Post #294025 by Basement Kahuna on Fri, Mar 23, 2007 12:06 PM

Hi, Mailman.. You have a good start there and obvious resolve, and you are already carving deeply and in 3-D, which is a good thing, but before I went too public just yet I'd nurse my skill level a bit more and get some more carving experiences under my belt. Try a slightly different method just once (if you have the extra time...I take it you probably work for the state and they can keep a man rather busy)-Instead of trying something simple and carving it in a quicker fashion, find something you think is very, very advanced for your skill level, set your ambition high, and spend a couple of months on it with all chisels. The more time the better. Take a very long approach, from getting a sketch or written plan on paper, to carving, to a well-planned final finishing. And keep the chisels as sharp as you can. Now, this is just my opinion, and the kind of guy I am-but I have always thought that such a way teaches far faster than so many smaller steps, especially if you obviously have an idea as to the basic principles of carving. Jump in with both feet, and take a much longer swim, so to speak. One of the great carving zen-masters still with us today, Leroy Schmaltz, once said patience is a tiki carver's greatest attribute. Nobody can argue with 55 years of Tiki carving experience! Aloha, and see what you think...BK