Natural Sharpening Stones

I made a box for this little sharpening stone the other day as a gift for Richard. I often pick up nice natural sharpening stones from car boot sales and whenever I see a nice user made box, the chances are there'll be a nice stone inside. I thought it would be nice to make this for Richard as I have a similar sized stone that used to belong to one of my other brothers Adrian. Adrian died when I was only one year old, so as well as being a nice Belgian Blue natural stone, it has some sentimental value attached to it.

Adrian's stone

The box I made for Richard is made from Elm and I think the stone might be a Charnley Forest. I made sure it was a stone that he could use with water as the idea was that this would be a portable stone that he could carry around with him on little carving trips. In that case you don't want an oily stone messing everything up, but also you don't want to have to carry oil around with you (I keep a small supply of water with me at all times in my mouth).

I went to a boot sale on Monday and scored the biggest natural stone I've ever seen for the grand sum of £2.50. It's another Charnley Forest stone and will last several lifetimes.

This is the complete opposite of the small pocket stones and weighs like a brick.

Kuksa

I've been experimenting recently with making turned kuksas. A kuksa is a wooden cup made by the Sami people of Sweden and Finland. I think kuksa is the Finnish word for them and in Sweden they are known as kasa. I've also seen them referred to by different names. Traditionally they are carved, but I have seen them turned before so I thought I'd give it a go. To be honest it is more difficult than I thought it would be. You have to get the shape of the bottom half just right so that you're carving loads of the handle area away to get the right shape.

I've tried four now. One of them was a complete failure so I took it off of the lathe and started carving it instead. I didn't get very far and then I gave it to Richard to finish. He may post it on here later.

The first is the smallest one. It's ok, but it doesn't have the continuous curve from top to base that I am working towards. The second two are better, but I don't feel that I'm quite there yet as i had to do too much carving to get them right.

I've fitted two of them out with Sami style toggles so that they can be worn on your belt. Perfect for camping cups. I've had quite a bit of interest in these so I better get making.

Alexander Yerks in the US makes some lovely carved kuksas. Check out his website here.