'' and I don't have to sleep with it .
Since I can never get the same shape twice the shape will always be different , I always struggle with getting it to look acceptable .

 

[Retired Member southey]

Thats some cracking work Dancan!

 

[bikebum1975]

Man nice work on them. I especially like the shape on the pointed one

 

[Charlz9mm]

Wonderful work sir. Much respect From Tennessee USA.

 

[the interceptor boy]

Very nice work Duncan. Lovely shapes of your kuska's. Thanks for sharing.

 

[Androo]

Good stuff! I especially like the beech one, I bet that was tough to carve out the bowl...
I should have a go at a kuksa soon - they look very rewarding.

 

[dancan]

Good stuff! I especially like the beech one, I bet that was tough to carve out the bowl...
I should have a go at a kuksa soon - they look very rewarding.

The beech wasn't seasoned dry yet so is wasn't to bad to work with , I wish I had a few larger pieces , Kuksa , Spoon or Ladle , it takes me the same amount of fussing so to me one is no harder than the other and I try to figure out how to improve and have an easier go on the next since I have no one to teach me except all the fine folks that have taken the time to post their knowledge so that others may learn . I'll post and spread around what little I have learned so that it may help someone in some respect or to get someone to show stuff and continue the cycle .

 

[Whittler Kev]

 

[grey-array]

Those are looking good ^^ good job on those
Yours sincerely Ruud

 

[fishfish]

great carving mate,really inspirational.