How to Make a Shepherd's Shrink Cup, Part 3 (Hollowing)

There are three types of shepherd's shrink cups that differ in the shape of the cup and also the way of attaching the handle. I will describe shepherd's shrink cups from central Slovakia region where the handle is attached with a hook on its upper part and a brass hoop on its lower part. I consider it the least difficult option concerning both materials and methods.
So what tools do you need?

• saw
• something for drilling (the wider drill the better)
• knife
• gouge (straight, with U-shaped edge, but not too deep, about 2cm wide) 
• straight edge gouge 3mm wide
• (optional) coarse sandpaper
• metal cutting shears and small hammer (only if you want to use a brass hoop)
• patience (lots, you'll really need it)

First you have to select an appropriate piece of wood. Maple is the best option but you can also use alder or birch. If you have neither, you can try another hardwood (for example I successfully made experimental mini-cups from willow). Choose a log which is at least 10 cm long and wide, without knots and side branches because they would complicate the hollowing. The log must be green and processed immediately, so that it has no time to crack.
Peel the selected log and drill a hole through the center. I tried to use a 2 cm wide drill bit with a corded drill but it was quite hard and slow work. Then I bought an auger and it was much faster. But I'm not saying that you must buy an auger too. You can also drill more narrow holes side by side and remove the wood between them with a gouge.

If you have some powerful tool, drill or lathe that can make 6-10 cm wide hole, don't hesitate and use it. Ideally the hole should be as wide as the inside of the cup. In such case you are done with hollowing. If the hole is more narrow, you must carve away the remaining wood with a knife, spoon knife or carving gouge. And do it quickly before the wood dries because dry wood is much harder.

If you use a spoon knife, the inside of the cup will be uneven despite the best effort. Then it may happen that you will carve the bottom according to the lower rim, but the groove will be a few milimeters above it and the bottom won't fit there.

If you carve the inside with a knife, the inner walls probably won't be smooth. There will be scratches because of the angle between the knife and the inner wall.

I recommend to hollow with any tool that works well for you and to finish the inner walls with a carving gouge. Of course you can use the gouge all the time, with a mallet or without it. The gouge on the picture below is too deep for this and you would do much better with a shape more similar to the inside curve of the cup.
I've seen even better hollowing tool (from a shrink cup maker Miroslav Barnišin), but I don't know where to get something like it.

Finally measure the diameter of the cup and write it down together with the exact spot where you measured it because the log is not a perfect circle. Then leave the cup dry for at least two weeks and then measure again. Divide the difference by two and you will get the depth of the groove.

For example my experimental willow mini-cup shrank from 7,352 cm to 6,99 cm, so the groove should be just around 1,7 milimeter. For normal-sized shrink cups (8-9 cm in diameter) you can use standard depth 2mm and leave out the exact measuring.

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