The Cosiness of a Kuksa – Carving a Wooden Mug

In an extract from his book Green Wood Carving, Harald Lamon carves a wooden mug

Apart from spoons – my first love – there is one item that I like to make perhaps even more than everything else. It makes me very happy to give it as a gift that is always gratefully received: a kuksa! From the first coffee in the morning to the last dessert in the evening: everything fits into a kuksa. It is much more fun and especially cosier to drink or eat from your own handmade wooden kuksa!

A kuksa, guksi or kåsa is a traditional Scandinavian mug. The Sami in particular make beautiful ones, often decorated with reindeer antlers and delicate decorations. A kuksa is less easy to make than a spoon. On the one hand, it has to be functional in size and shape, just like an eating spoon. On the other hand, hollowing it out is a real challenge (much like a deep bowl) and the process requires attention and knowledge to avoid cracks.

The wood

• The bigger the diameter of the trunk, the better. Here, the annual rings are flatter in a kuksa, which reduces the tension when drying and, hence, reduces the risk of cracks afterwards. So, it is recommended to use a trunk with a diameter of 14in (35cm) from which you can carve four kuksas rather than a 7in (18cm) trunk from which you can carve two. As for length, 8in (20cm) is usually sufficient.

• Soft woods such as willow, poplar or horse chestnut carve easily, but lack strength. Therefore, the sides should remain thicker, which may give the kuksa a heavy look. Oak and other harder woods on the other hand, are tougher for your hands and tools. Moreover, oak, which is ring-porous with large spring vessels, is vulnerable to leaking and is also more difficult to clean. My favourite woods are somewhere in between. Alder and maple are fairly soft when fresh, yet strong and less prone to cracking. Beech, in turn, is crack sensitive and less suitable, though could be used. Birch or walnut are good. I prefer to work with cherry or bird cherry because of the colours, but these types are a bit harder. Special kuksas can be made from burls on trees. The fibres then run in natural tangled patterns and can be fantastically beautiful. Unfortunately, these growths do have a higher risk of holes and cracks. Use what you have, learn and let the wood surprise you!

From trunk to kuksain in 7 steps

1. Splitting the wood

The first question to ask yourself is what dimensions you want for the kuksa. The closer you get to the desired dimensions while cleaving, the less axe work is required afterwards. The sample kuksa is 7in (18cm) long, 31/2in (9cm) high and has a diameter of 41/4in (11cm). These are average dimensions, but smaller or bigger is of course possible. Compared to an ordinary cup (made of ceramic), a kuksa tends to be bigger or wider, but less deep. Since cleaving is lesspredictable, it’s best to keep some extra margin, but not too much, keeping the axe work in mind. If you can cleave a block about 4in (10cm) high and 43/4in (12cm) wide, you did a good job.

Cleaving a log is most predictable if the mass of wood is split into two equal parts. To cleave a large log, I prefer using a froe because it allows you to make a long straight split. With just an axe, you can’t predict how the crack will continue in the rest of the wood. A froe is handy, but you can also use two axes side by side as an alternative.

If you want to split a log into three equal parts, you can even do it with three axes at the same time. Then, hit each axe in turn. I split the trunk into four parts. For the remaining piece, I cleave off the pointed part at the bottom. There is a chance that this may not split straight; in that case, you can chop of f the rest. Stay away from the heart of the wood, preferably at least 3/4in (2cm). This greatly reduces the risk of cracking later. For the same reason, I usually use the bark side as the top of the kuksa, which brings the thin edges – where cracks are possible – furthest away from the heart of the wood. This position (tangential) also results in nice rings on the inside of the kuksa.

2. Flattening the top and bottom

Make the underside flat so you can easily draw on it, the log is stable and there are obviously no cracks. It’s not nice if you work the underside at the last minute and only then notice a crack. If you have to fix the crack later, you may get dangerously close to the point where you accidentally make a hole in the bottom of the kuksa.

