A NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR

In this book, I show you how to get started with wood carving, how to source suitable wood and which knife grips you’ll need to know.

Step-by-step, you will learn how to carve butter knives, straight and curved spoons, salad servers and kuksa cups. You will find out how to keep your knife sharp and how to look after your axe.

Carving makes me calm. It’s my relaxation, and simultaneously a reminder of the forest – a place I always miss when I’m not there. And each time I use my carved tools, I’m also reminded of how important it is for me to create. Even from something as humble as a butter knife made from birch.

My hands’ desire

Wood

Knife, axe and tools

Carving

Butter knives

Frying utensils

Straight spoons

Curved spoons

Salad servers

Kuksa cups

My hands’ desire

I don’t carve wood because I need another spoon. Neither do I carve to make my next object better than my last, or quicker to complete. For me, it’s the process that’s the whole point. It’s always a bonus that I end up with a finished object.

I am a comfort carver. I can sit with the same spoon for several hours, several days, and carve tiny, tiny facets. I carve a little, touch it a little, look at it a little, carve a little more.

There is something magical in how a simple piece of wood, that doesn’t look like it’s much more than a humble log, can attract a human’s full attention – sparking the creative urge and desire to spend hours transforming it into a spoon. Absolutely fantastic things can hide in those pieces of wood. The happiness you feel when you find a piece of wood, cut it and start carving it, and when you get to see the different hues in the wood, the pattern of the growth rings and other details that only you as the carver will notice – it’s like striking gold!

Let your crafting be exactly what you want it to be. You carve for your own sake, not for anyone else’s. The principal aim with crafting nowadays is to fulfil the desire of your hands and your soul. Regard this book as an inspiration and a guide on how you can go about it, then try to find your own way and your own expression. It doesn’t have to be unique and it doesn’t have to be perfect. The most important thing is that it makes you feel good and you find joy in your creative practice.

Cross-section of a tree trunk.

Wood

Most people will know that you can find out the age of a tree by counting the growth rings. This is because the tree grows at different speeds throughout the year, and the different growth stages will give the wood a different colour. When the ground thaws in the spring, the tree’s moisture content will increase and the wood will become softer and lighter in colour – this is called spring wood. When summer arrives, the wood will become darker and harder. It’s the tree’s growth speed that determines the distance between the growth rings. Slow growth will give denser growth rings and stronger wood, quick growth will give more sparse growth rings. This way the cross-section of a tree trunk will tell us about climate variations through the years, and whether the tree has been exposed to damage or disease.

If you look at a cross-section of a trunk you will see that it is made up of several layers. The tree’s outer bark gives it protection from the surroundings, for example rough weather and diseases. Thereafter comes the inner bark, which transports nutrients to the different parts of the tree. Underneath the inner bark is the cambium layer, where the new growth rings are made.

The younger, lighter wood closest to the bark is called sapwood or alburnum. It transports minerals from the tree’s roots to the crown. Within the sapwood is the older heartwood, where nutrients, oils and resin are stored. This makes it darker and harder than the sapwood and it doesn’t contain as much moisture, giving it a higher dimensional stability. Heartwood is the best wood for carving and carpentry. The heartwood continues all the way into the pith at the core of the tree.

GREEN AND DRY WOOD

When talking about wood for carving, you refer to it as either green or dry. You get green wood from freshly cut down trees, or freshly cut off branches. When the tree is freshly cut down it contains a large volume of water. The amount varies depending on what time of year it was cut down – it will contain most moisture in spring, and least in winter.

When the wood is green it’s a lot softer than when it’s dry, which makes it easy to work with using an axe and knife. The wood’s fibres are a lot softer and stringier, which makes it easier to see and understand how the grain moves through the blank (blank is the name of the piece of wood that you will use for carving).

But green wood is also more delicate than dry wood. You will need to take into consideration the drying process, which will start the moment it’s cut down. During the drying process the wood will shrink and can therefore warp and split. You work the wood roughly while it’s green, meaning that you carve the dimensions and shapes you want but leave the finishing until it has dried. This means there’s an allowance for adjusting any warping or other changes that might have occurred during the drying process.

How long it takes for an object to dry isn’t possible to pinpoint; it will completely depend on how moist it was to start off with and the volume of the wood. Larger and thicker blanks will dry more slowly than smaller and thinner ones. The easiest way to find out is to touch the wood to check whether it feels moist to the touch.

When the blank has dried, you can carve the finishing cuts. Now is the time to adjust any warps, clean up the surfaces and carve the details. The carved surface gets a completely different sheen and becomes a lot more beautiful once the wood is dry. Make sure that your knife is freshly honed so that you get a nice clean surface.

When you carve wood that is already dry, you don’t have to worry about it splitting or warping. That risk has passed, so you don’t need to make allowances for this when carving, meaning that you can carve the object completely straight away. The disadvantage is that the resistance is a lot higher in dry wood than in green wood, and the wood won’t be as responsive as when it’s green.

If you are carving dry wood, you can try to remove as much material as possible using an axe or a saw before you put your knife to it. Because it’s harder to carve, you won’t be able to remove as much as efficiently using a knife as you would when green, so if your blank is too chunky when you start to carve, there is a good chance that you will tire of it before it’s even close to being finished.

It’s impossible to restore the qualities of green wood in a piece of wood that has dried, but what you can do is make it a bit easier to carve by soaking the piece or dampening the blank as you work with it. Personally, I think the best carving experience is had using semi-green wood – wood that has been sitting around for a while and started to dry and harden a little.

Sourcing Green Wood

If you live in a larger city, it’s possible to find green wood in many places. Check in parks or wooded areas where shrubs and trees have been pruned. Once you’ve started looking, you will see wood everywhere! There are often piles of branches lying around, and sometimes whole trees are there waiting to be collected after arborists (tree surgeons) have cut them down. It is often absolutely fine to take a piece or two from the woodpiles, as long as you leave them in the same state as you found them. Unfortunately, it’s rare that trees cut down in public places get turned into anything but wood chips. So save what can be saved!

You can always contact a local arborist, too, and ask for permission to take material. Arborists are often tree lovers themselves and usually think it’s great if the trees they cut down can be put to good use.

If you live near a wood or forest that has recently been thinned out, there is usually a lot of wood suitable for crafting left on the ground. Contact the landowner and ask if you can take or buy a piece. The same goes if you spot perfect crafting wood growing on someone’s land. Details of landowners can be found at HM Land Registry. You are never allowed to saw down trees on someone else’s land without permission from the landowner, and the right to roam does not give you the right to saw off branches in the wood or forest.

Storing Green Wood

If you find a piece of green wood that you don’t want to take the knife to straight away, there are a few ways to store it. To keep as much moisture as possible in the wood, the best thing is to place it in the freezer so that the liquid in the piece of wood freezes into ice. If the piece of wood is much too large to keep in the freezer, you can divide it up into smaller blanks by cutting it into shorter lengths and then splitting it at the core.

If you, like me, haven’t got that much space in the freezer to store all your pieces of wood, you can also keep them outside – on the balcony, in the garden or on the patio – in a box with a lid, for example. However, the box can’t be airtight, there must be some airflow.

Bear in mind that the wood shouldn’t be left directly on the ground, either, as it will then soak up moisture and it can be attacked by insects, rot and mould. Cover it with some kind of roof to protect it against both rain and direct sunlight. Store it in a shady place if possible. The colder the temperature is outside, the better the moisture in the wood will keep.

If you keep the pieces of wood whole – that is, don’t split them and don’t remove the bark – the moisture will be retained for longer because the exit points for moisture are limited to the end grain. To seal the end grain, the ends can be covered with a liberal amount of wood glue. This way the moisture will be sealed inside as much as possible and this will also prevent splits to a certain extent. The quicker a piece of wood dries, the bigger the risk of splits.

If the wood has been left for a while, you will need to cut off approximately 5–10cm (2–4in) from the ends of your branch or log before you draw out the project. This is so that you can cut off any splits that have appeared in the end grain as the wood dried. Often the splits will run further than you’re able to see and won’t appear until the wood dries even more.

If you have started a carving project in green wood but want to continue working on it at a later date, the same thing applies – the quicker it dries, the bigger chance there is for splits. There are a few things you can try to prevent it drying too quickly, for example, rub the blank with boiled potatoes, wrap it in a damp towel and place in the fridge, put it in a bag or box with wood chips, or place it in the freezer. Also make sure that the different parts of your object aren’t too uneven in thickness. If you are making a spoon, for example, make sure that you have hollowed out the bowl and started on the handle, otherwise there is a good chance that it will split in the place with the most material remaining.

Sourcing Dry Wood

You can buy dry wood at DIY stores, garden centres or specific wood suppliers, but DIY stores might have a fairly limited number of wood species on sale. If you want to buy dry birch, for example, the easiest way might be to buy a bag of firewood! This will mean limitations in terms of length and you’ll need to check the end grain for splits. You could also contact a local carpenter, joiner or cabinetmaker and ask if you can buy scrap wood from their production. I know from my own experience that many fine pieces of wood are thrown away – ones that I would much rather have seen turned into spoons.

THE BLANK

When choosing your carving blank, there are a few things to keep in mind. If you have an idea about what you want to carve beforehand, start by finding a piece of wood that is suitable for the purpose. It’s a good idea to choose a piece with as few knots as possible, because knots are tricky to carve through and the wood around the knot is wavy and therefore difficult to carve. Pieces of wood with large knots should be avoided altogether; those with small knots you can often compromise with, but it’s best to avoid them.

If you are making an object with a curved shape, such as a spoon or ladle, it’s best to carve it from a curved blank. This will make the grain follow the spoon better and it will therefore become stronger and more durable. It’s more difficult to get hold of curved wood than straight wood, especially if you don’t have your own wood or forest to harvest from. However, it’s not essential to use curved wood for curved objects, you can use straight wood, too. You’ll just need to make sure that the fibres are long and strong enough in the more delicate places.

The character in an object can be very different depending on whether you choose to have the heartwood side facing up or down. This particularly applies when you make objects with a bowl, such as a spoon. I almost always keep the heartwood side facing downwards, partly because I think the patterns become prettier, partly because I find it more comfortable to carve that way. If you instead have the heartwood side facing upwards and hollow it out, it’s almost as if you just follow one growth ring and the wood becomes less attractive. With the heartwood side facing downwards, you instead cut through the growth rings and the more attractive circle pattern appears.

Another way to approach it is to let the piece of wood decide where you should carve it. If you have found a piece to carve, it can be nice to sit down and look at it and think about what kind of object is hiding therein. Does it have any curvature in the grain or any bend that you can make use of, or does the wood have a beautiful part that you would like to include? Let these little details control the form and function.

Ladle from straight blank with delicate area highlighted.

Ladle from curved blank where the design follows the grain of the wood.

Bowl of a spoon, heartwood side facing up.

Bowl of a spoon, heartwood side facing down.

