Kuksa carving tutorial. Ale hen.

Ale Hens...

 

A pictorial tutorial...

A short while ago I ran a couple of spoon and Kuksa making courses up here in Hennock. I explained and demonstrated techniques for sharpening Axe, knife and the dreaded hook knife. And showed them how to hold and properly use a MaChris carving knife. My students took it all in their stride and,at days end, and after some good hard work , they managed to get most of the Axe and exterior knife work completed. They spent the next couple of days hollowing out and knife finishing the work, they live near-by and were able to pop in for further tuition as they progressed. Whilst watching and helping my students, it occurred to me that my Kuksa design I have worked with for many years may be a little tricky to the novice carver...

The beaver tail, cutting across the grain, is both hard and delicate work...

I had a good think about the problems my students  encountered and decided to try out a different design. I cannot lay claim to this design as it originates from the cold north, an ancient design from Norway.

A split billet...

I made Hens both with a billet in the whole and a billet cleaved in twain. The whole billet tended, as I imagined, to split at the heart. A little bees wax mixed with Tung oil sealed the cracks and my friends have drunk long and hard from them without any mishap. I would therefore  recommend using a split billet as the chances of splitting are much reduced...

With your Axe remove the corners of the billet...

This in effect makes the head and neck of the hen...

Cut the underside to form the neck, and chop the bowl so as to sit a little lower than the head...

And form the front of the bowl shape...

Chop the unwanted section of the handle/head until you have a rough bird like silhouette...

Once the Axe work is complete, set to hollowing out the bowl. The quicker this is done the better, as it will reduce the chances of the bowl splitting...

Cut across the grain to start...

Once hollowed it is time to get the knife out and refine the shape...



And carving the head...

I have gone for a simple shape that represents the spirit of a Hen Goose...

Almost there...

Add some chip carved eyes ...

And singe her beak with a flame...

A little decoration here ...

and there ...

and the Hen comes alive....

I found this Kuksa shape a lot easier to carve than my usual beaver tail, and quicker to...

I hope you enjoy making yours...

ENJOY...

Hugginn and Muninn...Laburnum Shawl Pins...

I've been busy making more tuning pegs for Ben's larger Ngombi harp. He can now play happily without the harp de-tuning...

Once that job was finished I wanted to explore the possibilities of using little Hugginn and Muninn on a couple of shawl pins. 

The Saxon spoon I made some weeks ago with little Munninn sat on the end, was received very well, and stirred a lot of interest in people...

 

And Sarah has finally finished her shawl.  

I had previously carved her a pin that looks a little like Odin.

Which gave me an idea...

Hugginn and Muninn.

Munnin...

Hugginn...

I have carved these two pins from a billet of Laburnum. 

An incredibly hard and beautiful wood.

 Coffee coloured on one side and cream on the other...

 I used a flame to blacken one of them...

 And left the other one natural in colour...

I started carving the first pin using a MaChris made from 01 steel and found that the 01 is a little fragile for this tough wood.

The result was micro sized chips on the cutting edge. 

So I bought out the big guns...A MaChris carving knife made from Silver Steel.

(  BS-1407 ) 

This hard steel coped with the Laburnum without a murmur...

One of these may be travelling up the road in a few days...

 I'm not sure if I will have to post them or whether they will make the journey under their own steam...

I've also been finishing of  a basket of Kuksa blanks...

 And I have also made myself a new spoon from a nice piece of Apple...

This one is staying in my kitchen...

Well...I have to get working on putting sharp edges on my knives and Axes as I have a couple of chaps arriving at the end of the week for a Kuksa carving course. I am thoroughly looking forward to introducing another couple of people to the carving/Bushcraft world...

Happy Days...

Enjoy...J

A few stills from a Dartmoor Search and Rescue teams training exercise.

A few months ago I was chatting with my old mate Keith about the possibility of letting Sean (Silver Fox) make a promotional video for the Ashburton Search and Rescue teams fund raising effort. Keith cleared the idea with the section committee and subsequently invited Sean and myself along. Sean has made three movies, which I have already posted. Sean encountered some technical difficulties trying to film at night with limited light sources, but with a lot of heavy and time consuming editing he has produced a very enjoyable set of films.

 

We met Keith at the team stores where the current emergency vehicles are kept

Here Sean is filming the interior of  the Land Rover. Inside is carried some of the team kit, M.I.B.S stretcher, air winch-able aluminium stretcher, radios and other important kit.

. Here Sean is chatting with Keith about how the S.A.R team operates.

 The team meet once a week on Dartmoor for some kind of training event. These weekly training exercises are also augmented with weekend training, dotted through-out the year. So a big time commitment from all the volunteer members. Tonight the scenario was based around a quick search for the missing person (miss per) with the training leaning toward dealing with the casualties immediate problems and then recovering the casualty from a deep gorge using one of the light weight aluminium stretchers. The winter training season was drawing to a close when we filmed, however, this evening was very cold, sub zero, with a stiff breeze causing a big chill factor. I was already looking forward to a Cognac by the fire at home. The team training corps consider winter training, at night, the most valuable. Once the light summer evenings arrive, the training takes on a different feeling with less navigation and searching and more rope work/ water rescue events.

 We arrived at the rendezvous to find the control vehicle being set up ready for use. This is the main command and control vehicle from where the search is directed. Here you can just make out one of the team members setting up the main antenna. Once he has attached the antenna to the mast and cleared the immediate area, the mast will be extended.

And 'Control' will become active.

 Whilst this is happening, the other members will form small search teams, they will be briefed by their respective team leaders, and deploy into the dark night. All teams will have wireless communications with 'Control'.

 Here is one of the search team navigators working out the best route to take his team accurately and safely into his search area. All team members are highly skilled navigators and have to pass stringent navigational tests before being accepted into the team. The team members will each take on a specific job within their small search units for the duration of the search. In each team you will find a Team leader, Radio operator, navigator and first aider.

 The chap in this photograph became a team member just after me, back in the day, he has served for approximately 14 years now.

 Here you can see Sean at the casualty site the next day. Note the difficult terrain underfoot...

 The miss per was found and treated. During any first aid it is most important to make the casualty comfortable and warm. Here you can see a K.I.S.U or bothy bag covering the casualty. The more people that you can fit comfortably inside the warmer it gets.

 And here in the daylight with some of my neighbours...

One of the teams approaching our position...

 The volunteer casualty was found, treated and eventually evacuated to the safety of the initial rendezvous.

 Once the exercise has finished (End Ex) the whole team is de briefed. During a de-brief, valuable lessons can be learned, standard operating procedures reviewed .

 The team 'Controller' takes centre stage...

 And then every one retires to the local Public House for a warm by the fire and a pint...

The Mountain Rescue team members, up and down the country, are all volunteers and give their time with great enthusiasm and professionalism. If you see a collecting tin in your local, don't hesitate to give some change....

It will have a decal like this...

 Thank you on behalf of the 

Dartmoor Rescue Group 

(Ashburton Section)

 Sean and I spent the next couple of days on and around the moor taking in the sights and sounds...

Enjoy...