Post #225788 by Bay Park Buzzy on Sat, Apr 8, 2006 11:31 PM

After cutting myself, it was about a month before I started carving again. I was very nervous with the chainsaw and needed to get over my fear. I decided to make some quick chainsaw only carvings.
tiki #7: nothing to write home about. I just wanted to get through it with all body parts intact. I used a piece of queen/coco palm and left all the outer bark on. My idea for this one was to use it as a prototype for a bar stool I would make later. I wanted to see how to lay it out quickly and not waste a good log. The finished result sucks as piece of work but was very useful in learning how to become a better carver.

tiki #9 was the same idea. Chainsaw only. Queen/coco palm with the bark left on. I used a design I found on the web somewhere and modified it slightly. At this time, I was still trying to find a way to make a good piece out of this type of wood. I like the natural texture and shallow carving kept it from cracking and warping too much.

face close up

For tiki #10, I used another queen/coco palm, but this time with the bark removed. It was inspired by a tiki I saw at a friend's house. He paid a fair amount of money for his and it looked to me like some dude spent about 20 minutes freehanding it with a chainsaw. So I went home and tried to replicate it best I could. I think I want to make these for a career because based on the original piece's price, I can get paid about $480 an hour to make these...if only there was a larger market for twenty minute tikis. After this one, I was over my power tool fears and was ready to get back to improving my skills.
I don't have a picture of #10 yet, so here is a spider that was by me while I was carving it. I'll change the picture as soon as I find it.