Types of Wood

Alder

Birch, masur

Pine

Larch

Elm

Birch, spalted

Laburnum

Maple

Ash

Beech

Hazel

Lilac

Aspen

Oak

Cherry

Pear

Birch

Juniper

Lime

Walnut

TYPES OF WOOD

All wood can be carved, it’s just a question of how easy or difficult it is to carve. Different species of wood can vary enormously in character, colour and structure. Some are soft; others are hard. Some have an even hardness throughout the wood; some have summer wood that is a lot harder than spring wood. Here’s a list of the types that I encounter the most, but it’s not exhaustive – if you find a piece of wood that you are tempted to take your knife to, don’t let the type of wood stop you!

Alder

There are two kinds of alder – grey alder and common alder. Alder is easy to recognize as it’s the only broad-leaved tree that has cones. Alder thrives close to water and has a high resistance to water. The wood has a reddish tone and it is light, soft and fairly even-grained. Alder is a classic crafting wood, which is very nice to work with, both green and dry. Döderhultarn (a Swedish wood carver) carved his figures in alder, and he is said to have commented that ‘its dirty brown colour is very well suited to represent farmers from Småland’.

Elm

Elm wood is heavy, hard, robust and tough, but it can also be a bit twisted and cross-grained. The spring wood is distinctively ring-porous, meaning that there are more and larger vessels in the springwood, making the colour contrast between spring and summer wood distinct. The heartwood has a red-brownish tone, whereas the sapwood is light in colour. It is fairly difficult to carve but has been used widely for art and utility objects because of the beautiful, lively wood. Unfortunately, a large part of the elm population has died due to Dutch elm disease.

Ash

Ash wood is white to yellowish, but the heartwood can have heavy streaks of red, sometimes graduating towards pink. The spring wood is light in colour and ring-porous, the summer wood has a slightly darker tone and is compact. The wood is hard, tough, elastic and strong. As a carving material it is hard but not at all unpleasant to carve, but I prefer to do so when the wood is green. Ash has been widely used for tools and sports equipment due to its toughness and strength. Axe hafts (handles), among other things, are made from ash.

Aspen

The wood of aspen is soft and light in colour and weight. The heartwood and the sapwood have the same colour. It is a very easily carved wood, so it’s good for when you’re starting out. On the other hand, it can be difficult to get a nice surface because it’s so soft and porous. But with sharp knives, that shouldn’t be a problem!

Birch

Birch is a soft to medium-hard, homogeneous wood that is strong and durable. The heartwood and the sapwood often have the same white-yellow colour, but sometimes it has a red-brown heart. It’s easy to split and carve with and has a beautiful finish. There are many different birch species, the most common being downy birch, a straight, easy-to-work-with wood, and silver birch, which is more cross-grained. Because of the ease with which birch can be carved, it is the most popular wood for handicrafts.

Birch, masur

Masur occurs when the tree’s growth rings grow at different speeds at different times, causing ruptures to appear in the wood. In them, scar tissue is formed, and this is what creates the dark streaks in the wood. Masur birch is an incredibly strong and durable wood. Because it has such cross-grained growth rings, it hasn’t got any weak directions in the same way that straight wood does. But the cross-grain also makes it difficult to carve as it’s very hard. It’s easier to handle with the knife when green, but when dry it can become very tricky. Soaking dry masur will help with the process.

Birch, spalted

Spalted wood can be found in logs or branches that have been left outside after felling. Spalting causes black streaks and colour variations to appear in the wood, forming beautiful patterns. Spalted wood is more porous than healthy wood, but it’s fine to use to a certain extent. However, if the spalting has gone too far, the wood will become unusable – if this is the case, you’ll notice it quickly once you start working with it.

Beech

Wood from beech is heavy, hard and homogeneous – a very strong wood. The colour is red-brown and the heartwood and sapwood have the same tone. You can recognize it easily from the ‘freckles’ that appear throughout the wood. It’s difficult to carve, but the surfaces become very beautiful thanks to the even hardness.

Oak

Oak is heavy and hard. The heartwood is brown and the sapwood is light in colour. Oak is the most tedious wood to carve, in my opinion. The summer wood is very hard and the ring-porous spring wood is very porous, which will not only slow down the flow of carving but also make the objects weak from the brittle spring wood. However, having said that, you can create extremely pretty objects because oak wood has clear medullary rays, natural shimmering lines going across the grain, and colour variations which will become prominent when carving.

Juniper

Juniper wood usually grows in the form of shrubs, so it can be difficult to get hold of chunkier pieces. The wood is red-brown with thin yellow-white sapwood. Many are of the belief that this is the best wood for carving, but it can actually be very difficult to carve! Juniper wood grows slowly and therefore has dense growth rings and fairly hard, twisted wood with a lot of smaller twigs. But it smells wonderful and the growth rings can have incredible colour variations, so the wood can be fantastic for carving, both green and dry.

Pine

Pine wood has red-yellow, resin-rich heartwood and yellow-white sapwood. Pine can be a bit tricky to carve because the spring wood is so much softer and weaker in places than the summer wood which is more con. Carved objects can therefore be fragile at more delicate, thinner points. However, more slowly grown pine is easier to work with as the wood is more dense and less fragile. Pine smells fantastic and ages very beautifully.

Laburnum

Grown as a shrub, this is an incredibly hard and heavy wood with golden-brown heartwood and white sapwood. Laburnum is a poisonous species, and dust and chips can bring on an allergic reaction, so you should avoid using laburnum for cooking and eating utensils. That said, it is incredibly beautiful with strong colour contrasts and variations in the wood, so it’s difficult to keep the knife away.

Hazel

Wood from hazel is tough, homogeneous and fairly soft. The heartwood and sapwood have the same creamy-white colour with a nutty tone (which might seem ironic), and the wood has clear medullary rays. It grows as a shrub so it can be difficult to get hold of thicker dimensions, but older hazels can have fairly thick trunks. The wood gets a smoothness similar to velvet when you carve it. Absolutely fantastic! A favourite wood.

Cherry

Cherry trees come in many different varieties. Sweet cherry, or wild cherry, grows wild and is therefore easier to get hold of. The wood is medium-hard and strong. It is yellow-red to brown-red at the heart and light yellow, sometimes graduating towards pink, in the sapwood. It can vary quite a lot in appearance and sometimes has streaks of olive green. It’s an incredibly beautiful and striking wood. In comparison to other fruit trees it grows fairly quickly, so the wood tends to be straight and easy to split. An excellent wood for carving.

Lime

Lime is a soft and homogeneous type of wood that is light in colour and weight. There aren’t any significant differences between spring wood and summer wood, especially when it comes to appearance or density. Lime is often used for sculpting just because of these qualities. It is a nice wood to carve, but it can’t take too much strain.

Larch

Larch is similar to pine but has a darker yellow-red-coloured heartwood. Apart from that the wood is very similar to pine, both in its qualities and carving experience – in other words, it’s not optimal. But it can have incredibly beautiful colour variations and a depth in the wood that surpasses pine.

Maple

Maple is a beautiful silk-shimmering wood. It is light yellow-white in colour, with the heartwood and sapwood in the same tone, and the wood has prominent medullary rays. Sometimes dark streaks can appear at the centre of the heartwood. It can be a bit difficult to split and the wood is hard, but the hardness is the same for summer wood and spring wood, so it’s very nice to carve.

Lilac

The sapwood of lilac is yellow-white or red-white in colour and the heartwood is more light brown, often with streaks of strong violet tones. It grows as a shrub and can have a very twisted and split wood. Lilac is said to be the hardest wood that grows in my home country, Sweden. Due to the hardness and the cross-grain, I recommend not carving objects that are too large using lilac. Thanks to the hardness, the facets made by the knife will get an almost glassy surface. It becomes incredibly beautiful and almost magical with the violet streaks.

Pear

Pear and other fruit trees, such as apple and plum, have similar qualities and appearances. The heartwood is often red-brown with a pink tone and the sapwood is light in colour. They often have a ‘false’ heartwood where there are darker streaks outside the actual heartwood, and so the wood can be extremely striking. The wood is strong and hard but also fairly twisted and difficult to split, which makes it quite difficult to carve. The same advice applies here as for lilac – don’t attempt to carve objects that are too large.

Walnut

The wood of walnut has a brown tone that can vary, producing different shades. It is hard but porous, which makes it fairly easy to carve despite the hardness. I find it can be difficult to get hold of green walnut as it doesn’t grow wild in Sweden, but it is possible to buy dry walnut wood.

Knife, axe and tools

The axe and the knife are two of humanity’s oldest and most crucial tools. They have been used for hunting, felling trees, building houses, manufacturing other tools, and more – simply put, they have been important tools for life. In the grand scheme of things, it wasn’t that long ago that people wouldn’t go anywhere without a knife on their belt. Perhaps that’s the reason why crafting using a knife and an axe gives a feeling of comfort, not unlike the feeling you get when you look into a fire.

A knife and an axe are actually the only things you need to carve. But there are other tools that can be useful when you need to saw, sand or drill. In this chapter, I describe the types of knives and other tools that will help you to succeed with your carving.

Wood carving knives and spoon knives.

WOOD CARVING KNIVES

Wood carving knives come in a range of models and with different lengths on the blade. I have divided them into long and short carving knives, and by this I mean the length of the blade. A short wood carving knife has a blade of around 5cm (2in) and a long one has a blade of around 8cm (31/4in). Which one you prefer is very personal. Both can be found in different price ranges, from around a tenner to more expensive. The factors that will affect the price the most are whether it has been industrially manufactured or hand-forged and what quality steel is used for the blade. It is, of course, fun to have a hand-forged carving knife, but at the same time, the cheaper options shouldn’t be underestimated. Personally, I use both varieties.

I prefer carving knives that have a fairly narrow blade to those with a wide blade (that is from the knife’s edge to the knife’s spine). The narrow blade means that you get more mobility in your cuts, especially when hollowing out and when making curved shapes. Narrow blades also tend to be properly pointy towards the tip, which is also an advantage for many carving techniques.

Avoid knives with a hilt, such as scout knives. The hilt is a guard that sits at the joint between the handle and the blade and it’s there to protect the hand from the knife blade. It can, of course, be a good thing in some circumstances, but when carving it’s mostly in the way.

Long Wood Carving Knife

I like to use a longer wood carving knife at the start of the carving process. Thanks to the long blade you can make long carving strokes, meaning that you can remove quite a lot of material in one stroke. It is also very good to use if you have a slightly larger surface that needs to be levelled. Then you can almost use the long edge as a plane and get a really nice level surface.

Short Wood Carving Knife

The short wood carving knife is perfect for the finishing cuts, i.e. when you do the last trimmings. The short blade will give you more control over the carving stroke, and you can work using both hands close to the carving surface with a smaller risk of cutting yourself, as the blade isn’t very long. I also think this makes it easier to work with the full length of the blade, all the way out to the tip, which is useful for more intricate areas. The short knife is also preferable if you are intending to use the tip for making decorations.

