bigt carvings

Conga: Hey! Thanks a bunch! I call those pock markes bug holes! LOL I like a few of those. I don't like a ton of bug holes and eaten up wood, like there is to some degree on the back of this guy. I gonna really have to start paying attention to protecting the logs I want to carve in the future.

Benella: as always, great to have some good words from you!

tikilizard: thanks, much appreciated. I believe the first stain was "Early American" (thinned with mineral spirits). I applied a second coat of "Antique Pine". Er, I think that's what colors they were. LOL I sanded with 180 in between bc the shellac "condition" had caused the grain to raise. Then after the sanding and staining, put two coats of shellac (thinned 4 to 1). Then three coats of laquer. :)

Well done!
So is it too early to ask what's next?

Buzzy Out!

Just perfect, this is one of the nicest pieces I have seen here..

Hey Buzz! Not to early - I already started another. However, this log is really infected with bugs. I might have to throw it out. I'll post a pic tonight.

Hiltiki, thank you! You're waaaaaaay too kind. :blush:

Hey BigT!!! Very cool carving my friend, and I love the way you caught the wood when it is Spalting with all the different streaks of wood tone in it. Excellent job!1, Aloha , Mooney

Heya Mooney! Thanks so much, I'm really blown away by all the great comments. I think that spalting must occur more often down here in our humidity. A bunch of the logs I have show signs of that.

I just started on a new log Tuesday night. Noticed a bunch of bug holes on the outside, but pretty much all my carves have some of that because these logs have been sitting around for some time.

So I started chopping away on it and the damage just seemed to get worse. I must have chopped out 8 or 10 beetle larvae.

Pretty damn frustrating.... But I did find a way to kill 'em.

:lol: :lol: :lol:

I think I'm going to be having a bunch of bonfires this fall...

In the meantime I did start some bone work. Is it still called bone work if it's tusk/ivory etc? I was told this was ancient walrus tusk.

hey big t

great job on # 7. maybe name him old # 7 (as in mr. daniels). it's fun to carve those old logs full of bugs. it's a scavenger hunt just to see what you can find. good luck with the bone work.

bd

Love those spalted logs

Love those spalted logs

hey big D - thanks! Old #7. LOL funny...

nomolos - thanks. thanks. :P

Some updates on the turtle. It's been difficult getting good pics of this little guy.

Hey Big T, really happy to see you start on the bone/ivory, after a few you will notice a change in your detail as I think it draws the best out of you. LookinG good too!

On 2009-10-15 03:12, Benzart wrote:
Hey Big T, really happy to see you start on the bone/ivory, after a few you will notice a change in your detail as I think it draws the best out of you. LookinG good too!

Thanks Benz. Yes, this thing is so tiny because that's the piece of tusk that I had. Actually, I have several pieces that are all smallish. This one was twice as fat but was splitting along what I guess are growth layers? So I went ahead and split it apart.

That's looking good. I just started working with the bone and have found it quite fun. My flexshaft broke so now I'm waiting on parts. Keep them comin.

hey big t I just got motivated ,thanks

AlohaS: yeah, working this tusk has been fun and not quite as smelly as the guitar saddle I made out of cow bone one time. :lol:

tikigodz: Thanks! Appreciate it. I saw your thread. Very unique stuff! I mean that in a good way. :wink:

Well I'm gonna call the turtle finished. It keeps getting smaller and thinner the more I work on it. I polished it up and it will be a present for my wife. That's her initial on the front.

You can see the front fins are not the same size - the one on the right is sort of broken off looking. The original piece of tusk was broken at an angle. So instead of making the turtle even smaller, I just decided to make a 'partial' fin on the right side. Maybe she won't notice?? :lol:

Uh, did I say how hard it was taking good photos of something this small was? Even with my camera on macro mode... Benzart, you rule man!

That's a tiny turtle Big T! Nice job, especially considering the scale. Here I was, thinking everything in Texas was big.

On 2009-10-15 21:21, TikiMango wrote:
That's a tiny turtle Big T! Nice job, especially considering the scale. Here I was, thinking everything in Texas was big.

TM: thanks. yep, we know how to do the little stuff here too. :lol: Well, gotta go. My oil well just caught on fire!

Nicely tiny turtle BigT! She look very prety... Your wife will be happy I think.

J.

BigT, your turtle came out great and I'm sure your wife will Love it, if not send it over this way??

On 2009-10-18 06:11, Benzart wrote:
BigT, your turtle came out great and I'm sure your wife will Love it, if not send it over this way??

Thank you Ben. She did love it. And I restrung the necklace after I gave to her. I'll have to get a pic of the in final necklace.

In the meantime, I restarted tiki #8 in October. He's coming along pretty good now. He got off to a slow start. There is a knot on each side of the head and one in the back that have caused me a fair amount of headaches. And I did a poor job of centering and leveling him before I started. Ugh. Lesson learned.

Finally finished my last tiki of 2009 on New Years eve. I wanted to start the new year with a clean work bench!

All ready to stain.

