1st palmwood and work space

Benzart an Lake Surfer,you both asked about tools and work spaces. I,m always an hour late and dollar short. Ben here are my some of my tools (yes they are the ones from costco, but I,m learing with them. My 1st palmwood carving is the backstop. It,s about 2ft. tall and 16" around.
Lake Surfer, my carving space, I share with my wifes day care. This is in our back yard.
Here is my 1st palmwood and one of the first full body, must of the wood I am using is doug fur beam cutoffs. Yes it is not pressurer treaded. The full body started as a 6x6 that I cut off the corner at 45, then hand planed round.
Most of my tikis are finished with a torch and then wirebrush to remove the ash,then I seal them with Minwax Polycrylic. Also used it on the palmwood

This last one is my other full body tiki, Moai, all four of these , are carved out of 4x4 blocks

Doctiki,

That looks like my space, toys & all. The tikis are looking nice. Palm is a little different to carve, isn't it? Very fibery. If the piece is pretty dry, it should sand up nice. As you go, post some more progress shots up close, and in the natural sunlight. Love to see more of the detail.

Great work Doc, you have been holding back on us? Whatever tools you have to get the job done works for me. I'd love to have a bunch of expensive tools but sometimes you have to settle for what you can afford. As long as they get you carving thats all that matters. I expect to see Many more pictures from you. Looking GOOD.

Ben and Aaron The tools will come with time and better pictures when I get out the 35mm slr. The plamwood was a little damp when I started carving. It was easer carving that the kiln dry doug fur beam cut off that I used to start with. Stumpy, dryed with a star pattern on top. I'm trying a trick that my Dad showed me, slowly filling the crack with fiberglass resin than will seal it with polycrylic. Than I'll put on a padded seat for a patio stool. My sons use it that way now.
I have two new pieces of plamwood (maybe date plam) that I will seal the ends this weekend, and let dry for 6 months or more. Thanks. Doc Tiki

[ Edited by: doctiki on 2004-10-06 19:24 ]

Hey, Doc. Not sure what area you're from, but around here (SoCal) everybody seems to like Mexican fan palm, which is really solid all the way through & carves up real nice. Get some if you can. Don't worry about cheap tools. I've bought plenty of them myself, cause you gotta start somewhere. You just gotta carve more tikis to sell & buy more tools to carve more tikis. It's never ending. Eventually you get all the tools you need, and you just might carve a few tikis for yourself! Ah, but then there's always more tools. Better, sharper, faster!

Aaron, Las Vegas, Nv. Stumpy is mexican fan plam, the other two piece are a good chance of being some kind of date plam. Alot of the shopping center and strip mall use the date or the mexican fan. The tree removing crew foreman said it was a type of date.