Spoon Knife (Hook Knife)

The spoon knife is, as the name suggests, used for carving out the bowl of a spoon. The curved blade means it’s possible to scoop out while keeping good control over the knife. Spoon knives come in both right- and left-bevelled models, meaning that the blade curves either to the right or the left in relation to the edge. This isn’t to do with whether you are right- or lefthanded, but depends on which knife grip you choose to use. You will use one curve more than the other, but both are necessary to have.

There are also double-edged spoon knives. These are fine to use, but I prefer the singleedged model. The double-edged model can’t be pushed using your thumb (because the thumb will push against a sharp edge), which means that many knife grips can’t be used, and it will therefore be more difficult to achieve close, controlled cuts. But some people like them and think they do the job well.

Spoon knives also come with a range of different curvatures on the blades. Some are very flat, and others are curvier. The flat one is good if you want to make a shallower bowl, and the curvier one is good if you want to make a deeper bowl. Just as wood carving knives, spoon knives come both in hand-forged and industrially made models. I use both varieties, but I prefer the hand-forged ones because the steel in those is harder and therefore the edge stays sharper for longer. I think the spoon knife is the most difficult to sharpen and hone, therefore I appreciate a good steel that keeps knives sharp for a long time. Remember to be extra careful with the edge of your spoon knife, for this particular reason.

Carving axe and wooden mallet.

CARVING AXE AND HEAVY-DUTY AXE

Sweden is known for good-quality axes. We have a good bunch of axe manufacturers and blacksmiths who sell their axes to craftspeople all over the world.

Axes come in many shapes and sizes for a range of purposes. The axe that most people are probably familiar with is the classic splitting axe, but this isn’t suitable for carving.

A carving axe (or sloyd axe) has a shorter handle and is fairly lightweight to make it easy to work with. Some have an indent on the inside of the blade with space for your hand, meaning that you can grip the head itself. This positions the grip behind the cutting edge of the axe, which gives good control over the movements. The cutting edge of the carving axe is slightly curved to make it easier to cut with and it has a concave blade, just like with the carving knife, as opposed to a splitting axe, which has a convex grind.

It’s important to choose an axe that has the right balance and weight for you. An axe that someone else thinks is the absolute best might not be the best one for you, so if you have the opportunity, it’s good to try out an axe to get a feel for it before you buy. It doesn’t have to be an axe solely made for carving, either. One of my favourite axes is actually more of an all-round wildlife axe than a specific carving axe.

In addition to the carving axe, I’ve got a heavy-duty splitting axe that I use for splitting logs or thicker branches. Quite a bit of force can be necessary to split a log, therefore I’ve got an axe that I can strike with a hammer or a sledgehammer (always use safety goggles to do this). This will put more force behind the stroke than you’d get with a wooden mallet. Avoid striking an axe that is precious to you with a hammer or sledgehammer, though, as it isn’t good for the head. I also use the heavy-duty splitting axe to debark the material. There can often be grit, clay or other things in the bark that will easily dull the carving axe.

The heavy-duty splitting axe can be a cheap, medium-sized axe or one that you’ve found at a flea market. It doesn’t have to be kept as sharp as the carving axe, but make sure it doesn’t get too dull and dented. A dull axe will slip easily if you use it for carving and you run the risk of getting injured. So only use it for rough work!

WOODEN MALLET

The wooden mallet is used for striking the axe head. It is often made from a hard wood, either turned from one piece, or made up of two parts, the handle and head. Wooden mallets can be bought from DIY stores, but it’s also easy to axe out a mallet yourself. Choose a cross-grained or hard bit of wood, and it doesn’t matter if it has knots, they will only make the mallet stronger. It’s good if it has a diameter of 12–20cm (41/2–8in) and a length of 30–40cm (12–16in). Mark out the middle and keep the piece untouched at one end, then axe out a handle at the other end. The handle can be carved into shape a little with a knife to make it more comfortable to hold.

CHOPPING BLOCK

A chopping block might not be a part of the average person’s toolkit – but if you carve a lot using an axe, I think you should definitely get one. However, if you prefer not to have a chopping block, you can instead use a wide plank or wooden chopping board, one that’s at least 2–3cm (3/4–11/4in) thick. What’s important to consider in this case is to have a steady underlay. If you are working at a table, make sure you work above one of the legs, so that the surface where you strike is supported all the way down to the floor.

But, as I’ve mentioned, I recommend a proper chopping block, and it doesn’t have to be particularly large. A diameter of 15–20cm (6–8in) is enough if you feel comfortable chopping on a smaller area. The block itself doesn’t need to be especially tall. You can have a block that is around 30cm (12in) high and then attach three legs to it, so that it stands securely and you get it up to a good working height.

You can easily attach the legs by drilling three holes in the outside edge of the bottom of the block using a 30mm (11/4in) drill bit. To make sure the block stands securely, the legs need to be attached at an angle going outwards, which means that the holes need drilling at an angle. The angle of the legs isn’t that important, you can work by trial and error. Neither is it super important that all the holes are at the exact same angle, but try to keep them as uniform as possible when drilling.

For legs, you can use three straight sticks with a diameter of 5–10cm (2–4in). Remove the bark and carve them into shape if you feel like it. Cut them to the desired length and carve one end of each to make a plug that fits into the hole, but don’t make it so thin that it becomes loose. Tap the legs into place with a wooden mallet and turn the block the right way up. Fine-tune the angle of the block by sawing off a small chunk of a leg if needed and then cut the feet to make sure they are level to the floor.

Chopping block with legs.

CHIP CARVING KNIFE

A chip carving knife is used for carving patterns into wood. It comes in different models but the most common one has a straight edge and a short blade, around 2cm (3/4in). For the chip carving knife to fulfil its function, it’s important that it is sharp all the way out to the tip, because this is what you will be working with the most. If it’s not sharp enough, it won’t make cuts that are distinctive and neat enough.

HEAVY-DUTY KNIFE

The heavy-duty knife is what I call the knife that I use for removing bark, chipping or cutting off small knots or similar from my piece of wood. There can often be grit or other dirt in the bark that will easily dull the blade. It’s therefore better to have a knife that is solely used as a heavy-duty knife. It can be a classic Mora knife from Sweden or a similar model that can be found at all DIY stores.

GOUGE

A gouge is used for hollowing out or making concave shapes in wood. It’s a U-shaped chisel that comes in many different sizes and with different curvatures or sweeps on the cutting edge. Those with a deeper curve will give higher ridges to the strokes, and those with a flatter curve will give a smoother surface, so you can vary the character of the surface a lot depending on which gouge you choose to work with.

Gouges come with either straight or curved blades. When hollowing out, you use a gouge with a curved blade. The curve in the blade means that you can hollow out the blank more easily with the curved cutting edge.

It’s best to clamp the piece of wood to the worktable. This is partly because it is quicker to hollow out if you can put force behind the gouge and control it with both hands, and partly because there is a high risk of injury if you hold the blank in your hand. You use a lot of force when hollowing, and it’s easy to slip with the gouge. You don’t have the same degree of control as you do when you work with the spoon knife.

V-TOOL

A V-tool, or a parting tool, is a sculpting tool with a v-shaped cutting edge. It is often used if you want to decorate or engrave in wood. The tool comes in different sizes and is usually used for wood sculpting. I use a mini V-tool with a small blade and small handle. With this, I can keep good control when I want to add decorative details or write something in the wood. A V-tool is a fun complement to your toolkit, but is absolutely not essential. You can, with some practice, get the same result by using the tip of your carving knife.

DRILL

The drill is used to make holes in the wood. There are different models for different materials. The wood drill bit has one centre point and two flutes that run in a spiral up along the drill bit. If you are making larger holes, you can use a forstner drill bit or a spade drill bit. To be able to use the drill bits, you will need a drill driver.

CLAMP

A clamp is used for securing your piece of wood to the workbench, and for adding pressure to two pieces of wood that are to be glued together. There are different types of clamps for different purposes. When it comes to carving, you want to fix the piece of wood in place, and for this I think a screw clamp or a quick-grip clamp work best. When you clamp a piece of wood it is important to have a good contact surface on the blank, both against the workbench and the clamp surface so that it is secured in place. If you are clamping a carving blank which you have already started to carve, and that might not have completely even surfaces, you can make it steadier by placing a softer material, such as leather or cork, in between the workbench and the blank, as well as in between the blank and the clamp.

COPING SAW

The coping saw has a thin saw blade that enables you to cut out curved shapes. Because the blade is so thin it can snap, so always be sure to keep spare blades. The angle of the blade can be adjusted in relation to the saw frame. This means that you can keep sawing even if the piece of wood is longer than the depth of the frame. You can also use the coping saw instead of the axe if you want to saw out a shape, but because the saw blade is fairly delicate and has small teeth, it’s best not to use it on a blank that is too thick, as it can be heavy to cut through.

PRUNING SAW

Pruning saws are often foldable and are, just like a Japanese saw, a kind of pull saw. This means that the wood is cut as you pull the saw towards you. The pruning saw is designed for cutting into green wood; the teeth are ground at different angles, which makes it easy to saw with, and it will leave a fine cut. The saw blades come in different sizes and the teeth sizes can vary. I have one with slightly larger teeth that I only use when I cut off slightly thicker branches or trunks. Otherwise, I prefer a model with smaller teeth. This functions as a good medium between a pruning saw and a Japanese saw and works well both for sawing off branches and for more exact cuts on your carving blank.

SANDPAPER AND ABRASIVE SHEETS

Sandpaper and abrasive sheets are used to get even, smooth surfaces on different materials, in this case wood. The coarseness of the grit is printed on the reverse of the sheet. The higher the number, the finer the grit. When sanding convex and concave shapes, I think an abrasive sheet is more suitable than sandpaper. It folds better and is more durable than sandpaper. A suitable grit for sanding carved surfaces is 120–400. Many choose to sand the bowl on ladles and spoons, as they can be difficult to get perfect with the knife. If you start with a coarser grit, for example, 120, and eventually want to end up with a very smooth and nice surface, it will be necessary to go from coarse to fine abrasive sheets in several steps. If you jump directly from coarse to fine, scratches from the coarse sheet will remain that are too deep to remove with the fine sheet. If you are just removing a small chip in a bend or similar, but want to keep the carved surface, you should use a very fine sandpaper that doesn’t remove the carved facets, just the chip.

Coping saw, pruning saw, sharpening stones (see here), honing oil and sandpaper.

Honing compound (see here), drill bit, clamp, chip carving knife, heavy-duty knife, gouges and V-tool.

Many carvers choose not to sand their objects (I usually fall into this category), but there isn’t anything wrong with doing so if you personally think it will give a better result.

Be sure not to use tools with a cutting edge again after you have sanded the wood. The abrasive sheets release tiny grits that get stuck into the wood and can very quickly dull your knife.