1st coat of stain.

All done.

I hope everyone had a great holiday season! :) Now it looks like I'm going to be stuck inside for a while since you guys up north sent us this arctic blast for New Years. :wink:

BIG T!!!! SWEET LAST TIKI FOR THE YEAR!!!! really cool design and luvin the finish!!! and im w u they can take there artic blast and stick it..... cheerz!!!

Very Nice.

Nice way to finish the year. I like the way you did the base...different.

Also great pics for us newer guys trying to learn more.

[ Edited by: drasticwagon 2010-01-07 05:40 ]

big tiki scott, amate, drastic wagon, thanks for the kind words.

bt scott - yeah I dont think I'll be starting anything new until this cold snap passes by. My garage is pretty freakin cold out there...

Drastic - yw, I've been helped immensely by all the pics, tips, and kind words from the super talented bunch here.

amate - you coming by for some pine soon? I counted two dozen logs stacked up! :)

Excellent! I had to take a second look to see how you attached the bottom - oh wait you didn't. Nice touch!

nice going t,

he looks really great. still using that beautiful eat texas pine? love the way the wood streaks and cracks as it weathers and ages in our wonderful weather down here. keep up the great work.

bd

Nice stuff Big T....great idea with the carved base. Keep posting
and entertaining us.

Aloha - hey man! thanks! Yep, the base is one piece. It almost didn't have one. The base started to split along one of the growth rings. I had to put in a couple of plugs and some glue to minimize the damage.

bd - good to see u around. yep, still carvin the pine. had to have 4 trees cut down this summer due to drought and hurricane damage, so I'm well stocked. :lol:

conga - thanks! glad u like it. not quite as innovative as your pieces but i'm tryin! :wink:

BT - yes, I still intend on coming by to check out your wood pile. I'm sill uncertain on the dates I will be in your area. I have to get all the parties involved to agree on something but I'll let you know asap when the dates firm up.

Nice work BigT! The finish really makes the patterns in the wood stand out!

I can't wait to see it in person next weekend!

On 2010-01-06 19:37, TheBigT wrote:

Wow! But I had not seen that one ... Great successfull in the Texas sun!

J.

El Stingray, Laojioa - thanks for the kind words. :)

Well this sucks. I just got this flexcut chisel in November. I carved one 2ft tiki in pine and started a new one this weekend, then plink. This happened. :(

As you can see, the cutting edge is not bent, warped, or abused. Nor is the handle. Am I being too rough with it? I'm using a urethane mallet with it. This is one of Flexcut's "Power Handle" chisels. Note, it's not a mallet handle but still. I don't see how a chisel this large can be pushed.

Should I send this back to flexcut and see what happens?

hell yeah!!! i would!! thats hard earnd mny right there and they are supposed to be the best not just the sharpest!!! cheerz!!

Yep, send it back, I use the hand-held one with a mallet all the time and haven't bust one out yet, so definitively a defective one.

that's one think i've noticed about flexcut. my older chisels and my english made ones all have full, round tangs. flexcut has a thinner, flat tang. they still shouldn't break and i'm sure they'll take care of you.

Thanks guys for the chisel input. Yep, Flexcut's mallet chisels are supposedly 20% thicker than these Power Handle models but still probably not as strong as my Pfeils. :wink:

The stregnth of any chisel is in the vertical line (end to end). The Flecut power chisel blades are strong but if you try prying the wood out of your cuts you are putting pressure on the weaker aspect of the metal. Flexcut may replace it?? If you have a large investment in the blades I suggest getting a power chisel head (Wecheer) - the blades fit that handle nicely. Plus the power chisel allows faster cuts with less applied pressure.

If they claim you can use the Power Carver chisel for mallet use, you may have something there.

I know with Woodcraft, they guarantee any product whether or not the company does.
I had a couple weak chisels that they happily replaced for me.

woodcraft has replaced electric tools for me with no questions asked. they even seemed like they were sorry a wecheer had broken.

the wecheer chisel handpiece is great. i have that and the flexcut tips. too bad my shaft broke in my flexshaft and the handpiece doesn't fit my new one.

Well here's the update on the broken Flexcut. Woodcraft offered to replace the entire kit with a new one, however my store doesn't carry this particular kit anymore. So Flexcut replaced it with a refurbished tool. I'm pretty impressed with the reponse. It just came in today exactly one week from the time I put it in the mailbox!

The edge isn't quite as straight as my old, practically new one was....

But they did include a sweet new catalog! :)

On 2009-10-06 12:58, TheBigT wrote:
So here's the finished pics after re-sanding, staining, finishing. Still darker than I intended it to be, but I just got tired of sanding this dude! :lol:

This is a BEAUTIFULLY finished piece. The photos here do not do it justice. I'm glad I got to meet him in person.

This is a BEAUTIFULLY finished piece. The photos here do not do it justice. I'm glad I got to meet him in person.

Hey amate, thank you. Much appreciated. Now I think you owe us some photos over on your thread you've been holding onto. :wink: