Piptoporus betulinus

We felled a Birch tree that was dying from Piptoporus betulinus, the wood was still sound in parts of the stem some was really brittle and the crown was completely dead. I cut some of the stem in two and the wood was very interesting, there were signs of Compartmentalization and brown rot from the Piptoporus betulinus (birch polypore)

I started a Kuksa and a spoon from the wood which gave off a nice menthol smell when the wood was carved, the smell is probably to do with the degradation of cellulose and hemicelluloses by the brown rot fungus in its early stages in the pieces that I saved.





It should hopefully produce a good effect to the Kuksa with the comparison between the brown and white wood.

Alder spoon

I started a spoon today made from Alder,Its great wood to carve and I love the colour it goes, I will leave this spoon to dry for a few days before finishing.

Finished the Chestnut bowl

I finally finished the Horse Chestnut bowl I had been working on, it has been drying for about a week now and yesterday I made all the finishing cuts and oiled it with Linseed oil.


I had debated whether to sand the bowl but decided against it and instead used my bent gouge chisel to finish the inside and my knife to finish the outside, I think its turned out well and I'm really pleased with it.

Made a sheath for my adze

I made a sheath for my adze yesterday, the dye is almost dry so I thought I would get some photos of it.
The sheath is made from some old scraps of leather that I had lying around, it was cut from a piece that I was experimenting with when doing some tooling.
Its 3mm thick veg tanned, wet formed around the adze and dyed dark brown, I used a sam brown stud for the fastener at the rear of the sheath, the pattern that was tooled into the leather was mostly removed when it was wet formed but some of it has survived, as it was made to protect the cutting edge it doesn't matter as it will do its job for now.

Horse Chestnut bowl

With the glorious weather we have been having recently I have been getting in from work and have been working on a bowl made from Horse Chestnut, I started this bowl with my new adze and then rough shaped with the axe, knife and spoon knife. I really like the shape but in a bit of a dilemma whether to sand it or not, I like the tool marks but thought with the shape it might look good sanded.

Spoon for a work colleague

This is a spoon that I made for a colleague at work, he had seen some of my spoons that I use everyday at work and asked if I could make one for him. We were re shaping a Birch tree and there was a couple of really good bits for spoons so I made him this spoon, he wanted a nice simple shape and I think it turned out ok.

Finished another Kuksa

I finished this Kuksa this morning, it has been drying for a few days now, I gave it a few coats of Linseed oil to finish it.



Its made from Willow and I used the spoon knife to carve the inside, from now on I will be using the Hans Karlsson adze to remove the bulk of wood.



I also just recieved this Polar whittler blade in the post from a friend of mine.



I like the look of these blades as a carver and plan to handle it with this piece of Alder burr that I have had in the cupboard for a few years now.