Post #725605 by 4WDtiki on Sun, Aug 17, 2014 10:40 PM

It's not clear (to me, at least) if you are wanting your trees to be cut down and the stump gets carved, or if you want the live trees carved.
Queen palm is like a pumpkin, there's a few inches worth of wood on the outside, and the inside is soft and stringy.
Palm takes forever to dry out, so two weeks of drying will only help a little. Wet wood tends to crack and split like crazy after carving, whether it's carved the same day or after two weeks.
The 'right' method is not subjective to the artist, it's subjective to the wood.
I've carved logs that had sat for 5 years, and the center was still wet!
If you want to do things right and so it lasts and looks good, don't rush. Let it dry for 3-6 months minimum. But even then, it will still be queen palm.
Disclaimer: I have only tried queen palm twice, and didn't like it at all.
I carved mexican fan palm for years, lots of it, and now I use coconut palm. Both are more solid and drier than queen. There's a reason most carvers don't like it.