Post #62959 by Basement Kahuna on Tue, Dec 2, 2003 10:36 AM

On 2003-12-02 10:04, FLOUNDERart wrote:
Question, my carving has a lot of wood that is stringy like, and some places it just chunked out, is because the wood wasn't ready to be carved or am I doing something wrong? Also do you sand a tiki to finish it or is this a no no? Dremel?
Please don't yell at me for the dremel question, I'm thinking thats probably a carving sin! How do you know when wood is ready to become a tiki?

I torch, sand, polyurethane (satin always, NEVER gloss; you want a warm glow, not a caramel apple), and then paint, very lightly (again always a flat spray paint) so it accents the tiki and doesn't cover it...sort of like airbrushing would do, darkening up relief, accenting eyes, etc. You want the woodgrain to show through..that's part of the charm of a tiki just like cracks. Dremels are a great way to quickly clean out those rough corners, and the little sanding wheels are super for sharpening up edges. There's one in my shop!