'Viking' Beer Mug (no Power Tools - the Bushcraft Way)

This is it, my 40th Instructable. Hurah.

For this anniversary-I'ble I wanted to make something special.
I like beer, I like wood, I like the outdoors, so I decided to give myself a favour: I decided to make a good old 'viking style' beer mug.
The bushcraft way.

Aim was to use not one single power tool (to spice the job a bit). It took a lot longer than with the 'right' tools but it turned out to be one of the funniest projects I ever did. This was pure fun!

Set all your toolboxes stuffed with classic hand tools aside cause you won't use them this time.
All you need is a hatchet & a knife.

A good hatchet, and a good knife.

Back to basic.

A few members asked where I got that fabulous hatchet.
Well, this beauty is a traditionnal axe from the Basque Country - a region saddled on the western French-Spanish mountainous border. I discovered those axes some 20 years ago during raptor migration monitoring. They're quite hard to find, even locally, and it's just this summer I found a spot again where they were sold. They are made by the 'JAUREGI' factory/family in northern Spain and I never saw them anywhere else (http://www.hachasartesanas.com).

These axes are hand-forged, and extremely reliable. Light (the small one weights only one pound), balanced, extremely powerful & useful to do as well bushcraft or bigger tree cutting. I never had better, I'll never have better. If I had to choose one object to take on a survival trip, there would be not one second of hesitation.

They are made in 5 or 6 sizes. On the picture you'll see the two smallest models. The darkest is my first I bought some 20 years ago and that's still alive 'n kicking.

First you'll have to gather some wood.
Choose straith-grained species - I got a piece of elderberry (not because elderberry is THE mug species, just because I got a piece left). Any straith- or spiral grained species will do the job, no worries.

You'll need a log with a diameter about the size of your hand so don't sight too small.

Use a hatchet to cut it down (or cheat like me, use a saw - first penalty point).

Aim is to hollow it out.

Draw the cutting-lines on the top of the log (to get equal parts) & split it in 8 with a hatchet - see why you need that straith-grained wood?

Once you've got those 8 parts you'll cut off their tips, leaving just 15 to 20mm (half inch) from the side.

While hatching the log your cut respects the grain of the wood & you'll obtain a perfect contact between every piece.

Let it all dry in a well ventilated area.

Your mug needs a handle.
Not just any handle, a strong handle - you want to raise all that beer, no?

Look for some natural wooden elbows or fork-style branches.
Peel it & let it dry.

Once those parts are dry, reassemble the log.

Aim is to have a border that's 'relatively' uniform & therefor you'll cut away the excess.

Hatchet & knife, you don't need more.

Cut another piece of a big log, or cheat again.

Split it & try to obtain the biggest plank you can get out of it.

Cut it about a half inch thick & let it dry.

Your mug needs grooves: two on the outside, one on the inside. The outsiders will serve as tighting zone when you'll reassemble the log while the insider will hold the bottom in place.

Reassemble the log & mark the future grooves.

Start grooving.

What's the best way to make solid no-glue-no-spike wood connections?
Let's swallowtail!

The inside groove's got to be a lot deeper than the outsiders.

I started the insiders the way I did the outsiders, but after half an hour labouring I began to feel a desperate need for a simple saw. 'Only for two little minutes!' that bad bad little voice said to me. Since I promised myself not to use that tool for anything else but cutting the log I decided to 'cheat without cheating'.
So I turned my knife - temporarly - into a saw by smashing it to another knife to obtain a rougher cutting edge.
No need to say that it worked perfectly. No rules in bushcraft.

Reassemble the protomug.
Put it on a piece of paper & copy the bottom - and make that pencil longer!
Look careful inside the mug to check the differences between the bottom and the shape of the 'grooved area' you need.
Correct your design on the paper, copy it on the plank & start shaping.

The good old axe will do the rough job, that good ol' knife the rest.

What follows is a series of tries & adjustments to get that bottom in good shape.

Once everything's in place: time to dismantle & give it a final drying session.

Once completely dry you can reassemble it for the last time.
You'll discover soon that in this step your mug will come to live.
No matter how hard I tried, it just kept falling apart.
So that bad bad little voice came again saying 'FORGET ABOUT THAT MUG, LET'S BUUUUUUUURN IT!!!'
Again, I didn't listen, managed finally to get it all in place and to secure it with polyester rope. Sliding knots.

Once the mug tightened as hell you can round the upper edge to get a smoother zone 'where the lips will meet the liquid'. Again, be careful with that knife.

(Sorry, I really couldn't resist to that tiny piece of sanding paper to smooth the overall surface a tiny little bit. Another penalty point.)

You surely want that mug being watertight, right? You won't spill any beer, no?
No matter how well you did that carving, leaks there will be.
So our mug needs to be sealed.
Resin is good, but, reminding this is bushcraft! So?
Lets bio-resin! Mother nature gifted this world with a magic sticky stuff, PROPOLIS! Produced by bees, this all natural product is the perfect sealant. Its hard at room temperature, meltable, veeeeeeery sticky, eatable, antibacterial & desinfectant.

Get some - those insects use it to get the wind out of the beehive - or buy it (I got a handful of a neighbour beekeeper). Heat it in a cooking pot and poor/stick it in the junctions of the mug. It will harden rapidly. A little sanding (yet another penalty) and done is that job. You can use bee wax also: less sticky & somewhat weaker than propolis.

You've got walnut oil? Use it! Multiple layers.

Note 1: heating propolis in the kitchen is somehow kinda risky business. It smells extremely hard (I liked it, indeed) and depending on the tolerance of your partner you'll spend the night in the car, with your propolis. Or not. My wife wasn't home during the crime, but she discovered it anyway (after a few days the smell was still there - that's why I made her those hair pins - KIDDING!).

Note 2: a few members mentioned that soaking the mug a few minutes in water before use will make the mug water tight without the use of propolis. The wood will swell and seal every junction. All you need are clean cuts & contact zones and a rockhard rope-fixation (that's maybe the reason the vikings used metal loops at the time).
Avoiding propolis will allow you to drink hot beverages in it - an activity I can't because the propolis will melt.

Note 3: instead of using rope you can use rawhide. Let it soak a while in water until it's nicely flexible, wrap it around the mug & let it dry. While drying the rawhide will shrink and tighten the whole. Best source of rawhide are dog chews. Some of our members are really inventive, I must say.

After many hours of hard basic labour my first bushcraft mug was finally ready (it's still sticky a bit).

What do you think?

If you ask me, it's time for a beer!

Hope you like it! Skoll!!!

Summer 2014. I started experimenting with a few ways to 'industrialise' the fabrication of this mug - I know a few dozen people who are interested in one and it would be hearthless not to satisfy their material need.

Less bushcraft, more workshop. Less knife, more saw, rasp & sanding paper. Less propolis, more elmers glue aka 'wood glue' aka that white sticky stuff & bees wax. Less polyester, more hemp cord.

Same amount of love.

Instead of elderberry I took a piece of willow, cut in four instead of eight and assembled the same way as the first version. Like I said, the only structural difference was the use of glue - I know, I shouldn't, but it's an experiment, also.

Instead of several days I spent only a few hours to make it - which is in a kapitalistic point of view a quite interesting fact.

Next version will be the good one.