surf soul tiki

Great first carves and where do you live,We got surf as well from H-Bill here in JensenBeach,Aloha, Mooney

I'm in Tampa now, but I've lived in Cocoa Bch, Melbourne, Stuart (right next to you), and Boca.

This El Nino crap is really starting to piss me off. Middle of September and only 2 tropical swells so far?

Totally bogus dude!

[ Edited by: pjc5150 2009-09-17 16:59 ]

Been a while since I posted.

I moved.

So anyway, here's my house.

And a bunch of future tikis out back.

I replaced my $5 harbor freight GARBAGE with these:

And I've started this:

I love the gouge. Seriously.

I have some big plans for some fishing-rod holder tikis, and I'm gonna make one this week. Stay tuned......
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[ Edited by: pjc5150 2009-11-01 16:23 ]

Hi 5150 I have been using some crap tools myself. Cant bring myself to spend that much on them , Does it make a world of difference?

On 2009-11-01 16:53, tikigodz wrote:
Hi 5150 I have been using some crap tools myself. Cant bring myself to spend that much on them , Does it make a world of difference?

To put it simply, YES.

It's like comparing a rusty screwdriver to a surgeons scalpel.

These ones I bought were like $40 to $50 a pop, which is way more than I ever saw myself spending on this little hobby, but I'm on my 9th tiki now & I guess I just decided that since I'm apparently in this for the long haul I might as well make things a little easier on myself. Really glad I did. Since they're that expensive I'm just buying 'em one at a time every other week. But man, what a huge difference. These new tools are an absolute pleasure to use.

Definitely have to be careful though, they're sharp as a freakin' razor. You could take your thumb off in one clean shot with these things.

I would say that if you're just going to bang out a few tikis for the house of whatever (like I thought when I started), then it's probably too much money to throw. But if you decide (like I did) later that you want to keep turning out carvings, you need to just take it on the chin and go a buy some decent tools. Just my opinion.

A good analogy is GOLF. If you play once or twice a year why buy good clubs (its not gonna help your game). If you play once a week and play with crappy clubs, a new set top-of-the-line clubs will take strokes off your final score.

pjc5150 - why are still using the discount bin Driver? Good chisels are nice, but you're using a rubber mallet to strike them?? Dude your next investment should be for either a wooden mallet or even better a urethane mallet. Its like juicing your engine with Nitrus!

Funny you should mention that,

because a buddy of mine freaked out when he saw the rubber mallet. It's the same one I use to drive in tent pegs when I go camping! He uses a rawhide mallet & swears by it. But yeah, I'm probably buying a new one here in the next week or so.

Jeff...dude. Way cool stuff man! Nice to see you carving! We have do make some chips soon in a mass carving party! we can get GMAN in on it too.
Tim
MBL

I'm in...

Hey Pic5150, congrats on the tool upgrade, and while it is a big step, as you see the difference is Bigger and puts you in a whole different catagory. Already you are thinking of better stuff to do and how you're gonna do it. WELCOME!

la mer ,beatch velo , voiture ricaine , tiki !!!au top !!!!

Hey bro,

Great work on the tikis. You said "the lonboard house", are you down in Indiatlantic. Where do you get all of your logs??

Damien

sweeeeet!!! nice carvin !! cant wait to see the fishin tikis!! and nice selection of diff logs!!!! cheerz!

Congrats on the tool upgrade. I just bought one of the Pfeils myself a few weeks back. Looks just like one of the ones you bought - the real wide one that's beveled on both sides. That one was $35 at Woodcraft.

Hey man, I'm actually not in Indialantic, I'm in Tampa. I surf whenever it's up, and longboard house is one of my favorite shops.

And I have a super-secret spot with piles and piles of palm logs for the taking over here on this coast. :wink:

Haven't posted in a while, but have made progress on a few pieces. I'll try to get some photos up in a few days.

Hey guys, as said before I made a little progress on some stuff. Apologies for the crappy cell phone pics.

