I have a new toy - it is a crook knife. These curved knives are used for scooping out hollows in wooden items like spoons, bowls and cups. I'm currently trying my hand at making a birch cup. These are traditionally called Kuksa and are used by the Sami people of Scandinavia. They're also normally made from birch burl, which has less tendency to crack than a birch log but I'm using what I've got. Townies like me don't often get the chance to wield an axe and chop up our own kitchenware, so I shouldn't be choosy!
I'd like to write something about the joys of working with your hands to make something useful, or the meditative quality of gradually scraping away the layers of wood to reveal a pleasing bowl shape, but my hands hurt from too much copying and pasting in my day job and my brain is fatigued from staring at a computer screen... so there's your answer right there. Time to get out more and enjoy life - my desk job is killing me!
