Newbie

Let me introduce myself, my name is Kevin and I live in Los Angeles. I recently have fell into the tiki perfect storm. I have been talking about trying my hand at tiki carving for some time now. For Christmas I was giving a gift card which I used to buy a set of chisels and various other thing I might need, and last night I helped cut down a palm tree from my sisters yard and was able to keep the wood.

I am afraid I do not know the name of the palm but it was about 25 feet tall and the trunk varies from about a foot to six inches.

I was hoping for some tips on how long I should wait to let the tree dry out or should I get started right away, consider that it was cut down last night.

I am starting with a small 16" inch by 6" dia piece, as to not ruin the larger pieces with silly rookie mistakes.

Thanks for any advice or help you can provide.

On 2007-01-04 08:31, keeper wrote:
I am afraid I do not know the name of the palm but it was about 25 feet tall and the trunk varies from about a foot to six inches.

I am starting with a small 16" inch by 6" dia piece, as to not ruin the larger pieces with silly rookie mistakes.

Thanks for any advice or help you can provide.

I am a rookie as well. I say practice any time as long as you don't care about the end result and want to learn what mistakes look like.
Carving it wet will lead to cracking when it dries. It's face will split horribly. And it is harder to carve the wet vs. the dry.

The small piece might be dry enough by August.
Hopefully you are not at the beach. Otherwise the logs will be dry a year from August.

Stand up all the pieces on their ends and if possible off of the ground with small rocks or bricks.
This stash is a great start for when you are getting better. Try to find some logs that have already dried, any kind of wood for that matter.
Welcome to TC.

Keeper

Is your insurance up to date?

How far away do you live from a ER?

Do you have a living will/healthcare surrogate?

Craving it so easy a caveman can do it!

Just carve!
So many poeple want to know how long to wait - it makes no sense. Since it is your first - there is no reson to wait other than to procrastinate. If it cracks or disintigrates - carve another one. Your first one is practice for the next one - and so on.

Welcome to TC Kevin. I'm a noobie too, except I've been here for about a year.

Yeah, what ALoha Station said: just carve. But search this website for more about wood and drying. There's a lot of discussion here about that very topic (I just can't put my finger on it right now, but it's buried here somewhere).

Good luck - get some padded gloves without fingers to absorb the shock of the mallet, and get some good bandaids. Sounds like a nice score on the palm logs!

Now get to work and let's see some pictures!

well I played with the small piece a little last night and it was very stringy, I am hoping that is something that will go away as it dries, I guess I will find some other dried out wood to practice on.

Get reading the carving posts, there's loads of advice and tips.
And get carving.

Good luck!

Keeper... in regards to your palm tree.... it sounds like a Mexican fan palm... which is good. You can certainly carve it now.. were the fronds fan shaped? If they were pinnate (more feathery than fan) you might be talkin about a queen palm... not so good. Hard outside... mush inside.

That's funny Dave: When I read his post I immediately thought, "Queen Palm"

Mexican Fan Palm

Queen Palm

If it's a queen palm, check out Heath's thread in carving before you spend too much time on it...

Mexican fan palm: Charge on!

Buzzy

Well I am pretty sure it is a queen palm... bummer. Is there anything I can do since it was the tree that got me looking into tiki carving, I would love to try. I work at a manufacturing company that powder coats a lot (meaning there is a huge oven here, big enough for a couple cars). Could I stick the pieces in the oven and dry it out that way.

Any way in the mean time I have been playing around with a log I found at my parents house, it is not palm, hell I have no idea what it is, but I am having fun.

I will try to post a picture tomorrow.

Queen Palms very EVIL for carving...mostly hollow in the core--you think you are getting somewher then BOOM! you are thru the center--not only will it not work but it will rot out and not be a permanent (as permanent as ANY wood is) sculpture...I have tried them a few times and only got ONE good thing out of it

good being PURELY subjective...see the SINGLE EYE? that is a QUEEN PALM for ya

Welcome to the board Kevin.

The best advise I can give is to keep your blades sharp.

A dull blade will cut you faster than a sharp one.

What you can do if you want to go through the hassle, is cut the pieces in half lengthwise, hollow out the mush from the inside out, and use what's left to carve a mask. It'll be hard stuff though.

Look around... I bet you can find some Mexican fan palm logs somewhere... there are always big old ones being cut down.