MASKING TAPE

If you are on the way to developing a blister on your thumb, a few layers of masking tape make great protection. The elastic varieties work best, as the thumb doesn’t get too rigid. Masking tape is also good for fixing and secure smaller pieces into place when gluing and mending.

GLUE

If you are carving something that needs to be glued, for example, if you accidentally chip off too much material or if a crack appears, twocomponent adhesive or wood glue for outdoor use is the best to use. However, it’s difficult to mend a carved utensil with glue, as the mend doesn’t usually last in the long run. This is particularly relevant for the parts that are the most exposed, such as the bowl of a spoon. A mend has a greater chance of lasting on the handle. Note that the wood needs to be dry when you glue.

Masking tape, glue and compass.

COMPASS

The compass is a drawing tool with two legs, one with a pointed tip and the other with a pencil or nib. With this you make round circles of the required size. It is great to use if you want to mark symmetrical round shapes onto your carving blank.

PENCIL AND RULER

When making marks on green wood, it can be difficult to get visible lines with a standard pencil because of the moisture in the wood. In this case, I usually use a watercolour pencil, a soft drawing pencil or a permanent marker that can be used on a wet surface. A ruler or other measuring tool is helpful for marking straight lines such as the centre line. Steel rulers are fairly flexible and they are useful for marking out lines on curved blanks.

Ruler, pencil, marker pen and plaster.

THE CUTTING EDGE

Having sharp tools is key for a carver. Carving with a dull knife simply isn’t fun. A dull edge is also more likely to cause injury, because you need to use more force and are therefore likely to slip more easily.

A carving knife should have a sharpening angle of 23–27 degrees. If it’s too flat, it will catch on the wood, and in addition, the edge will become very fragile. If it’s too steep, there will be too much resistance in the cut. An axe should have a sharpening angle of approximately 35 degrees.

There are various ways to ensure that the edge doesn’t get unnecessarily damaged. Place an edge/blade guard on your knives when you store them, both for the sake of the edge and for your safety. When carving, you will often have several different knives out at the same time that you then swap between. Make sure that the ones that aren’t being used are lying on a soft material such as wood, leather or fabric. Also make sure that the edges of the knives aren’t touching against each other or other hard materials. It doesn’t take much to accidentally dent the edge of a blade. The tip of the knife is very sensitive and can easily snap, so only use it for cutting, not for scraping or prising.

Grinding

Grinding is necessary when the edge of your blade is nicked or if it has become so dull that you can no longer get it sharp just using a sharpening stone. Buying a good-quality sharpening machine is expensive, but if you catch the wood-carving bug it will soon become an essential purchase. If you have a new knife that was very sharp when you bought it, it’s enough to hone it a few times before you need to grind it.

A modern sharpening machine is electric and has a rotating, circular grindstone that runs through a water bath. A Swedish company, Tormek, produces good bench grinders and has a range of different jigs that you can use with them. They help to hold the edge tool at the right angle for a perfect bevel.

It’s important that you discard the water in the water bath after use, otherwise it will soften the stone and when you use it the next time, the wet part will wear down more quickly – and you’ll end up with an oval stone.

Honing

In order to remove the burr (the rough edge of the blade) that is left after sharpening, you go at it with a sharpening stone. There are waterstones and oilstones. The waterstones are usually sandstone or another absorbent rock, and oilstones are made from Arkansas stone or other less absorbent materials. I prefer to use a waterstone. You will need to have at least two sharpening stones at different grain sizes – one that is around 1000 grit and another that is around 8000 grit. There are sharpening stones that are cone-shaped, wedge-shaped or cylindrical and with rounded or sharp edges. These are made for reaching the inside of curved edges, which you will need to be able to hone spoon knives and gouges.

I keep a small Arkansas sharpening stone in my carving bag, so that I can always hone the edge of a blade whenever it gets a little dull during the carving process. I think this works very well and will give the knife’s edge a longer lifespan before I have to go at it with a sharpening machine. This will work as long as you don’t have any nicks or dents in the edge, in which case you will have to grind it.

Soak the sharpening stones for a couple of minutes before using. Start with the coarser stone. Place the stone on a damp cloth to keep it still. Hold the knife with one hand and place one of the bevels against the stone so that the knife’s edge is turned towards you. Press the thumb and index or middle finger of the other hand on top of the bevel to make sure it is lying flat against the stone. Then pull the knife towards you in one movement, always maintaining pressure against the bevel. It’s essential that the bevel maintains contact with the stone at all times and doesn’t tip over to the knife’s cutting edge.

Honing a knife.

It is better to make slow and controlled movements rather than doing it too quickly. When you have stroked the knife over the stone, pause and lift it away from the stone. Then do the stroke from the beginning and repeat approximately 10 times. Don’t do it in a sweeping movement, and be careful to pause before you lift, otherwise it’s very easy to accidentally round the edge. Turn the knife so that the edge is facing away from you and repeat on the other side, this time pushing the knife away from you. Then repeat the same process using the finer stone. Both sides should be honed to the same degree.

Wet the stones from time to time while you hone, to make sure they don’t get too dry and to get rid of excess metal particles from the knife.

Honing an axe.

When honing an axe, it is easier to hold the sharpening stone in one hand and the axe head in the other. Place the stone against the bevel of the axe and move it over the bevel in light, rotating movements. Be sure to hold the axe still.

The same thing goes for gouges and spoon knives, but they only have a bevel on the outside and are flat on the inside. You can hone the outside using a flat sharpening stone, using the same rotating technique that you would use for an axe. To reach the inside, you will need a curved sharpening stone. On the inside, you just run the sharpening stone back and forth, working your way across.

A strop.

Stropping

The last step towards a sharpened edge is stropping. This is when you polish the bevel and remove the last of the burr. A strop is a leather strip made from cowhide with a loop at one end and a handle at the other – this is so that you can secure the looped end around something steady while pulling the strop taut with the handle. Apply a small amount of honing compound (a very fine abrasive) onto the strop and run the knife a few times along the strop, over both bevels. Pull the knife so that the edge of the blade is facing away from you, otherwise it’s easy to cut through the leather. It is also important to keep the strop taut, otherwise the leather will easily fold around the edge of the blade and will round it instead of sharpen it.

You can also choose to keep the strop lying flat on a planed surface or glue a piece of leather onto a flat piece of wood of the same size. Some apply honing compound directly onto a planed piece of wood and use that as a strop.

Carving

AXING OUT THE BLANK

Use a heavy-duty axe to axe out the blank from a log or branch. Be sure to axe over a hard-wearing surface, such as a chopping block, an old chopping board or a thicker wood plank. The most important thing is that it is lying or standing securely and the surface you are cutting against is fairly level. Always make sure you stand in a position where your legs aren’t in the way of the axe, should the blow miss or tip the piece of wood over. Stand with your feet wide apart, one foot slightly in front of the other, and you will be steady.

If the log has thick bark, it can be more difficult to split because the bark tends to keep the wood together. In that case, you can start by removing the bark where you will split the log.

Choose a piece of wood that is suitable for the object you are making. Study the piece before you split it – if there are only a few knots, you can try placing the splitting line so that one of the halves is left as free from knots as possible.

As a rule, when axing, you’re not actually splitting the wood. Instead, you position the axe’s edge against the wood, in the place where you want your first cut to be, and then you strike the axe head with a wooden mallet. This will give you much more control over where the splitting line will end up, in contrast to splitting directly with the axe.

If you are working with a branch or log, you always need to start by splitting it across the pith. If you keep the pith, and the growth rings closest to it, there is a good chance that splits will happen, because the wood surrounding the pith will move towards it during the drying process.

If the pith isn’t centred at the middle of the log, it’s a good idea to place the split so that the denser growth rings end up in one half and the sparser growth rings end up in the other – this means both halves are as uniform as possible, and the pith ends up centred.

Splitting line for off-centre pith.

Depending on what it is you are carving, you can axe out the blank in different ways. If you have a larger log, it might be enough wood for several different projects. A curved spoon usually needs one half; if you are making butter knives, you can cut it up into wedges. For straight spoons or other flat tools, you can cut it into ‘fillets’ (see diagram here).

Different ways of splitting.

CARVING WITH AN AXE

Before you start to axe out the shape of your blank, you can saw out some stop cuts to make the work easier. The stop cuts are placed at concave bends, for example, where the spoon bowl will meet the handle. It’s easiest to do this with a Japanese saw or a slightly finer-toothed pruning saw. The stop cut breaks the fibres in the wood, and therefore halts the splitting. This will lower the risk of accidentally cutting off material that you want to keep.

The stop cuts can be placed at a 90-degree angle from the edge, or as a cut that follows the spoon bowl. The latter will mean there is less material to carve off, but it’s also more difficult to saw out a cut that breaks the grain diagonally rather than sawing one that breaks it across, especially on green wood. When sawing the stop cut, it’s important to make sure that you saw to an even depth at both the top and the bottom.

Stop cut that follows the spoon bowl.

90-degree angle stop cut.

Stop cuts for the side profile of the spoon.

When axing off any excess material, you place the axe edge against the end grain in line with the grain that you want to cut along, then strike the axe head with a wooden mallet. If you are cutting above a stop cut, you will need to be prepared to hold back and halt the axe head once it has chipped off the wood. If you don’t, the edge will easily end up in the material you want to keep and can cause it to split. You can also place the blank flat on the chopping block and position the cutting edge along the grain, then strike it with the mallet.

Always think about where you’ve got your fingers when carving with an axe. Never position the hand holding the blank underneath the axe. When axing out the shape, you hold the blank at the top at the edge and rest it against the palm. Keep your fingers out of the way and fold the thumb into your hand. Fix your eyes on the point where you want the axe to land. Aim to always maintain a steady vertical angle on your cuts and instead change the angle of the blank when cutting out a curve or shape. Place your grip further up on the axe handle for better control, and further down for more force. When carving with the axe, it’s good to hold it further up – it’s better to make several safe cuts than fewer more forceful ones.

If you think it’s difficult to hit the same spot with the axe, a good technique is to get the axe stuck into the wood where you want to cut it. Then you strike both the blank and the axe together as one unit towards the chopping block, until the chips are cut off.

It is possible to carve an almost finished result using the axe if you are very skilful. The more confident you feel, the more you will dare to remove. Use the axe for as long as you feel you can manage it – what you don’t remove with the axe, you have to remove with the knife, which isn’t at all as quick and efficient, so it can be worth learning to master the axe.

SAWING OUT THE SHAPE

Another technique is to saw out the outlines instead of using an axe. For this you would use a bandsaw, jigsaw or coping saw. Sawing is the best option if you have a dry blank that is flat on both sides. It can be really tough to saw through green wood with a handsaw, especially along the grain.

Always be sure to clamp the piece of wood when working with handsaws. If you are making a small object, it can be good to have a bit more material than is necessary lengthways to make sure there is somewhere to clamp onto.

