Runes - making a set

I’ve been working on a set of runes for quite some time now. I don’t believe in divination, but rune magic is still fascinating. So what can you use it for?

For me, the runes are a way to look at everyday life and its challenges from a different perspective. They’re meant as a tool for reflection and thought.

There are plenty of books about rune magic and rune meanings. Most of it is nonsense — you have to find your own way. We don’t really know how runes were cast in the old days, so we have to imagine it ourselves.

I'm not making anything historically accurate, I'm just a neo-pagan.

I’ve chosen to make a set of the Elder Futhark — 24 runes in total. It gives more room for interpretation, and I don’t really like the Younger Futhark. There are simply too many overlapping meanings in that one. I also think there’s real strength in using the older alphabet.

Every morning I draw one rune, just to practice remembering the names and meanings of each.

The different runes are made from different types of wood, all gathered on my own property. A few I’ve burned and then reshaped into another rune — those were buried in the forest and given back to it.
I’ve used yew, beech, oak, ash, cherry, apple, hawthorn, birch, pine, and spruce.

If I ever make a new set, I’ll carve it from small wooden staves. This time they’re round cross-sections of branches.

The runes were carved with a small BeaverCraft knife and then deepened using carving tools from Lidl — surprisingly good quality, 28 tools for around 80 DKK (~10.7 EUR). I’ve only used two of them, and they now live permanently in my carving kit.

I read up a bit on making homemade pigment paint — crushed charcoal and linseed oil. I also read that burning the recesses first helps the pigment adhere better, so I did that too. It also fits nicely since the old term “to carve runes” can also mean “to burn”.

After burning, I sanded each piece with two different grits of sandpaper until they were smooth.
The charcoal for my pigment was made from beech wood. I burned it in a tin can with a hole punched in the lid and placed it on top of my Kelly Kettle while I brewed coffee outside.

At the thrift store, I found a small mortar and pestle — cheap and perfect. The charcoal was crushed as finely as possible and mixed into a thick paste with linseed oil. I painted it into the runes with a toothpick, pressing it in firmly. Then I let them dry for a few days.

The final step was to give the runes a coat of spoon butter. I make a few different kinds of spoon butter, but for these (and other non-food items), I used:

1.5 parts beeswax, 1 part linseed oil, 4 parts mineral oil.
Melted together in a water bath, stirred a few times while cooling. I let the jar cool outside overnight — by morning it had the texture of soft butter. Easy to polish on with a cloth.

I think this mix will also be great for axe and knife handles, so I’ll be using it for that as well.

All in all, this has been a really rewarding project. It’s taken a long time to carve the runes, to consider which wood fits each symbol, and to prepare them for use. That process gives them extra meaning — a bit of energy and personality. It makes them stronger, more important.

The finished set (two of them had hidden in the pouch, but the set is complete).