Also try to shape and finish the top side at this point. It makes drawing easier. If you have to adjust the top edge later, the shape of the kuksa may change too, making it hard to shape a nice circle again. Later, there will be no more wood in the middle to insert the tip of your compass. Actually, at this point you preferably finish the top surface of the bowl. You can do the handle later.

You can keep the natural curvature of the wood and make it symmetrical if necessary. This will give your final kuksa a nice sloping shape with the sides a bit lower. However, if you opt for maximum volume, it is better to make the top surface completely flat.

There remains the question how high you want the handle to be in relation to the bowl. I like it when the handle goes up a bit. That implies that the area of the bowl should be lower overall. Use the axe for the rough work. After that, it’s easier to flatten both surfaces with a drawknife and a spoke shave than using a woodcarving knife. This works best if you clamp the block in a vice or shaving horse, or secure it with a clamp to a table.

The drawknife is wider than the kuksa. The blade of a knife is not, so the handle will get in the way. With just a knife, you would have to cut from both sides to flatten the top and bottom surface. A spoke shave works on top of the surface, so width or length don’t matter.

3. Designing and drawing

At this point, you draw the top view of the kuksa on the log. Basically, a kuksa is a bowl with a handle, but the design variations are unlimited. I like to keep it basic, but some designs also have practical advantages. Draw the centre line first. If the log still has its naturally curved top, the centre line should be at the highest point along its entire length. The centre line will tell you where to put the compass later and helps to draw the handle symmetrically because you can compare both halves. The inner circle indicates the size of the hole at the top edge. The outer circle shows where to chop and indicates the shape of the bowl. Normal bowls have straight sides from the top down to the bottom, but a kuksa can have a somewhat spherical bowl. Then the walls first run a bit wider from the top towards the outside before coming back in (see the black line on the drawing). This way you can create extra volume with the same diameter at the top. The final thickness of the walls will be 5/32-3/16in (4-5mm). If you want more bulge in the bowl, make the outer circle 3/8in (1cm) bigger.

After drying, the kuksa will eventually be slightly oval in the longitudinal direction of the wood. If you want to end up with a nice round kuksa, make the sides of the inner circle a few millimetres wider. The handle can have many shapes. The transition from the handle to the bowl is most important. It is better to avoid having an angle here, otherwise you create an area where the continuous fibres abruptly blend into short quick-drying fibres. By making a curved transition, you reduce the risk of later cracking. If you really want a right angle, carve it after the kuksa has dried. If you are satisfied with your drawing, then step by step you will free the kuksa from the log.

4. Clamping of the wood

You might have expected that we would chop the outside before clamping and hollowing out. Carving the inside or the outside first? Both have (dis)advantages. If you shape the outside first, you can use the axe to go all the way without risk of cracking the bowl. If you do the inside first, the workpiece is heavier and bigger which is easier to clamp in the first place. However, you have to be more careful with the axe later. A second reason to begin with the bowl is that, with less experience, you don’t really know in advance where you are going to end up. By this I mean that when smoothing and evenly carving the bowl, you sometimes go deeper or wider than your original plan.

Thirdly, you can go further with the gouge when the edges of your kuksa are still thick and strong. On the one hand, to obtain a convex bowl, you are first going to cut outwards with the gouge and thus ‘undercut’ part of it. If your bowl is already shaped on the outside, you cannot use a hammer to do that, because you might hit the gouge through the wood, especially at the front of your kuksa. And on the other hand, when you later use the gouge to carve manually, you can use the strong edge as a lever.

Clamp the log first before you start hollowing out. This way, you can use both hands. The best way (or the most practical solution) is something like a chopping block or stump from which you removed a part or in which you can put pegs. In between, you can clamp the block with packing boards and wooden wedges. You can also use a vice, but the powerful knocks with hammer and gouge are not good for it. A clamp is also possible, but then you need to make the block longer so that the clamps don’t get in the way while hollowing it out.