If the shape has sharp bends that the saw blade can’t manage, you can start by sawing a cut straight from the edge into the cutting line at the most curved places on the blank. That way, you’ll avoid the problem of the wood pinching the saw blade at the bend, as that piece will fall off once the cuts meet.

Saw cuts at sharp bends.

Keep to the outside of the outlines when sawing out the shape. It can be easy to lose track and make a wrong cut and accidentally remove too much material.

MAKING A TEMPLATE

If you like, you can make a template from card or cardboard. I usually make a template that corresponds to one half of the spoon. I draw a line that marks the centre line of the spoon, then I draw out the required spoon shape on one side of the centre line. I usually make several different versions and sizes so that I have a few templates to choose from. Then I cut out the chosen template shape, draw a centre line on my blank from the template, then draw out the spoon shape on both sides of the centre line. This way the spoon will become symmetrical.

The template will be more durable if it is made from slightly thicker card or cardboard, then you can reuse it if you want to make a matching spoon in the future.

Template that can be mirrored to create a symmetrical form.

CARVING WITH A KNIFE

Always carve in the direction of the grain. You will soon notice whether you carve with or against the direction of the grain. If you carve against the grain, the knife will catch in the wood and will want to chip off material. If you carve with the grain, the knife will cut through the wood nicely. If you start a carving stroke against the direction of the grain, simply halt the stroke and carve from the other side, so that you cut with the grain instead of against it. To more easily understand which direction to carve in, I have a rule of thumb and that is always to carve downhill. Hold the carving blank so that the direction of the grain is completely horizontal and think about the curves as slopes. You should always carve downhill at the slopes to carve in the direction of the grain. If you carve uphill, you carve against the grain. This rule applies no matter how you twist and turn the blank, as long as you keep the direction of the grain horizontal.

To start a carving stroke, you first place the bevel against the blank and then move the blade forwards, at the same time as you carefully tilt the knife upwards until it reaches the angle where it will start to cut off wood. Thereafter, you maintain that angle.

If you tilt the blade too much, the cutting edge will get an angle that’s too steep and it will bury down into the wood instead of producing a nice, straight shaving. To remove a large amount of material, hold the blade at a slightly steeper angle than you would when carving more finely.

The knife edge should run across in one cutting movement and it’s the movement rather than the pressure that will produce the cut.

Carving direction: always carve downhill.

Use the whole of the knife’s blade when carving. Start closer to the heel of the blade when you need to use more force or want to achieve a planed carved surface. Keep further out towards the tip when carving curves and other areas where you need to be able to turn more easily or want to carve with more precision.

One of the most difficult parts to carve is the neck of the spoon, where the bowl meets the handle. Two downhill slopes meet here – meaning that you will need to carve with the knife from two directions and align the cuts in the same grain layer to create a nice surface. You will need to carve a little at a time and keep it very controlled to succeed.

It can be easy to get stuck in problem areas such as the neck of the spoon, or when a curve in the wood’s grain can make it hard to achieve a clean cut, and then it’s easy to keep carving in the same place without any consideration of how this will affect the overall form. It is, for example, very easy to carve the neck too thinly. If I get stuck in this way, I usually leave the problem for the moment and continue to work with the rest of the shape, then come back to the problem later, once the form on the whole is more complete. At this stage, it is usually a lot easier to manage that last cut. However, if you notice that it doesn’t get better, just leave it a bit rough rather than continuing and running the risk of carving the object so much that you break it.

The neck is a problem area where the cuts meet from two directions.

KNIFE GRIPS

When carving, you use different knife grips and techniques. Which grip to choose depends on the grain direction in your blank and which areas you are carving. Once you have got going, you won’t think about it consciously, and you will automatically alternate between the grips you like. To start off with, it’s good to be familiar with the most common grips and try them out to see which ones you prefer – this will depend on how you personally like to carve. I like to comfort carve, where I make small cuts, removing a small amount of material at a time. Others like to remove material quickly and efficiently in long strokes, which involves different knife grips.

Carving is an interaction of the whole body. The force comes from the hands, arms and back. In many knife grips, the chest and legs are used for support, and even the knees to hold the blank steady. When the body is used as a support in this way, it’s important that the knife’s movement is minimized so that the knife can’t cut you once it is released from the wood. Try to keep your arms fairly close to your torso and lock your joints once you have found the right angle in the grip. This means you will get more control over your hands and feel more confident in putting greater force behind the stroke. It can take a while to figure out how the knife should be positioned to get the best cut, how to hold the blank steady and conveniently at the same time, and for your hands to learn to cooperate with each other. It takes practice to get it right.

Push Stroke

Sit with your legs wide apart and with your arms in a steady position pointing downwards, between your legs. Place the knife against the blank and then pull the hand that holds the blank towards you, with the help of your shoulder, at the same time as the knife hand is automatically pushed away from you. Start the cut from the heel of the blade and finish at the tip (figure ➀). You can also position the knee as a support behind the knife hand to make the hand steadier. This grip is efficient to use for rougher cuts to remove material because you get a lot of force behind it, but it can also give less control, especially if you don’t focus on keeping the knife hand steady.

You can also do it the other way around, stabilizing the blank hand by placing the elbow onto your thigh so that it is secured in a steady grip in between the legs, and then carve with a straight arm away from you using your shoulder (figure ➁). I think you have more control of the blade when using the first option.

Scissor Grip

Hold both the knife hand and the blank hand at chest height. Keep your arms tight to your body. Hold the knife against the blank in a cross and pull the shoulder blades together at the same time as you push your chest forward. This means the arms will move backwards and the hands will move away from each other, and in doing so you make a knife stroke (figure ➂). Here, you almost solely use the back muscles. You can help to steer the knife stroke with your blank hand but try to hold the knife hand steady. The scissor grip is a safe grip with a lot of force, but it doesn’t offer a lot of precision and is best used for rough cuts.

Thumb Push Grip

Hold the knife in your knife hand and place the blank hand’s thumb on the spine of the knife. Turn the knife at the same time as you push with the blank hand’s thumb. The cut should always be to the side of the thumb so that you can make use of the leverage in the stroke. The motion should be made using your wrist and elbows – moving them from the outside and in towards the body (figure ➃). You can use this grip no matter where on the knife blade you are cutting. If you want to use the tip, you just place the thumb further up the spine. This is a useful grip as you can easily direct how much material you want to remove, and you have a lot of control.

Pull Stroke

Hold one end of the blank and place the other end towards the chest. Hold the arms steady against the body and lock the wrist of the carving hand. Place the knife against the blank with the tip at an angle away from the body and pull the elbow of your carving hand backwards with the arm still tight towards the body and the wrist in a locked position (figure ➄). The risk of cutting yourself is minimized because your lower arm will push against the body before the knife gets close. To take this knife grip futher, you can push the knife using the index, middle and ring fingers of the hand that holds the blank. This puts more force behind the stroke and is more precise.

Thumb Skew Grip

Hold the knife fairly far out in the hand, towards the fingers, with the tip pointed at an angle away from you. Place the knife hand’s thumb on the end grain of the blank and pull down the hand with the knife edge pointing towards the thumb (figure ➀). Holding the end grain means you will get the best support and can put more force into the stroke, and the thumb will be more protected from the edge. If you carve at a place where the thumb can’t reach the end grain, you can instead, if it’s a thinner area, place the thumb behind the blank and you will get good support while the risk of cutting yourself is minimal. It’s a very good grip to use for chamfering off an edge or shaping the end grain.

It is also possible to use this grip by placing the knife hand’s thumb on the same side of the blank as the cutting edge. The way to do this is to pinch the blank with your thumb and pull the hand together the same way as above. It is important to maintain the slanted angle on the knife and to cut from the tip to the heel, making sure you slow down before you reach the thumb.

To get even more control with this knife grip, you can cross the thumb of the blank hand over the thumb of the knife hand and place it on the knife handle just behind the blade. The thumb will then help to steer and stabilize the knife (figure ➁).

Carving towards the thumb is also very useful when carving the end grain (figure ➂). It can feel scary to carve with the edge facing towards the thumb as it is easy to catch it with the cutting edge, but the risk of major injury is minimal because the only force you use comes from pulling the hand together. What you can do to protect the thumb against smaller cuts is to wrap masking tape or a plaster around it as a preventative measure.

CARVING USING A SPOON KNIFE

When carving using a spoon knife, you are not supposed to carve with the grain in the same way as when you carve with a carving knife. Instead, cut diagonally or straight across the grain (figure ➃). In doing so, you won’t get caught in the grain at any point and it will be easier to complete the whole stroke without the knife getting stuck.

However, once you have got some depth in the bowl, you can carve from any direction. Start at the edge and carve towards the middle of the bowl and finish the stroke at the bottom (figure ➄). In other words, always carve downhill (see here).

Here, you also need to be sure not to keep the knife edge at too steep an angle – this is especially important to keep in mind at the start of the hollowing, as an angle that is too steep will only cause the knife to catch. Try to create an even hollow from the beginning, so start with a few cuts in the middle and then work towards the edges and back towards the middle again for the next round of hollowing.

Knife Grips for a Spoon Knife

Place the bowl of the spoon in the blank hand and start hollowing it out by cutting diagonally or straight across the grain. When using the spoon knife, you alternate between using the thumb push grip (figure ➅) and using a pull stroke. You can either use the thumb skew grip or place the blank hand’s thumb on the spine of the knife blade and push the knife towards you using your thumb (figure ➆). You can also push with the blank hand’s fingers (figure ➇). When you alternate between push and pull grips, you also alternate between using right- and left-bevelled spoon knife models. The grip that works best depends on personal preference, but also on how you hold the blank and the grain structure of the wood. Some spoon knives have a sharper curve further out on the blade, which you can make use of if you are carving a deeper bowl.

SAFETY

Always keep a first aid kit to hand. Cutting accidents can happen easily when you work with sharp tools, but don’t let that put you off! I very often manage to get minor grazes and cuts from the tip of the knife, but rarely any larger wounds. Smaller cuts from the knife usually heal quickly and well, thanks to the fine cut.

To avoid getting injured, you have to have full control and focus. Always be aware where your fingers, hands and legs are. If you feel tired or unfocused it’s good to take a break from carving to prevent an accident from happening. Avoid carving in hectic and busy environments where others, for example animals and children, may be at risk of injury from your tools.

Always make sure the tools are sharp. Dull knives and axes can cause much more serious injuries than sharp ones because you will need to apply more force and are likely to slip more easily.

You can very easily get blisters on areas of your hands that are used for gripping and pushing the knife. You will feel fairly quickly where it will rub the most. To avoid blisters, I usually apply protection in the form of masking tape or plaster tape as soon as it starts to feel sensitive. That way your hands will last for longer!

