Post #203845 by hewey on Tue, Dec 20, 2005 6:46 AM

We got a tree lopper lobbing on our door this arvo looking for work, offering to chop down some of our palms etc. My folks have been looking at this for a while, but made no moves. Until now.

Theres one particular one that I would like to keep to carve up some of it. Better than being mulched anyways. How do I go about prepping it to dry out? I searched and found this post by Marcus:

A while ago, that marcus tiki guy wrote:
The cocos palm is the closest to a coconut palm that we have in Australia - I have carved both (prefer coconut but there are really hard to come by) With the cocos palm I go deep then let it dry up for a couple of days (usually get help from ants who enjoy the moisture) then I give it a sand and it comes up like wood then seal in a marine lacquer. The moisture is then sealed in - allows palm to dry through the ends, which enables it to become lighter and you dont lose any shape. (some palms when they dry up will shrivelup and concave in - the worst is the alexander palm - so dont bother with them they are crap. Oh grasshopper - hope this is enough wisdom for one day - wax on wax off - cya soon.

I take that as meaning you take off the outer skin? Like an inch all round? let it dry then sand and lacquer? How long should I leave before carving? What else should I know?

Thanks in advance peoples! Your champs.