Tip

To avoid cracks, give the kuksa little chance to dry out during the making process. Do not work under direct, hot sun. When taking a break, put the kuksa in water or a damp cloth for a while. For a longer period, you can store it in a sealed plastic bag in the fridge. Ideally, you should completely finish the kuksa in one go, but of course you will only succeed after some practice and experience.

5. Hollowing out the wood

Hollowing out a kuksa using only a spoon knife is quite a challenge and causes many beginners to stick to that one kuksa. Too bad! Hollowing out is much easier by hitting a (curved) gouge (curvature 7-8 and width of 1-11/8in/25-30mm is perfect) with a wooden mallet.

The first number in the identification of gouges represents the curvature of the cut: 8 is curvier than 5. For a kuksa, you need at least a 7. A 5 is straighter than the curvature of your kuksa. The ‘L’ represents the curved shape of the gouge. A straight gouge allows you to remove most of the wood and transfers the power of the mallet more efficiently into the wood. A curved gouge allows you to hollow out a little deeper. The last number represents the width of the edge in millimetres. What works best depends on how hard you can hit with the hammer. I like to use a 13/8in (35mm) gouge, but that may be too wide for others. Also, make sure your hammer doesn’t feel heavy and that you can keep hitting for quite a while. A round hammer works better because you don’t have to watch which part of the hammer you are hitting with, but a hammer with two f lat sides is also fine.

The basics of hallowing out:

Always begin at the edge and work towards the middle. Hit the gouge several times while tilting it towards the middle. The deeper you get, the more you have to tilt the gouge between the first stroke at the edge and the last one in the middle. The bowl gets deeper and deeper but remains curved. If you cannot get to the middle using the gouge, you are carving too steeply or too deep into the wood, which will result in an angular bottom that is much harder to smooth out later.

If you try to carve out too much wood at once, the corners of the gouge might also cut into the wood, and cause a crack to start from those places. You want to avoid this, especially when working at the side of the bowl. Such cracks can quickly continue through the edge of your bowl. So it’s best to start hollowing out at the front and the back, then progress towards the sides step by step. As a result, the last two pieces you hollow out are on the sides, but the wood next to it is already removed. This way, the corners of the gouge have less chance of cutting into the wood. In photo 14, I have highlighted the crack with a black line to make it visible.

That way, you make each part of the bowl deeper. After the sides, start another ‘round’. Try to start close to the line, but highlighted the crack with a black line to make it visible. That way, you make each part of the bowl deeper. After the sides, start another ‘round’. Try to start close to the line, but not so close that you have to keep aiming to position the gouge and progress slowly. Keep a margin of about 5/64in (2mm), which you will cut away later when finishing the bowl. Sometimes feeling is better than watching. Regularly use your fingers to feel how deep or wide the bowl is and whether the inside edges are even and don’t have thick parts or gaps. When you have almost reached the desired depth, use a ruler to check how much you have left.

First check the depth inside the bowl by looking at the ruler alongside the edge. Next, put the ruler on the outside, with the edge sitting at the same height on the ruler. This way, you can see how much you have left at the bottom. If you have the desired shape, it is time to finish it smoothly. You continue using the gouge, but now push it instead of hitting with the hammer. This way, you can carve thin curls and you won’t have gaps caused by hitting it with the hammer. With your left hand (if you are right-handed) hold the gouge by the metal part, just above the edge, and with your right hand push at the top of the gouge. To apply more power, you can use your full upper body to help push, while locking your right hand against your chest. This puts a lot of pressure on the edge of the kuksa. If you carved out the outside first, it would no longer be strong enough. In this way, try to get the bowl as smooth as possible.

To finish the edges very smoothly, you can use several tools. I have all of them (because it’s my job), but maybe you don’t. Some of these are shown in the photos here. Two twca cams: large spoon knives one of which is left-handed and the other right- handed. Similar to finishing the spoon bowl, you need to cut with the grain here. So for a kuksa, it’s handy to have both. A spoon knife with a longer handle can also be used, but is not always convenient because the handle gets in the way. The other is a fully rounded spoon knife that has a left and right blade combined in one tool. These three knives are especially useful when you do the outside of your kuksa first and, therefore, cannot apply as much power with the gouge.

