Post #72526 by Basement Kahuna on Sun, Jan 25, 2004 11:37 PM

I'd say, Lake, aside from the one with the very deep crack I'd sell any and all of those. That's a tiki, and that's the nature of wood. I could show you pics in the Oceanic Arts catalog of tikis with more and deeper cracks than that. And a tiki without a crack almost doesn't look right in my book. Sealing the ends helps as it slows the drying a lot; wood loses 80 percent of it's moisture through the cut ends. As for the groove down the back, when I do so (only if I need to be totally sure on a pole that's going to clearly be against a wall) I'll carve one straight down from top to bottom, and usually about an inch or more deep. What that does is channel the stress to the groove as the wood dries. Wood pulls apart on itself in a pie shape as it dries, so this gives the wood some breathing room and the cracking to the front if any is very subtle. Again as far as cracking in general, that's wood. Kiln dried, semi green, or green as moss, if it's still in log form it will check and crack. Don't sweat it!