SURFACE TREATMENT

Once you have finished carving your kitchen utensil, you can give it a surface treatment. You can use oil, beeswax oil or paint, depending on which finish you want to achieve. Because it will be used for cooking, it is important to use natural and non-toxic oil. You can also choose not to treat the surface and instead let the fat from cooking do the job.

Linseed Oil

Linseed oil is the most common oil used for kitchen utensils. It is a natural product that is made from the seed of the flax plant. Linseed oil is a hardening oil, which means that it sets when it comes into contact with oxygen. It is therefore difficult to say how long it will take for the oil to harden – it can take anything from a few days to weeks, depending on the humidity and temperature. It is possible to mix in turpentine or white spirit to speed up the hardening, but if you do it won’t be as durable. I recommend keeping the oil unadulterated.

One of the benefits of oiling kitchen utensils with hardening oil is that the oil itself will make the object stronger. The oil soaks into the pores of the wood and sets, which creates a more durable object.

You can use two different types of linseed oil, cold-pressed raw linseed oil or cold-pressed boiled linseed oil. The boiled linseed oil is heated to around 200°C (392°F), which means it hardens more quickly than the raw oil. It can take several months before the raw oil is fully hardened. The boiled oil is usually more yellow in colour than the raw oil and will therefore give the wood a yellow tone. If you don’t like this, it is possible to find boiled linseed oil with a lighter tone, and you can also bleach it by placing it in the sun.

Brush on a liberal amount of oil and leave it to soak into the wood for about an hour. If the object doesn’t look saturated, you can brush on a little more in the places where it looks like it has soaked up the most oil and leave it for a while longer. Then wipe off any excess oil. You can also leave the kitchen utensils to stand with their heads facing down in a jar of linseed oil for a couple of hours, and it’s guaranteed they will be saturated. Oil the handles while the heads stand in the jar. Then wipe the utensils off and leave them in an airy place to harden. To speed up the hardening process, place them somewhere warm with good air flow.

It’s very important to keep in mind that cloth and paper soaked in linseed oil can spontaneously combust if left out. Therefore, be sure to soak them in water and place them in a plastic bag, or burn used cloths. If you want to reuse them, you can keep them in a jar with a tight-fitting lid. The brush is washed with water and a linseed oil-based soap.

Linseed oil can impart flavour, especially when it comes into contact with hot liquids. You won’t notice the flavour from a ladle in a stew, but it can flavour the coffee in a kuksa cup. Therefore, only treat the outside of the kuksa cup and leave the inside untreated.

Linseed Oil Paint

For painting kitchen utensils, it’s best to use artist-quality linseed oil paint that can be bought in tubes. It is a very concentrated paint that can be squeezed out and stirred into a little bit of boiled linseed oil to make it easier to brush on. Only use a tiny amount of linseed oil for an opaque colour and dilute the paint a bit more for a glazed effect.

Beeswax Oil

Beeswax oil is a blend of beeswax and cold-pressed raw linseed oil. The oil soaks into the wood, and the wax protects the surface and gives it a nice lustre that accentuates the colour and pattern of the wood. There are different types of beeswax oils available, so be sure to choose one that is non-toxic and doesn’t contain any solvents. Apply the beeswax oil with a cloth and leave it to soak in for a while before you wipe off the excess. Rub it thoroughly with the cloth to get a nice polished surface.

It’s easy to make your own beeswax oil: simply heat 1/4 part quantity of beeswax and 3/4 part quantity of cold-pressed raw linseed oil together in a pan and stir until the wax has melted and mixed with the oil, then pour the mixture into a sterilized glass jar and leave to set, uncovered, overnight. It’s then ready to be used. Store the beeswax oil in a cool, dark place.

Paraffin Oil

Paraffin oil is a mineral oil that is completely transparent, odourless and tasteless. It’s a petroleum by-product, so it’s not a natural product in the same way as linseed oil, but it’s non-toxic and is safe to use for cooking utensils. However, it doesn’t harden the wood, but instead greases the wood so that it becomes waterrepellent. The oil will wear off with time and will need to be reapplied occasionally.

Paraffin oil will give the wood a deeper tone, but the wood won’t change significantly from the untreated appearance. I think paraffin oil works best on light-coloured woods, when you want to keep the whiteness of the wood.

Butter knives

For the beginner, the butter knife is the perfect tool to start with. As a rule, it’s impossible to fail (it can have many different appearances and you’ll definitely produce a knife that can spread butter, efficiently or not). But the butter knife isn’t just a project for beginners. I still think it’s loads of fun to make butter knives and they are appreciated gifts. You can use a surface treatment if you want, but it’s actually not necessary. The butter will take care of that!

1. Axe out a blank, either as a ‘fillet’ from a branch or thinner log, or as a wedge if you have a thicker log. Axe the blank flat on both sides.

Draw out the shape of the butter knife, either freehand or using a template. If the blank is thinner at one end, it can be a good idea to place the blade facing the thinner side, because you usually want the handle to be thicker than the blade. If you are using a wedge-shaped blank, turn the blade of the butter knife towards the thinner edge. It’s best to use a straight and knot-free blank and to draw out the knife so that it follows the grain of the wood. If there is a movement or curve in the blank, you can try to place the shape of the knife so that it follows the curvature of the wood.

2. Axe off the material outside the knife’s shape and saw off any protruding areas at the ends. Saw stop cuts into the concave shapes. For the stop cut by the knife blade, either place it along the line of the shape or straight in from the edge. Make sure the stop cut is an even depth on both the top and the bottom.

3. Roughly cut out the shape using your axe. Cut off the material over the stop cuts. Be careful and counter the weight of the axe head as the wood splits, so that the cutting edge of the axe doesn’t end up in the butter knife blade. Then cut the shape all the way into the line. Also make the blade of the butter knife thinner with the axe, if it’s too thick. Be sure to thin it out from both sides, not just one side.

4. Swap over to the carving knife and start by shaping the outline and the thickness of the butter knife. For comfort, the handle should be thicker than the blade. The blade should be around 4mm (¼ in) thick across the spine, then thinned out down towards the edge, which should only be around 1mm (Illustration in) thick. Carve until you are happy with the outline, thickness and overall shape. If you are working with green wood, this is the stage where you leave the butter knife to dry before you go onto the next step of making the finishing cuts. However, there is so little material in a butter knife that you are usually able to get going with the finishing cuts on the following day.

5. Now you can start to round off or chamfer any edges and carve details onto the handle and blade. It’s a good idea to test out the angle of the butter knife edge by ‘air buttering’ and then adjust the angle accordingly. Be sure to carve out a new surface across the whole butter knife if you started with green wood, to achieve that nice surface that only a cut made on dry wood can give. When you feel it’s finished, you can use your knife straight away – just start spreading butter with it.

Wood: birch with red heartwood, spalted birch, standard birch

Finish: linseed oil and butter

Year of manufacture: 2005–2020

Size: 16–19cm (6¼–7½ in)

Wood: birch and pine

Finish: untreated

Year of manufacture: 2017

Size: 21cm (8¼ in) and 18cm (7in)

Wood: birch, juniper and walnut

Finish: untreated

Year of manufacture: 2020

Size: 16–19cm (6¼–7½ in)

Wood: hazel, birch and birch with red heartwood

Finish: untreated, linseed oil and paraffin oil

Year of manufacture: 2019–2020

Size: 16–19cm (6¼–7½ in)

Wood: birch, juniper and birch

Finish: linseed oil, linseed oil and untreated

Year of manufacture: 2018–2019

Size: 18–22cm (7–8½ in)

Carver: Clara Dackenberg

Wood: birch, from the family forest in Skedevi, Östergötland, Sweden

Finish: linseed oil and linseed oil paint

Year of manufacture: 2018–2019

Size: 18–22cm (7–8½ in)

The reason why I started carving was actually because I got fed up working on traditional illustrations and craved something three-dimensional to paint. Then it turned out that the carving itself was the most absorbing part of the whole process, and the painting only came second.

I have a fairly large library of patterns for inspiration that I leaf through when it’s time to paint the handles of the butter knives. I like to take both pattern and tonality from Swedish folk art. There is something special about folk art’s own borrowing of patterns, surface textures and décor elements from upper-class environments, and how soundly and confidently they then recreate them in their own illusionistic painting. It’s a very handicraft approach to beauty, which I practise making my own.

/Clara

Frying utensils

Frying utensils is my catch-all term for frying spatulas and frying forks. They can be completely straight in shape with a flat head or they can have a shallow bowl. Alternatively, you can start with a piece of wood with a natural bend and let the form of the frying utensil follow the bend in the wood. The frying utensil is a good next step to follow after the butter knife, as you don’t necessarily need to have a bowl, which means that you will be fine with just a carving knife if you don’t have a spoon knife yet.

When carving a frying utensil that you are planning to use frequently, remember not to make the head or handle so thin that they become fragile. Your utensil will need to be capable of stirring hearty stews and other tasty things!

1. Start by splitting the branch or the log at the pith. Then axe out a ‘fillet’ with a thickness of 1–2cm (½ –¾ in). If you are using a thinner branch with a diameter of around 5cm (2in), you can use the whole width of it. If it’s a larger branch or a log, you can use one half of a ‘fillet’. The blank should be free from knots and be straight or with a slight bend that you can use to your advantage. Even out the top and bottom with the carving axe.

Mark out a centre line and draw the outline of your frying utensil, either freehand or with the help of a template. It doesn’t matter which side you choose for the front and back if you are making a straight frying utensil.

2. Saw a stop cut either side at the neck, which either follows the angle of the blade or goes straight in from the edge. Axe off the material above the stop cuts and cut out the outlines with the axe as close to the lines as you dare.

Once that’s done, you can start thinning out the blank towards the blade but keep a bit more body on the handle. If you are making the end completely flat, without a hollow, you can thin it to approximately 5–6mm (¼ in). If you want the blade to have a small hollow, you will have to take this into consideration when thinning it out.

3. Now it’s time to get out the carving knife. Even out the surfaces at the top and bottom and carve the outlines until you have a shape that you are happy with. If you are making a frying fork, once the form is finished and the dimensions are set, now is the time to draw out the tines of the fork, using a ruler if that helps. If you want to have narrow slots, it’s enough to saw out a cut using a Japanese saw. If you want wider slots, you can drill little holes at the required diameter where you want the slot to stop, and saw one or two cuts that end in the hole, then you will get a nice finish that can otherwise be difficult to achieve just using your knife. If you are carving green wood, leave it to dry before you continue with the finishing cuts.

4. Clean up all surfaces and shape or chamfer the edge so that it sits comfortably in the hand. A frying utensil is a fairly rustic kitchen tool, so personally I think it’s nice if the design is a bit rough around the edges. If you are making a frying fork, you first focus on the handle and the blade until they’re largely finished, then at the end you clean up the tines. When carving in between the tines, you use the tip of the knife. Carve thin shavings, only just carving off the sawed surface, so that you don’t accidentally remove too much material. To finish off, you can chamfer or round the edges of the tines, also just using the tip of your knife. I usually treat the surface of my frying utensils with boiled linseed oil, as I think it gives them a slightly longer lifespan.

