Gonna chop down some cocos palms - Any hints on preserving them? - Tiki Carving

P Polynesiac Tiki Socialite San Pedro, CA Joined: Jan 29, 2004 Posts: 2099	P Polynesiac Posted posted on Tue, Dec 20, 2005 7:28 AM Hewey there is TONS of information about preparing wood in the carving thread that is locked at the top of creating tiki. If you have time, go through there. there is much wsdom to be learned from that thread. I posted this for aaron a bit ago, and it applies somwhat for you: As far as de-barking is concerned, I don't know much about non-palm wood questions (though I beliece BK talks at length about prep and storage in the carving thread, and lake may have some great inshight too) but as far as palm is concerned, I'ver noticed that if you husk off all the extra "frond" pieces and make the log look like these: then they don't tend to get as stringy as if you leave all the exra frond pieces on. (these are from a 100+ foot mexican fan, so they were already de-froned years ago by tree trimmers) DEFINATELY keep the logs waiting to carved off the ground (just throw a few 2x2's benieth them to raise them aoff the ground for air circulation) and laying down. also - don't stack them ontop of one another either, unless you put something betweent he logs (more 2x2's work great). I don't know how they will react to being in an enclosed area that gets very little air flow, though. all my palm is outside. I ususally try and carve the palm while it's still a little wet (like 3-7 months into the drying process) as the palm is like buttah. when you carve (if you don't want to include the base frond pieces in your carving), "husking" refers to removing all the extra left over frond pieces that the trimmers left (sort of like bark in non-palm trees) and bringing it down to that tannish color that palm is. I don't know what your palm looks like, but for mexican fan palm you can remove the old fronds initially with a box cutter and roll the palm, then use chisels to remove the left over frond pieces (when they look like the picture above) I have a few pieces of cannary palm that need to be husked with a chainsaw, because the frond pieces are HUGE. You can start carving immediately, the more wet the palm is, the more you'll be splashed with water as you carve. The qoute you posted above sounds like good advice, I usually let my carvings mold while I'm wrking on them (it's only surface mold) and give it a good clean before I stain and seal. good luck and post more ???? if ya got em POLYNESIAC - putting the 'F' back in ART [ Edited by: Polynesiac 2005-12-20 07:30 ]

Hewey there is TONS of information about preparing wood in the carving thread that is locked at the top of creating tiki. If you have time, go through there. there is much wsdom to be learned from that thread.

I posted this for aaron a bit ago, and it applies somwhat for you:

As far as de-barking is concerned, I don't know much about non-palm wood questions (though I beliece BK talks at length about prep and storage in the carving thread, and lake may have some great inshight too) but as far as palm is concerned, I'ver noticed that if you husk off all the extra "frond" pieces and make the log look like these:

then they don't tend to get as stringy as if you leave all the exra frond pieces on. (these are from a 100+ foot mexican fan, so they were already de-froned years ago by tree trimmers)
DEFINATELY keep the logs waiting to carved off the ground (just throw a few 2x2's benieth them to raise them aoff the ground for air circulation) and laying down. also - don't stack them ontop of one another either, unless you put something betweent he logs (more 2x2's work great). I don't know how they will react to being in an enclosed area that gets very little air flow, though. all my palm is outside. I ususally try and carve the palm while it's still a little wet (like 3-7 months into the drying process) as the palm is like buttah.

when you carve (if you don't want to include the base frond pieces in your carving), "husking" refers to removing all the extra left over frond pieces that the trimmers left (sort of like bark in non-palm trees) and bringing it down to that tannish color that palm is. I don't know what your palm looks like, but for mexican fan palm you can remove the old fronds initially with a box cutter and roll the palm, then use chisels to remove the left over frond pieces (when they look like the picture above) I have a few pieces of cannary palm that need to be husked with a chainsaw, because the frond pieces are HUGE.

You can start carving immediately, the more wet the palm is, the more you'll be splashed with water as you carve.

The qoute you posted above sounds like good advice, I usually let my carvings mold while I'm wrking on them (it's only surface mold) and give it a good clean before I stain and seal.

good luck and post more ???? if ya got em

POLYNESIAC - putting the 'F' back in ART

[ Edited by: Polynesiac 2005-12-20 07:30 ]

Post #203850 by Polynesiac on Tue, Dec 20, 2005 7:28 AM