Ravencup Hand Made Hardwood Viking Beer Mug with Engraved Raven Panel | Square Cut Handle with Steel Rivet | Food Safe Sealed Interior and Leather Carry Cord | Norse Ale Gift | RK-1621

The Ravencup is a wooden drinking mug turned from a single block of hardwood, stained to a warm walnut tone, with a raven engraved in clean line work on the side. The handle is a squared open loop cut from the same stock and fixed with a steel rivet at the top, and a band of carved facets runs around the base, which gives the hand some grip and stops the mug rolling if it goes over on a table. It arrives with a black leather carry cord fitted with a metal end ferrule.

Wood was the ordinary Norse drinking material, far more common than horn and vastly more common than silver, and almost none of it survives because wood rots. What we know about Viking age wooden vessels comes from waterlogged sites such as Hedeby and York, where turned cups, bowls and staved buckets came out of the mud in good enough condition to study. The turned mug is the humble object that most Norse people would actually have drunk from, and the raven is the appropriate thing to put on it. Odin’s two ravens, Huginn and Muninn, thought and memory, flew out over the world each day and came back to tell him what they had seen. Ours is turned, engraved, sealed and finished in the Czech Republic. It belongs with the Viking beer mugs. If the shape is not quite right, the horn mugs and tankards run close to it.

Specifications

How a wooden mug is made to hold beer

There are two ways to build a wooden drinking vessel and they behave completely differently. A staved mug is made like a barrel, from separate strips held by hoops, and it relies on the wood swelling when wet to close the joints. A turned mug is cut from one solid block on a lathe, so there are no joints at all and nothing to leak. This is the turned kind, which is why it can be picked up dry and filled straight away instead of needing to be soaked first.

Turning is the harder route because you are removing the entire inside of a block through a hole no wider than the rim, and because a single block of wood moves as it dries. Wood shrinks far more across the grain than along it, so a bowl or a mug turned from wet stock will go oval as it seasons. The stock has to be properly dried before the mug is cut, and the wall thickness kept even, so that seasonal humidity moves the whole vessel together rather than pulling one side against another.

The last stage is the seal. The bore is sanded through fine grits until there is no fibre standing proud, then sealed with a food safe finish that closes the grain so beer does not soak into the wall and stale there. That seal is what makes the mug practical rather than ornamental, and it is also why it is a cold drink vessel. Hot liquid softens the finish and drives moisture into the wood.

The wood, the stain and the fittings

The body is a dense hardwood, chosen for close grain and stability rather than for dramatic figure, because a mug wall has to be thin enough to hold comfortably and dense wood is what allows that. It is stained to a warm walnut tone that lets the grain show through rather than painting over it, so no two mugs read exactly the same.

The handle is cut as a squared open loop rather than a round C, which is a deliberate choice. A square handle gives your fingers a flat to pull against and keeps a full mug from rotating in the hand, and it is a shape that appears on surviving early medieval turned vessels. It is fixed with a steel rivet at the top, which is where a wooden handle takes almost all of its load, so the joint is mechanical rather than relying on glue alone. The band of facets around the base is cut after turning and gives the mug grip and a shadow line.

Engraving, runes and your own design

Use the rune converter on this page to turn a name, a date or a short phrase into Elder Futhark and we will cut it into the steel, the leather or the wood. If you would rather have a Viking pattern than a rune line, choose your own design in the engraving option above the add to cart button and tell us where it goes. Where a piece already carries an engraved design, your chosen engraving replaces it rather than sitting alongside it. On this mug the raven panel is the engraved area, so your runes or your own design take its place, and there is room for a short line under the rim as well. Wood takes engraving beautifully and holds it for the life of the piece. See the engraving page.

Handling and everyday use

It is a mug, so it is easy, but there are a few things that make a wooden vessel last decades instead of a couple of years. Rinse it before its first use. Fill it with cold drink only. Do not leave it standing full overnight, because anything acidic sitting against a sealed wooden wall for hours will eventually work at the finish.

The faceted band at the base is there so the mug can be gripped one handed round the base as well as by the handle, which is how most people actually hold a heavy mug at a table. The leather carry cord loops through the handle so the mug can hang from a belt or a pack strap at a fair or a camp. Feed the cord through, pull the ferrule end back through the loop and pull it snug, the same way you would rig a lanyard.

Care

Hand wash only, in cool or lukewarm water, with a soft cloth or sponge and a drop of mild soap. Never a dishwasher. The heat, the detergent and the long wet cycle together will lift the finish, raise the grain and can crack the wall of a turned mug. Do not leave it soaking in a sink, and do not put it in a microwave.

Dry it upside down on a rack so the bore drains and air can circulate, and let it dry fully before it goes back in a cupboard. Once or twice a year, wipe the outside with a food safe wood oil or a butcher block conditioner and buff it back. That keeps the wood fed and stops the surface going dull and thirsty. If the grain ever feels slightly rough after washing, a light pass with very fine paper and a fresh coat of oil brings it back.

Made in the Czech Republic

Every piece we sell is made by hand in the Czech Republic. The smiths there work the way the trade has been worked for a long time, heating and hammering the steel, taking the bevels down by eye, and fitting the handle and the leather one at a time. There is no automated line anywhere in it, so small differences from one piece to the next are normal and expected.

Ransack Viking is a United States company based in Chicago, Illinois. We bring the pieces in ourselves, inspect them on arrival and ship them from our own warehouse. If you add engraving, that is carried out here in the United States before your order goes out.

A note on handmade variation

This is hand made, not machine made and not bulk produced, so what arrives will not be a pixel for pixel copy of the photograph. Grain, tone, hammer texture and exact profile vary because each piece is worked by hand from natural materials. Wood is the most variable material we use after horn. Every block runs its own grain, takes the stain a little differently and shows its own figure, so your mug may be lighter, darker, straighter grained or more figured than the one photographed. The dimensions, the material and the build are the same every time. The character is not. If that is the part you care about, carry on with Odin’s ravens, then the Viking wedding gifts.

Frequently asked questions

Is it food safe

Yes. The interior is sanded and sealed with a food safe finish for cold drinks. It is built for beer, mead, cider and water rather than for hot liquid.

Can it go in the dishwasher

No, and a dishwasher will ruin it. Hand wash in cool water, rinse and dry it upside down. That is a minute of work for a mug that will last decades.

Will it leak

It is turned from one solid block, so there are no joints to leak and no soaking needed before first use. Fill it and drink.

Will the wood make the beer taste of wood

The sealed bore means very little transfer. Some people notice a faint warmth to the taste in the first few uses, and it settles quickly.

Can I have a name instead of the raven

Yes. Your runes or your own design replace the raven panel rather than sitting beside it. The rune converter on this page will show you the Elder Futhark spelling first.

How long does it take to arrive

Processing is one to two weeks in the shop plus transit, at the longer end for engraved orders. Shipping within the United States is free.

What is in the box

• One Ravencup turned hardwood mug with an engraved raven panel and riveted handle
• One black leather carry cord with a metal end ferrule
• Care card covering hand washing and seasonal oiling
• Made and finished in the Czech Republic

Explore the range

See more in wooden mugs and cups, Viking beer mugs, horn mugs and tankards and drinking horns, or read the guides.

Near neighbours in the shop

Worth putting side by side with this is the Birchhollow Viking beer mug. In the same category sits the Meadhorn Viking beer mug.

For a different piece from the same family, look at the Brasshall tankard. You can have this made your way instead on the design your own page.