Wednesday 25 July 2018

Leather Jerky Pouch

This was a project to make a pouch for dried meet for our trip.
First I moisturized the edges with a sponge and made a line with a teaspoon. I made holes at the lower sides.
Instead of hammering the stitches, I used a pair of pliers. This protects the thread from friction.
I sewed the edges with the two needle stitch and made an oval hole for the leather band.
I wiped the outside with oil.

I wrapped up the fastening several times over the pouch. Lovely <3 p="">
The back of the bag.





Saturday 12 May 2018

Kuksa Cup

I was thinking for a long time what to give to my Viking friend for birthday when a kuksa came to my mind.
I bought some fire wood and draw an upper and side view.
Making the inner shape with a U-chisel was quite a pleasant work - the chisel is not from a regular shop and it is wide enough to make the work quite fast.
When I had the shape, it seemed too small for a cup to me, so I widened the inner circle and restarted again.
Lovely!
I spent a lot of time suffering with a hand saw to make these three cuts :-D
And the same applies for my little axe to get the rough shape.
The final shape was done with a big straight chisel. There is always a "pig nose" left at the front where the threads are perpendicular. When I was trying to cut it away, the kuksa cracked at several spots. I should have been more patiend and/or use a saw insead of chisel. The hands are not as gentle as they should be after a few hours with chisel and hard wood...
A new try...
After a few more tries (OMG).
Very hard beech wood.
I bought a rasp disc for my angle grinder and put it to a stand. This was like a dream compared to working with an axe!
I also used a japanese saw instead a regular one. I don't know why I have so much trouble with other saws getting stuck in the wood, this one fits me and I don't have a problem with it.
I cut it off and carefully did as much with the grinder as possible.
I put a driller in a stand the wrong way :-) and put in a rasp bit to make the shape of the ear.
The eye was drilled out starting with small holes.
After the shaping was done, I took out the sharp edges which gave it a nice finishing touch
Vikings decorated almost everything, so I cut a knotwork at the top with a carving knife. First I cut out the drawn shape and it seemed quite nice but beginner-like. With taking away sharp edges, it started to look proper.
Finished kuksa.
The ear is surprisingly comfortable.

Sunday 25 February 2018

Viking Spoon

I've made a few spoons from wood, but they all were really simple and not well done.
This is my first try for a decorated spoon. The morning I decided to make it, I went out to the forest and found out it has been raining :-D So I spent a lot of time and chose a stick that would look neither rotten nor soaking with water. Unfortunately some part inside was rotten anyway and it went off during carving.
 I usually keep the spoon on the stick as long as possible and cut it off as the last step so that I could hold it better. I traced the design with a roller pen and after carving removed the marks with a chisel. I'm looking forward to make the next one from proper dried wood :)