Maple burr kuksa

Hi all

A friend kindly gave me a maple log which had a few burr's.

I removed the burr's

From the largest burr I carved a kuksa
The wood was difficult to carve with the grain changing direction a lot!

 

Hand carved Cherry bowl

A kind local arborist felled a Cherry tree nearby and he dropped of a piece for me to carve. Cherry is a beautiful wood but can be frustrating to work because of its tendancy to split. This piece behaved well and allowed me to carve a bowl from it.

I started with an adze to remove a lot of wood and then I switched knives for the shaping, finished with sanding and then oiling.

Hand carved canoe cups - cherry

I have carved these two canoe cups in the style that harks back to the days of the voyageurs. The voyageurs were the men that paddled large canoes carrying beaver pelts to trading posts in what is now Canada. The voyageur wore a sash around his waist and the leather strap on the canoe cup was wound around the sash so that the drinking cup was always available.

The toggle is a stylised canoe.

I can find surprisingly little information on the style, sizing and history of the canoe cup and would appreciate any information that you may have.

I had some small pieces of wood in the shed ideally suited for making spreaders. These spreaders were traditionally used for spreading butterand jam etc. They are approx 18cm long  with the handles varying in thickness.

The wood was split and shaped with an axe, then sat under a tree in the sun a wood carving knife was used to finish shaping the spreaders. Then the finishing was done by sanding and coating in a food safe oil.

The next few are made from cherry and have wonderful colouring, the log was twisted and I left the twist in the spreader and it is still looks great and is comfortable to use.

The next two are carved from apple, the wood was twisted, gnarly and tough to carve but came out well and with a lovely colouring.

Lastly a carved oak spreader