Post #301262 by congatiki on Mon, Apr 23, 2007 1:24 PM

Looks like you have a pretty good "foundation" to start with Stockup. I think
that most of us "hobby" carvers had first efforts that look like yours, just a
little "rough around the edges." My only suggestion would be to keep going when
you feel that urge to call it quits and start another one. You will find that
the more you try to polish up your skills the better results you will achieve.
I use chisels for the rough work on my tikis....then an angle grinder to "sand"
or smooth the large accessible surfaces...and then good old fashioned sand paper
to get the desired results. I generally reach the point where I feel finished,
but I have a close friend who pushes me on to do better work...with comments like
"take your time---you can do a lot better than that----look in here---this can
be better"..etc. Find someone to push you a little and you will like the end
result. Nice starting effort....