Anyway, here's another one of my hair-brained ideas: ladies and gentlemen, the start of the fishing rod holder tiki.

and today I drew out the rest of the face on the spearfisher.

...and started hackin' it out.

Hey, I'm not sure about this for a rod holder, he may scare the fish away?

Looks great tho.

Dude, by the time they see him, they're already on the spear!

Anyway, he got a bit of a haircut today:

I'm diggin' this one. The head came out so much better than I expected, now I have to re-carve his body, because now he looks like crap from the neck down. Damn it!

These are great tikis.
You seemed to have captured the surfing/fishing lifestyle in your work.

Well bro, I don't think I've captured it as much as it has captured me! :wink:

Thanks for the props. I'm stoked on this piece, as I think I progressed a bit this time around.

My buddy that I'm making it for came by last night and he's diggin' it, so I'm happy.

Awee stuff dude!
Loved the one on the surfboard! Man, you´re lucky to have that spot for collecting logs, I´d really like to get a place like that. It´s a bit different here up north, getting mostly pines to carve. Saying that, it makes the tikis different, so it´s alright. I´d like to carve a couple of palms one day though.

Anyway, keep carving!

So I bought a dremel tool, and busted out this little flower at the base of a tiki I'm working on for my buddy Howard's place out at the beach:

Also, I have started a little deal at my house on Tuesday nights where a few friends come by to drink a few beers, and hang out while I bust out some tiki stuff...OR...(gasp)..actually take on a piece of their own, like my friend Frank here. Frank is quite a talented artist already, so I'm stoked that he caught the tiki bug. If he keeps at it he'll probably fly right past me by his 2nd or third piece. Also, he's actually a professional tournament fisherman / fishing guide, and is extremely passionate about it, so I'm hoping for some serious fish / fishing themed tikis in the future. I was so stoked to get him on it I pretty much just sat back and let him have the chisels & watched the action unfold.

Just a mouth so far, I roughed it out with the chainsaw, and he spent a solid hour gouging the rest out, and yeah, I coached him quite a bit ("go big Frank, go big"), but I think that this is a hell of a nice 1st piece and I'm stoked for my boy. Go Frank!

TIKI TUESDAY is a success!!!!
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I would like to thank the good people at Sears for honoring their warranty, and honoring it, and honoring it.

This is my 3rd craftsmen electric chainsaw. I broke the last one cutting out the mouth of Frank's tiki, so I went in the next day and they swapped it out again. I'm wondering how many more times they're going to do this before they say "OK, that's it, no more free chainsaws for you pal!". But for now, we're good and I have a new chainsaw.

So I immediately cut out a new surfboard holder. I have a good friend who's shaping his own boards & opened his own little surf shop, and I think this one's going to be a gift for the shop.

And Frank came over and put some teeth on his piece. He's hooked.

Kinda reminds me of an evil Mr. Kool Aid.

So, one of my best friend's 5 yr old son came by with him and likes the tikis, so I asked him if he'd like to make one, and he said yes. I handed him a bunch of stuff I printed for ideas and whatever, and he picked out the picture of Billy the Crudd's one-eyed monster tiki and said "this one".

So here he is, with his partially done tiklopse. The kid is so stoked he can barely contain himself. He started this project on Sunday, and his mom told me that it's all he has talked about since then. Kids are pretty cool.

Here he is getting a little help on the torch.

And my fishing rod holder is almost done too. Just trying to figure out what to do with the eyes.

I've actually been getting a lot done on the tikis since I decided to stop going to the bar and getting drunk every night. It's amazing what you can get done when you're not smashed all the time. It's all good!

A little more progress on some stuff.

This is a mask I did for a buddy of mine. Planed it off, cut it with a chainsaw (no chisels or grinders), and torched it a bit. Start to finish in about 45 minutes.

Another surfboard holder for a buddy of mine's shop:

...starting to rough the body in.