However, I prefer the dog-leg gouges; if you can finish smoothly with your gouge, this is the only tool you need. Due to its shape, the dog-leg gouge is great for carving the lower half and bottom of your kuksa smoothly. You systematically cut towards the middle like using a regular gouge. The shape of the dog-leg gouge allows you to get to the bottom without any problems. It is also long enough to finish the top half of the edges with the grain. It is difficult to describe exactly how to use this tool. Most trainees consider it a very nice tool that is intuitive and relatively easy to use.

6. Carving the outside

To finish the outside, you will chop as much as possible using the axe. That way, you limit the work with the carving knife and other fine tools. In fact, that is hard work, because a kuksa has a lot of end grain at the front and back which is harder to cut than along the fibres. This is a big difference from carving spoons. Therefore, it is important to follow a number of steps to avoid the risk of cracking from the impact of the axe, while still using it as much as possible.

First, you chop the side and bottom of the kuksa, working towards the front. All of the strokes are in the same direction. While chopping, the kuksa rests somewhere with its front on the chopping block. In the beginning, this will be on the corner of the still thick block; but as you continue chopping, the supporting point moves more and more forward. These supporting points become increasingly vulnerable as they get thinner. Therefore, make sure you keep the front of the bowl edge a little thicker and finish this at the end. It also really helps to make an exaggerated turning slicing movement with the axe; this way you maximise the cutting effect of the axe and minimise the impact on the kuksa.

For the back half (the side of the handle), first chop to flatten both sides as curved as possible in the transition to the handle. I like to make the handle with a hollow at the bottom, close to the bowl; the part of your hand between thumb and index finger fits nicely into it. You hold a kuksa under the handle, to prevent it from sliding out of your hand, and it should feel comfortable. To remove the wood under the handle, I use a shortcut, which makes a woodworker’s life much easier. It’s up to you to decide if you do it that way.

First, I drill a hole under the handle, about 9/32-5/16in (7-8mm) behind the inside of the bowl. Study the inside of your bowl carefully and try to draw its borders as accurately as possible on the outside. I use the largest drill possible (11/4in/32mm). This ensures that I immediately have a nicely curved shape and makes the next steps easier. Make sure you drill nice and straight and square.

Next, saw from the bottom to the side of the hole. Try to estimate where the bowl is and keep a margin of about 3/16in (5mm). At best, the saw cut ends nicely at the edge of the hole on both sides. Then you can easily split the wood away in one go with your axe. Pretty exciting, but definitely worth the effort if you want to make some kuksas!

Now, you can chop again as far as possible with the axe. When chopping the back, the kuksa always rests on the handle. The most vulnerable point is the transition between the handle and the bowl. That is where it can break! Therefore, chop as much as possible at the back of the bowl first, then do the handle. At this point, also decide what the base of your bowl should look like. It doesn’t always have to be round. In fact, if you have a long or heavy handle, it’s better to move the base backwards to ensure that your kuksa does not fall over due to the weight of the handle. This implies the base doesn’t have to be exactly below the deepest part of your bowl.

First, chop the handle as much as possible like the spoon handle, towards the back. If your handle also has a narrow part, you will have to create a saw cut in these places, and then chop towards the bowl. Unlike the spoon, you do it in two steps. First saw and chop one side, then saw the other side and chop, but be even more careful.

Did everything work out fine so far? Good, then the hardest part is over. In the next steps, we’re going to use finer tools. It’s faster if you use a push knife or spoke shave but if you don’t have one (yet), no problem. Not everything in life should always be quick. You can use a push knife as a kind of guillotine. To do this, first attach an eye screw in the handle of the push knife. Some push knives already have one when you buy them, but usually they are not strong enough for this work. Also screw an open eye screw into your chopping block. For its position, keep in mind that when cutting with the push knife, your hand does not hit the chopping block, but passes it.

