this is it . . .

my first log and going to be my first carving. i hope to document it here. i hope to get a lot of advice and encouragement. i got it at work. it's been sitting around horticulture for almost 2 years. it's about 4'6" and about 12-20" in diameter. still weighs about 150lbs. his name will be 5749. that's how we track all the palms on property. he still had this tag on him, so i decided he should keep it.

mahalo for looking

[ Edited by: pdrake 2006-02-02 21:00 ]

Can't wait for the results. Keep us posted

-Alldo

That's a beaut! Be sure to post progress pictures - there's a lot of potential in that there log. I wish we had wood like that around here in Virginniy.

theres nothing like a blank canvas, or log, you can turn it into any thing you can dream up......start cuttin....

The Beatles said it best."Happiness is a blank log".

well, tomorrow i'm going to go out and buy a draw knife. i'm pretty excited.

Cool dude - good luck man! 5749 aint real tiki, but its kinda cool anyways. How hes gonna be done - what style? Good luck with it man.

heh, i know it's not real tiki. but, he came with a name and i think he was meant to live with it. i remembered that i have quite a few knives around that are sharp and functional. (read weapons, i do midieval recreation stuff). i started taking the bark off. it comes off like butter, but i don't know how deep to go. i can already see him coming out. he'll be traditional island with a headdress. i'm not quite ready to do a body.

well, after about 1/2 hour with my 12", 15th century scottish dirk:

my shoulders hurt and i pulled out a bunch of splinters before i put my gloves on.

d'oh!

[ Edited by: pdrake 2006-02-02 22:59 ]

Looks like some hard wood for palm,I have a couple of pieces of the same. I finished one and it was like carving stone. What is the tag for?
Best o' luck, keep it posted,

the tag is for inventory and location. there are thousands of trees and plants on our properties. i guess it makes it easier to say, "go pull tree 5749" than to say, "go pull that weird, bent tree about 50 yrds from where that old lady fell and broke her hip in '95".

Aloha bruddah!
Looks like youve got some great material there...So, you live on a property with how many palms? cool bruddah! Hey so, no worries about calling da buggah 5749 but if you want to "tiki" it up a bit you can call him 5749 in Hawaiian: "Lima hiku ha iwa!" (pronounced "lee-ma-hee-koo-ha-eeva!"...
Sound mo bettah, yeah?

Anyway, keep posting da kine photos for us to spark!

Malama Pono!

mahalo!

that's it then.

i can see him starting to come out. i wish i had a day off sometime this month so i don't have to work in the dark.

Pdrake, where you from?

las vegas

Good luck! Get yourself a set of plain old Stanley flat chisels to get started with...at any hardware store and about 12.00 for 3. Then as you learn what the basic stuff can do you will know better what different shapes accomplish as well.

heh, i already have a set of chisels. i bought them with a plan for that cherry plank i offered you. they're from harbour freight. when i can, i'll get a good set. need to stop buying mugs first. i did pick up a good draw knife and a pretty decent 1 1/2" chisel.

little update. he's naked now. my ass hurts from sitting on a log. any ideas or crits are more than welcome.

[ Edited by: pdrake 2006-02-07 20:04 ]

wow, i started drawing and it just started coming out.

i could use a little help here. how do i smooth out the cuts in palm? die grinder?

how do i keep it from running?

mahalo

well, i'm going to bump this up one more time for help.

well, finally picked up some deceent tools. makes a big, big difference.

any advice or thoughts?

thanks!

[ Edited by: Chip and Andy 2009-06-05 17:32 ]

P, I use a 4.5" angle grinder with some gravel like discs one disc is 24 grit don't push to hard into the wood till you get used to it, it will bite you or the wood. Grinders are cheap, may want to start with 60,100 or 120 grit discs till you feel comfortable (WARNING) I take the sheild off, this is bad advice but it gives me better clearence.
Hope this helps.
Good luck,

How are you doing on this? Seems like you got a lot of advice from some great people.
JP

Pdrake, looks good. Smoothing the cuts?, Make them into V cuts with a sharp bottom and there is nothing to smooth out. Keep up the good work.

it's coming along really well. now that i have some tools i can't wait for some sun.

i really appreciate the help.

any advice is really appreciated.

i feel like i'm just flying by the seat of my pants.

mahalo

more carving . . .

whoa!!! that mouth is CRAZY! totally cool!

thanks so much for the feedback. i'm afraid i'm going too deep, or not deep enough. there's no one here in vegas to give me any direction, only some guy stealing jungle trader's pics.

i want to be original and have my stuff appreciated locally. it's been a struggle doing this all by myself.

Well, I'd say it's looking good - keep it up. Very rarely will you go too deep (that's usually the point in the carving when you break through the piece of wood when you didn't mean to). My philosophy is...if you think it's too deep, then...go DEEPER!

almost done roughing it out.

dude, that's friggin awesome. Keep up the good work.

Pdrake, VERY nice first. I would take out all that extra mouth wood for a really killer profile. My own personal rule of thumb is that you can take out up to 2/3 of the log diameter for the mouth & it'll be safe... probably... :wink:

Listen to Polynesiac, a man who knows. Deep carving makes for DEEP tikis!

A-A

You are making some great progress. Keep us posted.
JP

PDrake, this is going to be an AweSome first tiki, man you are starting out on fire. I agree with Aaron and Poly, you can go much deeper. If you don't want to remove all that open mouth area, you can fit a tongue in there and it would work well.
Keep up the good work, hurry though, I can't WAIT!

open wide . . .

i'm going to have to put him on hold until my new chisels come in. i don't have anything small and sharp enough to finish the inside of the mouth.

any other suggestions?

P, Beautiful work, Da' mo' deepa Da mo' betta

I think what you're doing is very cool...big chompers...and I really like the nice lines
in the forehead.....good effort.

Fantastic first!!! Amazing deep smooth lines. I think I'm getting a fever

Kick-ass!! what a screamer! I love these 'log-2-life' threads. Keep up the good work and post back soon, we're getting impatient!

PDrake, he turned out Great. I Love the Depth of the detail, no "Surface cuts" here and the tongue looks great.
Overall you get an A+ for the day.

Very nice job! I just got here today and have read all 45 pages of Carving Poles locked thread as well as checked out a lot of other stuff. This looks like an awesome piece! Looking very forward to seeing more.

Can you post more regarding what you have learned about the tools?

Living in Florida we have billions of Palm logs to mess with...especially after the hurricanes. I'm looking forward to getting some carvings under my belt and around the house to protect us from some of the upcoming storm fury next hurricane season!

Keep up the incredible work, it is an inspiration to all of us virgins!
Peace,
Scott

the most important thing i've learned about the tools is SHARP is best. i can't stress this enough.

get yourself a good angle grinder. use a lancelot or arbortech to rough it out and don't be afraid. people always need firewood.

he's almost finished. it's been too windy to work for the past couple of weekends. all he needs is sanding and staining. i've got all the stain ready. anyone have any suggestions for that? i've never stained a palm log before.

Hi Pdrake - great work - he is coming on real nice. I like to stain my palms in a dark colour like jarrah with lacquer already mixed in. Gloss or matt - I prefer matt - gives it that instant vintage look. Keep up the good work - hope to see some more pics before we meet up in Vegas.

Thanks for the heads up! I have a good grinder already so I'll be OK on that end. Now I just need to get the chisles!

Thanks and again, that is awesome work!

just need to seal or poly him.

holy smokes my first day here and i get to see something like that! neetokeen...and remember if all else fails, dont be afraid to touchythetiki!