The spearfisher almost done.

A piece I'm almost done with that is going to a friend's place at the beach.

This is my friend Frank's 1st piece. Frank is definitely an arteest.

And the 5 yr old tiki master posing with his tiklopse. He's so stoked he can barely see straight.

It's all good in the hood!

Tiki fishing rod holder #2!!!

A fat one I busted out yesterday.

A few things I've been working on:

This one was a birthday gift for a bartender friend of mine. It's about 18 inches tall.

This one is "Hellboy".

I call him that because when I started grinding the natural bark in sort of a sideways manner, it started to look like flames....see?

And this one I call "the back-breaker", because I threw my back out hauling it in from the back yard to start carving & missed the best swell of the year so far...damn it.

I see a definate progression, man. Keep it up. Those logs you are using look nice and smooth. Wish I could get ahold of some of that......after I clear my driveway of the million tons of palm that's there now!!

Thanks bro.

Definitely still on a big learning curve. But having fun & that's all that matters.

5150 Nice and clean the hellboy looks great and gots lots of character!
KEEP'EM COMIN BROTHER!!

Love the mouth-teeth grind on the back breaker.
Keep them coming.

Thanks for the kind words. You guys got me all jacked so went home and burned stuff.

The back-breaker with a little charr on him...and NO, I did not paint the teeth, just sanded 'em.

And Hellboy got a little fire on him as well.

And here is a Marquesian I started drawing out last night after the burning commenced. I'm hoping to make some real progress on him this weekend

Mahalos to all!

That marq looks like a solid start RIGHT ON BRO!!!

So, had a nice relaxing weekend at the house, as it was too windy for the boat.

Sunday was tiki day, so first I drew it:

Then I cut it:

Then I torched & sanded it (as you can see, there's all kinds of tiki junk in my front yard):

My first trad Hawaiian deal. He's a shade under 2 ft tall. Way stoked with how it came out, think I'm going to do a bigger one.

AND...I went out to my secret spot (I love this place!!!!) & saw this solid 8 ft piece that was just begging to be liberated. Hoping to go back with my buddy's F250 & a saw here in the next day or 2. I was literally sitting in bed thinking about it last night. It will be mine.

Right on! looking good. You have the tiki fever.

getting pretty quik Love the new guy!!
Keep em coming 5150!!!!

LOVE the "Flames" on your Hellboy! Hell, boy, your tikis are getting Slammin'. Love seeing the time taken to get the smooth finish, keep it up!

I've been getting A LOT of response locally from my news story. Hoping to make enough money to fix my old Riviera! Here it is:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gTOo0N_t3oc

Made some progress on the new Marq.

I really dig this style & want to start doing more of them.

[ Edited by: pjc5150 2010-05-13 08:36 ]

Dude! Looking good! Saw you on the news. I heard of a Riviera body or parts for a 65. Someone mentioned it on the Damnation Speed Shop message board. You might want to register there and check in. Jon is the main moderator. I haven't done much carving recently, Just been too busy...and man its getting hot out there.
Tim
MBL

Hey Tim,

I actually have a parts car...just no money for the other stuff.

Hoping to sell a few tikis so I can get it done.

Busted out my 2nd Lono.

This one's a little taller.

Kinda busted this one out quickly for some friends of mine from South Africa that I was surfing with over the weekend. They're extremely stoked.

Cool! Its nice that they appreciate your tikis.
Many people i know think i should be carving bears.

Okee dokee,

Threw a little torch & sand on the Marq.

And a buddy of mine came over & shot some pics of me, the dogs & the tikis, and this is probably the best one.

That marq looks good!! Great job! I'm new to this tiki stuff - does the mouth on that marq go all the way around and join up at the back?..

(I thought you had a flyin dog there for a second till I saw he was atop a tiki!)

Have a Great Day!!

What a great photo of you, the dogs and the tikis! There's your new promo pic.

Very Nice pic !