If you’re Norwegian, Finnish or Swedish you may call it a Guksi, Kuksa or Kåsa otherwise you may simply call it a cup. Whatever the name, the Scandinavian-style wooden drinking cup has become one of the must-have bushcraft accessories. They are nice things to own and nice things to use. Carving a kuksa is a great test of your wood carving skills and whatever you fill it with will taste even better when the kuksa is made with your own hand!
The traditional wood for carving a kuksa is birch, often a burr – the knobbly growth where the wood has been deformed to produce a lump. However, these can be difficult to find, especially large enough for a kuksa, so a round length of birch more than 20cm or so (8 inches) in diameter will do.
Carving a kuksa isn’t that difficult but does require some solid knife skills. If you don’t have much experience with wood carving tools then I’d suggest getting a few smaller wood carving projects under your belt before trying this. As with all wood carving projects, think safety! Number one rule – have a first aid kit nearby. Number two – always think about where the pointy bit will end up and make sure it’s not in you or someone else!
Here’s my article on wood carving tools to give you an idea of the sort of tools that are easily carried and suitable for carving a kuksa.
First job is to split the round into two lengthways. When you cut the piece of birch in the first place try to get the ends square to make splitting much more stable and less dangerous.
The next step is to trim the flat face of the half you decide to use. Trim off enough to get rid of the darker heartwood. When wood dries the heartwood and sapwood dry at different rates. If both are present, the tension created as the wood dries will most likely cause splitting.
Once you’ve done this, draw on the flat face the plan view of your kuksa. When carving a kuksa, or any other wood carving project, it’s far easier to think in one plane at a time so we’ll work first at getting the cup shape as seen from above.
Carefully trim the wood lengthwise down to the edges of the kuksa.
Next trim away the excess wood around the handle of the kuksa. Be careful not to chop off half the bowl. To do this use stop cuts. Stop cuts are a useful technique for most wood carving projects. Make a saw cut each side of the handle so when you split the wood, the split stops at the cut.
Split away the wood. It doesn’t have to be precise at this stage. There will be plenty of time to tidy up before it’s finished.
Start to remove the corners and any other excess wood. At this point I’m still using the axe. The knife could be used but the axe is a quicker option (but careful – one slip and you’re likely to only have half a kuksa – a kuk?). Once tidied, remove the ends (with the saw is easy if you’re using one).
Remember I said it was easier to work in one plane at a time? Now we start working in the other plane – the “side view”. Think about the shape as seen from the side. Again, draw it on then start to work to this design.
This should leave you with a rough solid kuksa as demonstrated by my assistant.
Now get to work with the knife to take off those rough edges.
Use a crook knife to hollow out the bowl. Use your fingers to feel whether the thickness is even. If you’re confident enough, it’s possible to make it thin enough that you can hold it up and see daylight through the wood (a great tip for the more weight conscious readers!).
The hollowing and tidying continues until we end up with an almost finished kuksa. As with all green wood carving projects, if you can’t manage all the carving in one go put the kuksa in a sealed plastic bag in a cool place to stop it from drying out.
Once you’re happy with the kuksa, dry it thoroughly before sanding. Be careful with this and don’t rush it. The more you rush the drying the more likely the kuksa is to split. Again, this advice applies to all green wood carving projects: Leave it in a cool place for a few days then gradually move it somewhere warmer such as in the house. A good way of knowing if it’s dry is to hold it against your lip – if the wood still holds moisture it’ll feel cool. As the wood dires it will feel less cool to the touch.
Once dry, the kuksa can be sanded as smooth as you wish. Sometimes it’s nice to leave some of the tool marks, it’s all down to your preference. After this the kuksa can be oiled – an edible oil such as olive or grapeseed is ideal. I find tipping a bit in a ziplock bag, popping the cup inside and giving it a good rub around then leaving it to soak for a good while does the job well.
So there you are, you have a kuksa! I heard a traditional way of christening the kuksa is by drinking whiskey and black coffee from it alternately. Not sure how you know when to stop this though – which will give up first? You or the kuksa?
A great book for this sort of green wood carving is Carving and Whittling: The Swedish Style by Gert Ljungberg. It seems to be out of print and a bit pricey on Amazon but you may find it cheaper elsewhere. It has some beautiful examples of Scandinavian woodcraft.
Fantastic, Nick – love the photo of your assistant!
The burly birch it is usually made of is only to be found in the northern Hemisphere, it is a special kind of birch – though the normal one of course works just as fine. There are courses here in Finland on making your own, but they usually are booked out six months in advance. I think I will give this a try sometimes – maybe you can post an additional photo of the tools which are needed?!
I need to get myself one of those crook knives. I have a large wooden spoon that I carved two years ago that still hasn’t had the ‘bowl’ carved out! Excellent article Nick.
Sorry guys, been a bit occupied elsewhere!
Thanks for the comments. I notice the humble kuksa is becoming a popular item with quite a wide range of outdoors folk. Pretty easy to make as long as you take it slowly and take care.
