Post #764445 by AlohaStation on Tue, May 31, 2016 6:42 AM

So I was offered an opportunity to have a tiki placed in the front of the Mai-Kai from Tiki Kaliki. I was joined by WillCarve and Jeff Choinard in the project. She requested that I replicate the Mai-Kai Decanter (Tangaroa), WillCarve was to do a Lono, and Jeff was to do his signature Marq style. We would be replacing some worn-out fern tikis that sit next to the Valet station at the restaurant. So after some coercing, Will gave me a chunk of Pine that we had salvaged from a house down his street.

Since I was replicating another tiki - there was a plan and I just needed to execute it. One of the first things I did was strip off the bark and set about squaring up the log.

Next was the fun part - carving the shape and bringing out the tiki. Mostly chisel work while refining with the angle grinder.

Once I had the form there was a lot of refining for a final figure. More angle grinder work. When the form was done, I started on the details.

During the time that I was doing a lot of grinding and sanding, I developed a rash very similar to Poison Ivy. I build local Mountain Bike trails and will often develop rashes from stomping around in the woods. I thought the rash came from that - I was wrong! While finishing the final details I did not work on the trails and still developed the rash. After doing some investigating, I found that Pine can be a skin irritant. The rash was driving me crazy. I dedicated on last day to sanding and finishing and could stand it any more. I gave up! Packed the tiki in the car and headed to WillCarve's house. Dumped it off and left it in his qualified hands. I don't give up easily but this thing had me on my last swollen and itchy nerve! He finished it for me - Thank you Will!!

This past weekend we installed the new tikis.

WillCarve prepared the foundations and the straps in the days leading up to installation. Our fear wasn't that they would fall over but rather they would walk away. So he built foundations and strapped the crap out them - their not moving unless you destroy the pedestals. Theirs were carved in Cypress while mine is Pine. The chunk of pine had to weigh twice what the Cypress weighed - lifting them in place was a challenge. They looked great but needed some refinement. The lights that shine on the tikis was blocking a very important part of my carving - the Mai-Kai logo. So Will and I spent some time to redo the light on mine. It needed more so I added a patina to the logo and it now sits in all its glory looking fantastic!

This was a great project with a rewarding final outcome. I'm done with Pine! But I will admit the colors and wood were a pleasure to work with -- I just wish I wasn't allergic to it. So now when you come to the Mai-Kai you will be immediately greeted by the 3 Florida Bros. Enjoy and take some great pictures.