Post #318768 by MauiTiki on Sun, Jul 15, 2007 11:36 AM

Carving Palm wood with Chisels was not really what I expected. I've watched the Tiki carvers around Maui carving our neat little slices (out of hard wood) with their chisels. When I try to carve, the wood splinters. I've had to start each carve by putting an end made with a flat Chisel so that my carve will stop where I want it to. I'm starting on an area where I know I'll go deep, So I can't really mess it up.

After playing around with several of the chisels (different sizes and shapes) I thought that my grinder worked so well at cleaning up the log, why not use it to get some of the shape started?

The grinder sure is faster. It seems to be burning along the edge. I need a new piece of sandpaper.

I'll need to use the chisels for the deeper, smaller places. You can see how the wood is splintering in this photo.

Do I need to dry the wood more? It appears it gets harder the deeper I go.

I'm learning...