The push knife is the ideal intermediate step between the axe and the knife. A kuksa has much more end grain than a spoon, which makes it harder to cut with a knife. Try to cut as much as possible with the push knife. The final cuts and smooth finishing can be done with the carving knife. Find a comfortable chair, sharpen your knife and practise the knife grips until you are satisfied with the kuksa. You can see the knife grips and cutting directions in the drawing and photos below.

A few more finishing tips

• Preferably do not make the sides of the bowl too thick, and especially make sure they have an equal thickness. This will allow all parts to dry equally and even deform a little during the drying process, as it needs to bend, or crack. The maximum thickness is about 3/16in (5mm), although that also depends on the strength of the wood. The bottom can be thicker and the edge at the top a bit thinner, of course.
• Pay attention to the top rim and especially that part where your lips touch the bowl to drink. The rim should not feel sharp, but should also not be too wide. Otherwise, drops will be left behind, which can then run off on the outside.
• Pay attention to the balance of the kuksa: does it stand or fall over? During the axe work, I already mentioned that the base does not have to be exactly under the bottom of the bowl. You can use the knife to refine the base or cut it in a slightly oval or teardrop shape, towards the back. You don’t need to flatten the bottom perfectly yet, as it may bulge a little when drying.
• Hold the kuksa in your hands regularly. Everyone’s hands are different. If necessary, make the hole under the handle bigger or deeper, until it feels just right!

7. Drying the kuksa test

Actually, the kuksa is not finished until it dries without cracks and can handle the shock effect of hot liquids like coffee or tea. It occasionally happens that the kuksa does not survive the test, but the more experience you get at the various stages, the less likely this is going to happen. I don’t want to scare you, but after every workshop there are always one or two that crack. Fortunately, it happens to me very rarely anymore. The tips in the above sections are not all strictly necessary to apply, but each in itself reduces the risk of cracking. For example, a kuksa with thick edges can also dry well, but the thinner they are, the better your chances. A kuksa should not dry too quickly. If some parts dry (hence shrink) faster than others, there will be tension that can result in cracks. This usually happens at the top ends of your bowl, i.e. at the front or back.

The drying process takes about three weeks. In week 1, put the kuksa in a sealed or folded plastic bag or bread bag in a cold room. Keep the shape of the bag wider than the kuksa and definitely do not pack the kuksa tightly. In this bag, at first the humidity of the air around the kuksa will quickly increase due to the moisture coming out. This will slow down the drying process. To ensure that the wood doesn’t go mouldy and the drying process continues, you should turn the bag inside out every two days or replace the bag. In week 2, keep the bag open and place it in a cold, draught-free room. Preferably inside, but better not in the hallway or in a room with many doors. As the bag is open, the moist air can leave the bag easily but slowly and drying continues.

In week 3, you can take the kuksa out of the bag and let it dry in that cold, draught-free room for another week. You can feel it with your hands. If it feels cold, there is still moisture inside and you should continue the drying a bit longer. Once it is completely dry, you can do some final finishing with your knife. The wood is also harder now which allows you to finish some difficult bits a little more smoothly. If you have a type of wood that darkens or gets dirty when drying, like the sample kuksa, carve it again. In the photo below you can see how the sapwood turned browner after drying, and after carving it again the original beautiful yellow colour returned.

This drying schedule is not science; it is how I do it. But the principle should be clear: slow down the drying process! All done? Almost. Very occasionally, it happens that a kuksa cracks upon the first contact with hot water. You can reduce the shock effect by letting the oil harden completely first. The sides become less permeable to water and the heat of the water can spread less quickly. You can also let the kuksa get used to lukewarm water from the tap first, and then fill it with warmer water.

Now it’s time for your favourite drink! Cheers.

Further reading

New Release – Green Wood Carving, by Harald Lamon