You could try burning the bowl of your spoon out Joe. Maybe an ember from that fancy new FourDog stove
Nick
P.S. I’ve got a quick post about woodcrafting tools brewing. Should be ready tomorrow. Crook knives, axes, knives all covered.
Thanks for the great tutorial. I got my lady friend a knife and simple MYoSpoon kit for her birthday and she loves it. Once she’s done with that, it might be on to kuksas. The tool post was also very useful for us novices.
My library in central Texas has two copies of that very interesting looking book.
Saw this elsewhere on web and thought it might appeal
KUKSA
’Kuksa’ is a traditional Finnish wooden cup, hand-made from birch burl from Lapland.
Preparation of the Kuksa
Your Kuksa can last a lifetime if you cure it properly from the start, and follow a few simple guidelines:
1. Fill the Kuksa about ¼ full with cognac.
2. Swirl the cognac clockwise so that it wets the entire inside, without spilling over the rim.
3. Drink the cognac.
4. Fill the Kuksa again about ¼ full of cognac.
5. This time, swirl the cognac anti-clockwise as before.
6. Drink the cognac.
7. Next, brew some double strength coffee (not instant)
8. Without washing the Kuksa after the cognac, fill it with the strong coffee.
9. Don’t drink the coffee!
10. Leave the coffee in the Kuksa in a safe, warm place for at least 24 hours.
11. Go and have another glass of cognac and relax.
12. 24 hours later (and with a faint hangover from the cognac you drank yesterday) go and find the Kuksa full of cold coffee.
13. Pour the coffee away
14. Rinse the Kuksa with warm water, and dry with kitchen paper.
15. Your Kuksa is now ready for use. The more you use it, the more traditional it becomes.
Care of the Kuksa in use
• Don’t use washing up liquid to clean your Kuksa!
• Just rinse with warm water
• Don’t drink milk from the Kuksa!
• Assuming it is usually used for coffee, it is good to drink at least one good stiff cognac once every month
Thanks, sounds like sound advice!!
I live in central Florida on the east coast. Where/how would I go about finding a suitable wood for this project?
Hey Nancy,
Assuming you’ve not done much carving before.
We’re looking for a few things in our wood selection for a project like this:
a) it’s easy to work
b) it’s food safe – i.e. the tree isn’t toxic
c) it’s much easier to find a nice straight piece of wood without gnarly knots etc.
Something like birch is ideal. I’m not familiar with woods in Florida but birch is pretty widespread so I’d guess there would be some around!
The sort of woods I’m used to that I’d be looking for if I were making cups, bowls or spoons are birch, alder, poplar, aspen, maybe lime.
Harder woods such as oaks and ashes are quite tough to work and hard on the arms and hands especially if you’re new to carving.
Hope this helps!
Nick
Nick, great site, I recieved a Kuksa just today from a friend who stayed in Finland for awhile, the cup is beautiful it has two finger holes in the handle, I am searching out the information about this cup and came across your site… I noticed that some others use a woodwax as a treatment do you recommend this? I want this cup to last but I will be using it. Thanks for the help.
Hi Teresa,
I’ve only ever used edible oils on anything I’ve carved. Grapeseed oil is good. Olive is fine. Plain old veg oil will do.
Does it look like the kuksa has already been treated somehow? If it has I’d probably just give it a rub over with an (edible!) oily cloth.
Hope this helps!
I have been searching for the perfect cup for the copious amounts of tea that I drink. A personal cup that I can take anywhere. I think I have found it in the Kuksa. I live in Brisbane, and can’t find anywhere around here any birch, even internet shopping. I have access to macadamia and many eucalypts though. Do you think they would make a nice kuksa?
Thanks
Hi Andy,
Unfortunately I’m not that familiar with either although I did have a bit of eucalyptus once and it looked like it’d be hard work to carve. Maybe give it a test. As long as a tree isn’t poisonous there’s no reason you can’t use it. The only thing that’ll make it a pain is if the wood’s very hard or knotty.
Are there any pines in your neck of the woods? That could be an option.
There are a couple actually. Hoop pine and Bunya pine are the only 2 I can think of that are close by. I think I’ll give them a try, thank you.
Hi, there!
You wrote ” (but careful – one slip and you’re likely to only have half a kuksa – a kuk?)”
just wanted to inform you of the unlucky choise of word “kuk” wich translates to “dick” in swedish.
Mikael, sweden
Love the breakdown on how to make a kuksa. I’m in the same process at this moment. Working with greenwood i’m anxious that the cup will break. Thanks for the tip on slowly drying the cup!
Best regards,
Maarten
http://mjvanderwielen.com/blog/een-beker-mok-of-misschien-een-kuksa/
Hej Mikael, thanks for the cultural learnings. I’ll be careful not to slip further and cut my kuk off aswell
Thanks Maarten. looks like you got off to a good start!
Nick