Wood: walnut and larch

Finish: linseed oil

Year of manufacture: 2020 and 2015

Size: 38cm (15in) and 27cm (10¾ in)

Wood: cherry, ash and birch

Finish: linseed oil

Year of manufacture: 2016–2018

Size: 32–33cm (12¾–13in)

Wood: birch

Finish: untreated, paraffin oil and linseed oil

Year of manufacture: 2020

Size: 26–28cm (10½–11in)

Carver: unknown

Wood: birch

Finish: linseed oil

Year of manufacture: probably 2010

Size: 31cm (12½ in)

My grandmother bought this frying fork at a market over 10 years ago and gave it to my sister as a present. It was sold to her by an old woman, the wife of the craftsperson.

I have admired this frying fork many times and think it is absolutely perfect in its simplicity. It has been an inspiration for me many times when I’ve been carving.

It could very well be the case that neither the wife nor the craftsperson is around today, but the fork is still being used frequently.

/Moa

Straight spoons

The difference between a spoon and a ladle actually only comes down to the size: the spoon is a bit smaller and doesn’t have as deep a bowl as the ladle. When it gets a bit larger than a spoon that you can eat with, it’s called a ladle, but apart from the size, there isn’t anything that sets them apart and the approach is the same.

Straight spoons are what I call spoons that are flat, that is without an angle on the bowl. It can be good to start with a few flat spoons, as they are a bit easier to carve than curved ones. Straight spoons are also a much more forgiving design than curved spoons. Neither does the piece of wood that you are using need to be as thick, and you don’t have to consider the direction of the grain for durability.

You can make straight spoons in all sizes, from little teaspoons to larger serving spoons. You can also approach the spoon as more of an artistic object – it doesn’t have to have a practical function.

1. Start with a straight and knot-free piece of wood. Make sure that the top of your blank – where you will carve out the bowl – has a flat surface by splitting or carving it into shape. With a flat surface from the start, it will be easier to keep the shape of the spoon throughout the whole process. You won’t remove much more material from the top, as the spoon bowl should align with the handle. It also helps having a flat surface for drawing out the shape of the spoon. It is not as important that the other sides are flat, but if you are making a slightly larger spoon, it can be a good idea to also have the bottom fairly flat.

Mark out a centre line at the top of your blank, then draw the outline of the spoon either freehand or by using a template. Regardless of how you choose to draw out your spoon shape, it’s good to have a centre line as a starting point. Next, draw the bowl shape at the head of the spoon. If you want a completely circular bowl, you can use a compass or a template of a suitable diameter that you can draw around. Otherwise, you can use the same technique as you did for the outer/outline shape, make a template of one half of the required bowl shape and draw it out on both sides of the centre line.

2. Carve out the bowl of the spoon using a spoon knife. When I make straight spoons, I choose to carve the bowl before I cut out the outer shape. It’s easier to have the whole piece of wood intact if you want to clamp the piece to your workbench when carving out the bowl. This means you can use both hands to scoop it out without having to think about holding the blank steady at the same time. Sometimes it can be difficult to achieve a good grip around the blank and at the same time have a steady knife grip – so it can help to clamp the piece. This is particularly relevant when working with dry wood.

If you are working with dry wood, you can finish your bowl straight away and let the outer form follow the inner. You can also choose to make a rougher hollow now and continue working with the bowl shape further on in the process. If you are working with green wood, you will need to leave some material for the finishing cuts, which you make after the blank has dried, regardless of which approach you choose.

3. Shape the outer form of the spoon. You can do this using either a saw or an axe. Start by sawing a stop cut at the neck. The stop cut can either follow the angle of the spoon bowl or you can cut straight in from the edge. Make sure you saw to an even depth at both the top and the bottom.

To shape using an axe, start by removing the material outside of the spoon’s outline and the material above the stop cuts. Cut the outlines of the handle and the shape of the spoon bowl using the axe. Cut as close to the lines as you feel comfortable with. Also shape the bottom of the spoon bowl, but keep an eye on the depth of the inside of the bowl so that you don’t remove too much.

If you are sawing out the shape, you can start by sawing a few more stop cuts both at convex and concave bends where the saw blade runs the risk of getting caught. Always keep the blank clamped to your workbench when sawing.

4. Move on to the carving knife and carve out the shape of the spoon. At this stage, the focus is not on the detail but is more about carving a good overall shape.

Check that the walls of the bowl have an even thickness. It is easy to make the end grain side of the bowl thicker than the side that goes with the grain, because it is so much easier to carve with the grain than the end grain. This is particularly important if you carve in green wood, as an uneven thickness can result in the wood splitting.

Be careful when carving at the neck – it is one of the trickiest parts of the spoon because you have to carve from two different directions and end in the same place. It’s easy to carve too much so that the neck gets weak.

Pause often to look at and touch the spoon. If you carve in green wood, stop when you are happy with the overall form and the dimensions, then leave the spoon to dry for a couple of days before making the finishing cuts. It’s good to keep it in a paper bag filled with wood chips so that it dries slowly.

5. When you come to the finishing cuts, it’s not about removing material. You want to even out the spoon, get a nice surface and carve details. Touch and look at your spoon a lot, draw out guidelines or make small marks with a pencil where your eyes tell you that you need to carve more. Make thin and fine carving strokes and be attentive to your carving blank. The tiniest little wave in the grain can influence the direction that you need to carve from. If you feel that you are cutting against the grain, you have to pause and cut from the other direction.

If there are areas that you can’t get right with your knife, you can go over them with a fine sandpaper, which is the last thing you do before treating the surface.

Wood: pear

Finish: beeswax oil

Year of manufacture: 2019

Size: 21cm (8¼ in)

Wood: birch with red heartwood and walnut

Finish: linseed oil

Year of manufacture: 2020

Size: 14cm (5½ in) and 10cm (4in)

Wood: juniper and oak

Finish: linseed oil

Year of manufacture: 2014 and 2020

Size: 6cm (2½ in) and 10cm (4in)

Wood: walnut

Finish: linseed oil

Year of manufacture: 2019

Size: 35cm (14in)

Carver: Marie Eklund

Wood: birch, rowan and plum from my summer house in Tångeråsa, Närke, Sweden

Finish: burnt and oiled with linseed oil

Year of manufacture: 2015–2019

Size: 10–27cm (4–10¾ in)

I wait for a mistake

Something that catches

When the knife slips and takes a turn

I hadn’t planned

A forgotten knot

A defect

Something drops to the floor and is split in two

I embrace the outcome

/Marie

Curved spoons

On curved spoons, the bowl sits at an angle from the handle. This is classic carving where you often start with a bent blank – that is, a tree that has a natural curve. It can be a branch or a smaller log that for various reasons has grown into a curved shape. It can, for example, be a tree that grew in a ditch or on a slope and stretched up towards the light, or a tree that was forced to grow around something on the ground. L-shaped and S-shaped bends are the most desirable.

It is preferable to use a blank with a natural bend so that the spoon can be carved to follow the natural curve of the grain, which produces a stronger kitchen tool.

However, you can also make a curved spoon from a straight blank. You will need a blank that is thick enough for the curved shape to fit, and make sure that you don’t make the bend of the bowl too sharp as the sharper it is, the more fragile it will be.

1. Split your log or branch across the pith with a heavy-duty axe. It’s best to use a knot-free piece of wood. Consider how to position your cut to get the best possible spoon blank. If you start with a curved blank, you position the cut to get the best bend possible.

If the splitting goes well and both halves are intact, you can make spoons out of both of them. If you want to go with just using one half, I think it’s better to use the smaller half, so that the front of the spoon can be turned out towards the bark.

2. Axe out the blank so that you get a relatively flat surface at the top and along the sides, so that you can mark out the outline more easily. Mark out the centre line on the top and draw out your preferred spoon shape, either freehand or using a template. Also draw the profile of the spoon on one of the sides. If you are making the spoon from a curved blank, you can let the curve of the blank decide the form.

3. Saw off the excess material at the ends and cut off the material outside the spoon’s shape. Saw stop cuts at the top where the spoon’s bowl meets the handle and also at the bottom of the handle, if you think that helps. Axe out the shape of the top and bottom using the carving axe. Cut as close to the lines as you feel you can. Re-draw the lines that you have cut off.

4. Saw a stop cut at each side of the neck. Place each stop cut either along the line of the spoon bowl or straight in from the edge. Start by cutting off material by the handle above the stop cuts and then carve the shape of the handle and the bowl using a carving axe. Also shape the exterior of the spoon bowl with the axe.

5. Swap over to the carving knife and spoon knife. Carve the shape and carve out the lines and proportions that you want. Mark out the bowl and hollow it out with the spoon knife. You can either make the bowl’s interior first and then let the exterior follow the interior, or the other way around. If you carve in green wood, you need to leave some material in the bowl for the finishing cuts.

An important thing to bear in mind when carving spoons from green wood is to try to keep the blank relatively even in thickness at this stage, meaning that you alternate between working with the handle and the bowl of the spoon. If you just focus on the handle and wait to hollow out the bowl, there is a good chance that the end grain will start to split due to the different thicknesses.

When you are happy with the shape and the proportions, and the bowl of the spoon has walls of an even thickness, leave the spoon to dry. Hollowed objects are the most sensitive and are at risk of splitting during the drying period. You should therefore let the spoon dry slowly, preferably in a paper bag filled with wood chips.

6. When the spoon has dried, you can make the finishing cuts. Correct any twists, neaten up any lines and carve the details. Make sure that the whole spoon gets a freshly carved surface. Pay particular attention to the bowl of the spoon, feel around the walls with your thumb and index finger to check that they are evenly thick and symmetrical. If you hold the spoon up against a light, you can also see from the light visible through the wood whether the bowl has even walls or not.

When you clean up the inside of the bowl, you have to cut with the grain to get a nice surface. Also be extra careful at the neck, which is a tricky area to carve. If you are struggling to get a nice result on the neck and the inside of the bowl without any chippings, you can polish it a little using a fine sandpaper at the final stage of the process. Don’t carve off too much material from the bottom either, where the spoon bowl meets the handle, as this is where the strength of the spoon lies. When you feel satisfied that the spoon is finished, you can treat the surface, if you like.

