Carving box...

[Tiley]

A friend of mine recently salvaged some box (Buxus sempervirens) from a pile that was going to be burnt. Very generously, he gave me a load because he thought that I would do rather better with it than he would. I have made a couple of spoons out of the stuff and have been fighting the good fight in trying to make a kuksa for him to say "thank you" for the material.

The wood is seasoned and, for those of you who have encountered it before, incredibly hard; but, it does come up beautifully when finished. Does anyone have any clues about tools or techniques that might make the ongoing struggle to make this kuksa a little easier?

Many thanks in advance for any viable/useful suggestions!
Richard

[Bernie]

A lathe? ;)

[Tiley]

I have neither a pole nor an electric one and I'm not sure how I'd work around the handle of the kuksa. It's be good for the inside though...

[AL...]

When making bowls from Elm burls I use a Surform to shape the outside and a Mora 162 or the 164 hook knives to shape out the inside of the bowl.
They work great for me There are a couple of pics of my bowls in the fourms if ye want to have a look.
Hope thats a help

Cheers
AL

[Tiley]

Hah! Surform - now there's an idea! Many thanks. I'll give it a go and see what happens.

[bikebum1975]

Try something like this if you wanna go with a faster way. I have not personally done this yet as I prefer the slower means to them that being said a couple buddies have done bowls with them so should work. Just need either a standard hand drill or even better drill press


4689

[dave budd]

box is a great wood, but blooming hard to carve! It's like working fossilised butter :D It is difficult to carve like you would most woods, but it machines very well. So a surform (or better still a shinto saw rasp! £15 from axminster and they are fantastic) and belt grinder for the outside; drill and dremel with burrs on it for the inside (or a lathe if you have access to one). You could also try drilling and burning the inside out

[Tiley]

That looks pretty savage! The interior of the kuksa I have just about done - only a few little bumps and knobbles to deal with - followed by the endless trawl of sanding it smooth. Also, I am trying (he said optimistically...) to do it all by hand rather than getting machinery involved. I think it could be my undoing...

[Tiley]

box is a great wood, but blooming hard to carve! It's like working fossilised butter :D It is difficult to carve like you would most woods, but it machines very well. So a surform (or better still a shinto saw rasp! £15 from axminster and they are fantastic) and belt grinder for the outside; drill and dremel with burrs on it for the inside (or a lathe if you have access to one). You could also try drilling and burning the inside out

Fossilised butter - that's exactly it! I have struggled and think that I might well succumb to the help of some machinery - three recent operations on my carving hand mean that it's not quite as durable as it once was! The saw rasp is ordered and I feel the call of some drum sanders for the inside, which is already carved out, pretty much.

Thank you to one and all for the advice thus far. I think the job will now be significantly quicker and easier if not, strictly speaking, hand made!