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.

A new Cherry kusa.

I have some new green cherry logs which are ideal for carving, a rummage through the logs produced a log I could use for a medium sized kusa. I made the most of the indian summer we were having and worked under an oak tree in my garden, I was also sheltered by a willow tree and felt well away from noise and distractions.

The log split easily with the froe and I started work. I marked out a rough shape with a pencil then with axe and spoon knife I started carving.

When the light started to go I placed of the wood chips in a bag and then added the part carved kuksa. next morning more carving and then some sanding produced the finished kusa.

Sadly my camera died so I only have a few images.

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

 

A friend gave me a lump of willow so I thought I would use it to make a bowl.

Willow proved to be a strange wood to carve, water sprayed from it when it was hit with the axe and it scratches or dents when you just look at it.

The wood was also very light and felt weak so the bowl is a bit chunky :-)

I don't think that I will carve much willow but it was fun to sit in the woods and make the bowl :-)

The bowl is sixteen inches end to end.

Unupdate to the original post: The bowl is seasoning and the surface is getting tougher.

More Staghorn sumach

Following on from the previous post I started work on the second half of the Sumach log. This time I started hollowing in the bowl from the outside of the log rather than the split face. This created a completely different look from the colouring of the wood. The patterning in the bowl and back of the bowl being especially beautiful.

Something special - Staghorn sumach

Something special

A friend gave me a piece of very unusual wood, Rhus Typhina, otherwise known as Staghorn sumach. The colours and the patterning are fantastic. The spoon was carved to show the beauty of the wood. 

It was not easy to carve the wood as it was very easy to tear the wood fibres, also it was intended that there should be no symmetry in the carving so getting a balance was a challenge.

Spoons from Silver Birch

Last week I collected a section of silver birch from my local nature reserve where some of the birch are being felled to allow the heathland to regenerate.

The Birch was very green and prone to tearing at the changes of grain direction but apart from that it was a pleasure you carve, I used this carving session to try differing handle shapes.