Wood: elm

Finish: linseed oil

Year of manufacture: 2019

Size: 24cm (9½ in)

Wood: birch

Finish: linseed oil

Year of manufacture: 2011

Size: 33cm (13in)

Wood: birch

Finish: paraffin oil

Year of manufacture: 2019

Size: 25cm (10in)

Wood: ginkgo

Finish: linseed oil

Year of manufacture: 2014 and 2019

Size: 8cm (3¼ in) and 11cm (4¼ in)

Wood: larch

Finish: linseed oil

Year of manufacture: 2019

Size: 19cm (7½ in)

Wood: birch

Finish: paraffin oil

Year of manufacture: 2019

Size: 25cm (10in)

Wood: birch

Finish: linseed oil

Year of manufacture: 2019

Size: 18cm (7in) and 23cm (9in)

Carver: Per Norén

Wood: grey alder, taken from behind the house where I live in Hälsingland, Sweden

Finish: untreated

Year of manufacture: 2020

Size: 29cm (11½ in)

Crafting has taught me that when we leave traces of ourselves in our creations, little imperfections, they become radiant. When traces of life are visible in our creations, the experience is elevated.

To remind ourselves that no person is perfect is a forgiving thought. Crafting warms the heart and inspires creativity – and we all have boundless imagination for colour and form. Now it’s time to set them free! My advice to you is, buy a knife! The promised land of a thousand facets is waiting on the horizon.

/Per

Salad servers

Salad servers are the prima donna of kitchen utensils. And because they are not subject to hard work or heavy lifting (plus they often get a daily treatment of extra virgin olive oil), you can make them very thin and delicate. They’re special in that you need to create two almost identical objects, and hopefully you’ll find it to be a fun challenge. If not, disregard the fact that they’re usually similar. Try it out and see what you think.

1. Axe out two ‘fillets’. First split through the pith and then split one ‘fillet’ from each of the halves.

Mirror the halves so that the two sides that sat against each other become either the top or the bottom of the salad servers. They will then become similar to each other in the pattern and the grain, because the same growth rings will go through both pieces of cutlery – which can be nice as they’re a pair.

2. Mark out the centre line along the pith, then draw the outline of the salad server. Here, it’s a good idea to use a template if you want both pieces to have a similar shape. Saw out stop cuts that either follow the angles of the head or that go straight in from the edge. Do the same on both pieces of cutlery. Make sure that the cuts are of an even depth.

3. Saw off the excess material at the ends and axe off the material above the stop cuts. Cut out the outlines with the axe, as close to the lines as you can. Leave the top untouched, but shape the bottom of the head slightly. Work with one piece of the cutlery followed by the next.

4. Swap over to the carving knife and start by straightening up and carving the outline and shape of each piece of cutlery. At this stage, I think it’s good to alternate working with both pieces of cutlery, so that you’re always at the same step of the process with both. For me, this makes it easier to make them match each other.

When you are happy with the shape of each, make a new centre line on one of the spoon heads and mark out where to position the cut or the hole, using the centre line as a guide. If you want to make a cut, drill a hole the same diameter as the width of the cut, then saw two cuts. If you want a keyhole shape, start by drilling a hole at the required diameter, then saw two cuts that sit parallel to the centre line, with a gap of the width you want the cut to be. If you just want a hole, simply drill a hole. When drilling, you always need an underlay that you can drill against. If you don’t have an underlay at the bottom, the cutlery will easily splinter as you go through with the drill.

Swap over to the spoon knife and carve out the bowl. You can either hollow out a bowl as you would do for a spoon, or you can carve off the front rim of the bowl so that the hollow becomes slightly U-shaped instead of bowl-shaped. If you are carving green wood, you need to leave some material to carve off when making the finishing cuts, which you do after the cutlery has dried.

5. Clean up all surfaces and straighten up any twists that might have appeared during the drying process. Carve the last bits off the bowl, touching it regularly to make sure the head is nice and even. Chamfer off the edge and carve the details. Continue alternating working with both pieces. If you chamfer off the edge of one, do the same on the other while you still have the knife stroke fresh in your memory. Finish off by carving the saw cuts, then chamfer the edge of the cuts using the tip of the knife. It can be difficult to get a good chamfer on the drilled holes with your knife, and often you will get a better result if you instead break down the edge with an abrasive sheet. Treat the surface before use.

Wood: head from birch and handle from ash

Finish: untreated

Year of manufacture: 2020

Size: 32cm (12¾ in)

Wood: birch and alder

Finish: linseed oil

Year of manufacture: 2020

Size: 27cm (10¾ in) and 29cm (11½ in)

Wood: ginkgo and ash

Finish: linseed oil

Year of manufacture: 2014 and 2011

Size: 22cm (8½ in) and 32cm (12¾ in)

Carver: Hannes Dahlrot

Wood: birch from my father-in-law’s forest in Småland, Sweden

Finish: untreated

Year of manufacture: 2020

Size: 31cm (12½ in) and 24cm (9½ in)

I used the movement as a starting point when designing these salad servers. By letting the handles begin from the bottom of the head, the hands clash less at the actual pinching point. It also gave the cutlery a nice, wonky, somewhat organic expression – in one instance not completely dissimilar to the refined leaf of a money plant.

/Hannes

Kuksa cups

Kuksa cups are carved food or drink vessels with a handle. The kuksa that might be the most familiar is the Sami kuksa that is made from birch burl. A burl is a growth or lump that sometimes grows on tree trunks.

The reason why you use a burl for making vessels is because the wood in the burl is like a densely packed muddle of grain. The grain follows the shape of the burl, which means that you won’t come across end grain anywhere when you hollow it out. The kuksa will therefore not have any weak points and becomes very durable. It is most common to find burls on birch trees, but they do also appear on other trees. However, you should avoid making a kuksa from a pine burl, because the pine wood releases bitter flavours.

If a burl grows on a larger trunk, you don’t have to saw down the whole tree to remove the burl. Simply saw one cut above and one cut below the burl, with some margin added for the handle of the kuksa, then split it off by chopping with the axe on the sides. Try not to cause too much damage to the tree than is necessary, so that it can recover. If the burl grows on a smaller trunk, it’s best to saw down the whole tree, and then you can use the trunk for other carving projects.

1. First, remove the bark from the burl with a heavy-duty axe and split the log at the pith. Swap over to your carving axe and roughly axe out the shape of the kuksa. Split off any excess material from the log and only save as much as you need for the handle. You can also choose to carve out the shape using a heavy-duty knife if you think it’s difficult working with the axe. Adjust the size of the kuksa according to the size of the burl.

A green burl that you have got started on is best stored wrapped in a towel in the fridge, so that it doesn’t get any splits as it dries.

Continue carving the outer shape using either a heavy-duty knife or a carving knife. Focus on getting a nice round shape and a flat surface at the top. Burls can be knotty in shape and sometimes the bark folds down fairly deep into the burl. For the kuksa to be durable, the wood needs to be pure, so make sure you remove all the bark. This is why you make the outside first. The shape of the burl decides what diameter your kuksa can have and whether it will become shallow or deep. Mark out a centre line and the shape of the handle.

Start hollowing out using a gouge or a spoon knife. Burls can have very hard wood so the hollowing will be tough and can take time. You can use gloves if your hands become sore, and if it’s possible to clamp the handle of the kuksa to a workbench, you can use both hands for extra force. Start hollowing out the middle and work your way out to the edges.

2. Continue carving the bowl using a gouge or a spoon knife, gradually working your way outwards and downwards. Try to keep the walls of the kuksa an even thickness throughout the process.

When you feel that you are finished with the bowl, you can adjust the exterior according to the interior and start to carve the shape of the handle. Leave some material on the exterior and the handle for the finishing cuts. You don’t have to leave material on the inside of the kuksa, you can finish this off straight away.

When you feel happy with the shape, you need to leave the kuksa to dry slowly, preferably in a paper bag filled with wood chips.

3. When the kuksa has dried, you can make the finishing cuts. It can be difficult to achieve a smooth finish and surface when carving burl because the fibres go off in all possible directions, and it’s pretty much impossible to get a whole carving stroke with the grain. If you want a carved surface on your kuksa, you will need to make sure you have a very sharp knife and hone it often. Carve small fine facets and sand the inside with a fine sandpaper. Traditionally, kuksas usually have a sanded surface and this is how they are best finished, in my opinion. The lustre and the waves in the burl appear beautifully when the surface is sanded finely.

The kuksa should not be treated on the inside because the oil will release flavour when it comes into contact with a hot drink, but it’s a good idea to treat the exterior.

Wood: birch burl

Finish: linseed oil

Year of manufacture: 2020

Size: 8cm (3¼ in)

Wood: birch burl

Finish: linseed oil

Year of manufacture: 2015 and 2019

Size: 7cm (2¾ in) and 12cm (4½ in)

Carver: My grandad Verner Karlsson

Wood: birch burl from our own forest in Västerbotten, Sweden

Finish: inside untreated, outside linseed oil

Year of manufacture: 1969

Size: 20cm (8in)

can you hear the stream

can you see the arctic starflower

can you feel the solar wind bring with it the scent of moss between wild rosemary and pine

can you see grandad over there in his lumberjack trousers with his tanned neck

can you see the kuksa that hangs from the belt

He balances kindling around the birch bark and lights it.

The kettle hangs over the fire with stream water and ground coffee.

My little legs are jumping around.

And stagnant cold water seeps in between the toes from the marshy bog.

A reindeer hide is spread out and I follow the ritual for clearing the coffee.

– Boil – sink – boil – sink – boil – sink –

add a splash of cold water

leave to steep

Dried meat, cheese and coffee are finely shredded into the kuksa.

The hot coffee melts the cheese and draws out the salt from the meat.

Oily patterns appear on the steaming coffee.

Grandad cups his hands around the kuksa, blows on it for a while and then slurps.

We share the meat and the cheese that have mixed with the coffee’s coarse grounds.

Me in grandad’s lap, on a reindeer hide, in a forest, by a fire

with coffee, meat and cheese in the kuksa

and the coffee grounds gritting in between the teeth.

/Victoria Brännström, grandchild

Moa Brännström Ott is a cabinetmaker who has whittled since her childhood. Moa has an exam in cabinet-making from Capellagården, Sweden, and is also the author of Wood: Carpentry Handbook for Interiors and Gardening.

IMPORTANT SAFETY NOTICE

Using a knife or axe to work with wood and other materials inherently includes the risk of injury and damage. We cannot guarantee that creating the projects in this book is safe for everyone. For this reason, this book is sold without warranties or guarantees of any kind, expressed or implied, and the publisher and the author disclaim any liability for injuries, losses or damages caused in any way by the content of this book or the reader’s use of tools needed to complete the projects presented herein. The publisher and the author urge readers to thoroughly review each project and to understand the use of all tools before beginning any project.

First published in the United Kingdom in 2021 by

Pavilion

43 Great Ormond Street

London, WC1N 3HZ

Copyright © Pavilion Books Company Ltd 2021

Copyright © Moa Brännström Ott 2020

Original Title: Tälja köksredskap

First published by Natur & Kultur, Sweden

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be copied, displayed, extracted, reproduced, utilised, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical or otherwise including but not limited to photocopying, recording, or scanning without the prior written permission of the publishers.

ISBN 978-1-911682-65-3

A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

www.pavilionbooks.com

Publisher: Helen Lewis

Editor: Izzy Holton

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Photographer: Fredrik Ottosson

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