All of my best kuksa cups

These are all the cups I have available to buy except the last one; I put it up so people can see the design and might want to order one. Contact me for more information.

This kuksa is my largest, its made from sweet cherry wood, and it fits 2.5 (20 fl.oz) cups of liquid.

This kuksa is carved from black cherry, there is a tooled finish on the inside, and it fits 2 (16 fl. oz.) cups of liquid.

This kuksa is carved from fast-grown sweet chestnut, it fits 1.5 cups (12 fl. oz.) of liquid.

This kuksa is carved from birch, it has a leaf-design handle, and holds 1.25 cups (10 fl. oz.) of liquid.

This kuksa is also carved from birch wood, it holds the same amount as the one above.

This one is carved from willow wood for a friend of mine, i engraved his name into it and my initials. It holds 1.75 cups (14 fl. oz.) of liquid.

Soup/Cereal Set

This was the first bowl that I carved, It is made from birch and is about 5 inches in diameter. The reason why it looks darker than it should is because I put it in the freezer overnight to keep from cracking. The spoon is carved from some sweet cherry wood. Contact me if you are interested in buying this set.

Sweet chestnut kuksas

I decided to try out making a cup from some really fast grown sweet chestnut that was otherwise going to be thrown into the firewood pile. As you can see, the tree was about 8 years old.

here the cup is all roughed out

I took my first kuksa ever and tried to recreate it.

Here is one roughed out and the other awaiting a handle.

A black cherry cup

Beginning of another cherry cup, the first cherry cut is from sweet cherry and the new one is from black cherry.

Here is the new cup all roughed out except the inside.

The cup all sanded up and awaiting to be finished with salad bowl finish. Also carved my initials into the bottom.

The handle of the cup with chip carving around the border. The inside was bloddy hard to carve but i managed it. I left a tooled finish on the inside because I didn't feel like sanding for hours! HAHA

Carving a willow kuksa for a friend

I had a request from a friend to carve him a kuksa for drinking tea in; he is a big fan of tea. So after searching the internet for a style of cup that he liked, we settled on this. 

This is the cup that I found

Here is the chunk of willow that I'll be using, it is a nice mix of sap and heartwood.

After cutting out the profile with a bandsaw in shop, I started carving it and rounding it off. Of course, I changed the design a bit to make it hold more liquid and carved the handle to my liking.

Here the cup is all finished and now has to dry for a week.

Carving a large birch wood bowl

This wood came from a tree in my backyard that was broken by a falling oak. I cut it up and decided to make a few bowls; here's the process >

Here is the split log section chopped then planed flat with a hand plane.
Then I traced a plastic bowl with a sharpie marker.

Here I am using a laplander folding saw to cut away the waste wood.

Here is the waste all cut off.

Here I rounded of the bottom of the bowl with an axe first and then a carving knife.

I had to move in because it was getting dark out. I'm halfway through the bowl at this point.

Here is the bowl on top of the huge pile of shavings from hollowing. I really need to save up some money for an  adze! this took me 3 hours to hollow out.

A recent cherry kuksa I've carved with instructions

Here is the step-by-step process, ENJOY!

First you select a fresh cut log of wood; in this case it's a cherry log. Then split it a half an inch or so away from the pith (the soft middle ring of the tree).
I am using a Cold Steel Trail Boss axe that I re-handled with my own handle copying the Gransfors Bruks Small Forest Axe because the stock handle was complete junk.
I split it this way because some woods don't split evenly down the length of the log. As you can see, the split has a slight twist. On some types of wood this doesn't happen, the log splits straight and even. Then chop away to the pith all the time checking to make sure the surface is even. Chop a little ways past the pith so as to prevent any cracks while you are carving the wood. All major cracks start from the pith. Then chose any circular object to trace or use a compass to draw a circle onto the flat surface. I am making one of Jon Mac's beaver tail handle style kuksa's this time. The other cup I am using for reference and it is the same style that I carved previously out of Birch wood.

Next chop away the sides with an axe or you can do as I did and use a folding saw to remove most of the waste wood and then chop to the line. The next step is to chop out the inside of the handle on the bottom. you can kind of see how the kuksa is going to come out by the reference lines I drew with the sharpie. Chopping to the line isn't very important here because i will be removing waste wood with a knife to the shape I like as I move along.

 Next step is to chop away the other side of the handle to the line. Again I used a Bahco Laplander folding saw to remove most of the waste wood. Chopping against end grain is tricky because if you aren't careful it might chip out on you when you lay the cup on its side and chop horizontally as i have been doing in the picture on the upper right. Chopping horizontally this way is easier than chopping at an angle from the top of the cup down. I took out my carving knife and trimmed it all the way to the line.

Here I start refining the back underside of the cup with my knife to make it more hemispherical. Then i cut away the waste wood up front with my Laplander folding saw.

Then I chop away the square corners of the profile to a more hemispherical shape making it look like the back part. Then I take out the knife and round it off to the line up top and circular on the bottom. I also cut a flat bottom for the cup to stand straight and not wobble around. Once I am pretty happy with the rough shape of the outside, I move onto drawing an inside circle as a reference line for the hollowing. I begin the hollowing by taking cross-grain cut towards the center. Keep cutting and cutting and cutting all the time checking the thickness of the walls with your fingers to make sure its even until you have this.....

I had to move inside because it turned dark outside so I finished up next to the fireplace. Here is the kuksa with all of the shavings from the inside of the cup. Don't throw away the shavings though, these come in handy. I take all these shavings and put them in a big paper grocery bag, the bag and shavings help prevent the cup from drying too fast and cracking. Then I put the kuksa inside and "submerge" it in the shavings. I roll up the end sealing it and put it on a shelf in my oil-burner room because the warm air in there will speed up the drying process. Once it's dry in a few days, I take out the cup and refine the shape of it by removing any warping on the rim and the central growth rings on the top of the kuksa. I also shape the handle in this step to my liking and once you're done.... start sanding! (this is the looong boring part.)

Here is the cup all sanded down and finished with four coats of "salad bowl finish by general finishes." On this cup I chose not to do any chip carving because I wanted it to be simple. In all,  the carving process took me 6.5 hours and the sanding part took me 2.5 hours. add that up and the total time to finish this cup is 9 hours! This cup is the biggest I have ever done, it can even be used as a soup bowl! I managed to get a few scrapes on the sharp corners of the wood as you can see in the pictures above and reopened a small cut from previous carving :)
Contact me for prices.

Cherry haul!

I had a clump of cherry trees that were standing in the corner of my property that had been broken down by the October snow storm that happened half a year ago. So today i finally got to them and cut them down to make light for an apple tree behind it. This was all the cherry I got from the five trees, each log is about 4-5 feet long.There's more branches in the carving shed. I have much more than I know what to do with, better be getting into some serious carving!