Carving Post

Ok Octane... fess up! Where's all this great ash coming from that you're carving up?! :)

Great work everyone... TikiMaster, dazzeling as usual, incredible detail...

Octane, hot stuff... like the cut through the back of that tiki... a little something different...

[ Edited by: Lake Surfer on 2003-09-09 12:38 ]

were does all that ash come from? the hardware store, not sure if it is at every harware store. they are baseball bat blanks, they have them in other woods to, but they aren't all round like the ash. i can only find them at a specailty hardware store that sell exotic woods and moldings, it is called Higgins. they sell teak, mahagony, ebony and every other exotic wood you can think of. they are cheap like 20 dollars or less and about 3 1/2 feet long by 3inches in diameter. they are perfectly round, and are sealed on both ends, and never have cracks. i ussaully get about three tikis out of each bat, depending on if the tiki has a body, ect,ect...
they are good for times when i'm can't get any good size wood.

Wowza, Thems is some might fine looking tikis by everybody.
FastCo very creative sign you got there.
One of kind rules, nobody will be tripping into K-mart and picking up anything like that! Keep it up
Tikimaster, digging the detail of all of your work. I have a few monkeypod tikis, That type of wood seems to really lend itself to detailed work . where do you get your wood?
Octane, dang braddah, you have been busy. You have that Marquesan style nailed, er chiseled. Higgins huh? I may have to stop in there on my next cruise through Slo town at the end of the month.
I am just about finished with my first tiki done with my new palm chisels. Again, I have resorted to using marginal wood I had lying around. I got ansy and wanted to start using the new tools. Boy oh boy, My gouge is getting a lot of use. That seems to be the one I am reaching for most often. It is amazing how much of a difference good sharp tools can make.
Anybody else have a certain tyope of chisel they find that they use the most?
Keep up the carvin'
Chongolio

Tikimaster... your name says it all, nice! Octane, those legs are great, looks so precise and identical. have you made any lamps from that ash yet? Basement Kahuna... yes it was a gnarly day, my back is still aching from carving with no table. Also, i've been checking out the "tiki finds post", dude, you get the gnarliest stuff, your shack should be a museum of TiKi. I can't wait to see the Denny-Tiki, damn, do you know how special you are to be carving a tiki for Martin Denny, aloha nui gecko. heres a link to my tiki neck pendant, keychain, & hula dash diety
http://www.tikicentral.com/viewtopic.php?topic=5462&forum=5&0

Hey Now McDougal,

I knew that there must be someone else that is carving the small stuff. I've got the room for the big Tiki but no time. I've found that a good sharp knife and a small piece of wood fit in the pocket and can be used almost anywhere. Most of the carving that I do is blocks of tin for work. I've been kicking around a few ideas and may do a few pewter items for myself. Keep the chips flying!

here is a tiki i finished today, it's of da gecko in style, i hope da gecko don't mind but i had to try it as i love the style of this tiki. it's not up to Gecko standard i'm sure but there aren't too many people that can carve up to his standard.

first unstained

stained

[ Edited by: Octane on 2003-09-11 19:05 ]

How about a carving class at the next Hukilau for us neophytes? A little 2-3 hour Saturday morning/afternoon type thing.

I'd pay to learn from the Masters here.

Here's mine BIG 6 footers

All chainsaw baby

[ Edited by: jungletrader on 2003-09-14 11:18 ]

For those of you who haven't seen, yet another 6 footer

This one waiting for a small poodle to mosey on by.

[ Edited by: jungletrader on 2003-09-14 11:24 ]

Neato...things are always better in pairs and triples!

Hey Now Jungle,

Nice Tiki! I like the two-tone staining. How do they look when they age a bit?

Tim

Hey Midway, these are burnt style. They are actually already aged, cured, dried 100%, otherwise I would've used a crane or tractor instead of a dolly to stand them up.

Hey Now JT,

Very cool! Do you burn them before or after (or both) carving?

Looking goOd Jungle trader! I use to use black spray paint to get a burned look, without the time it takes to actually burn, then i sanded away overspray. Nice job yet again Octane, excited about school starting... ha ha, just kidding, just waste your free time in the Oceanic Art section of the library and it'll be better than a tOga pArty. here's my little TiKi-"d" nEcklace, up on the 'ol ebay: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=3242763039&category=29460

Nice job yet again Octane, excited about school starting... ha ha, just kidding, just waste your free time in the Oceanic Art section of the library and it'll be better than a tOga pArty.

thanks for the praise, and no i'm not looking forward to going to school as tiki carving time will be cut down by alot, it takes me about 2 days to carve a ash tiki from drawing to stain, but now it will most likily take a week, and that sucks. i will defenitly have to check out the library section, maybe get some good ideas and learn more about the oceanic region.

Jungletrader those tikis are cool, i like the burning technique it really makes the features stand out. i know what you mea on those cured palm logs, i think they lose 2/3 of their weight in water over a year.

Tikitony great looking pendent or neclace, good detail on such a small little tiki. i like the little skull he is holding

nice repro Octane. I just did a 5 footer like that for "Tikis" down in Waikiki. I'me glad you like that tiki. I remeber Monkey man doing a good job on that exact one too! I'm flatered.

JT, nice job on da Lery style tiki! they all look great!

TikiTony howzit, that charm is a killa! I like it I like it!

Tanks Geck, you dee onlay one to say dats a Leroy Style tiki. Dat's right braddah. Leroy carves bad ass stuff no doubt, love his designs.
Your carvings are.....auweee? Beyond words. Bootiful.

alright here is my latest carving, which will probably be my last for some time as my back is starting to kill me and i have to go back to school. i still have to get some abolony shells for the eyes.

needs some shells for the little head

need shells for the eyes

in a squatting position

You're about the most prolific carver I've ever seen. If you transfer that to bigger tikis you could make some megabucks on this coast.

While this was posted before, I didn't have him installed as a mail box then, so here he is in his final spot. The neighborhood kids are gaga over him, don't know about any of the adults, though.

[ Edited by: susane on 2004-01-20 06:21 ]

I did one a couple months ago that eats mail... he's five feet tall in the ground... it was a wedding gift to friends...

[ Edited by: susane on 2004-01-20 06:22 ]

As a non-carver I'm curious how much time it takes you carvers to turn out the beautiful work I've seen here.

I'm especially curious because I was very surprised to see that the seller of this ebay tiki claims that it took 200 hours to carve:

[ Edited by: Suburban Hipster on 2003-09-24 15:44 ]

Howzit Hipsta,

As low as 3 hours on for me. Depends on da kine.... detail etc. I think this carver spent time li'dat because of lack of carving knowledge and OJT behind da chizle. I think I got $45 for my second carving!!! I would have loved to get $800!! i wish'em luck.

I wish I knew da seller. I also stay in Kaneohe HI.

k'den shoots

200 hours? he must be including the time it took to grow the tree. JK, I'm with Gecko.

Well I haven't quite finished the one I started in May. (the one that almost took my finga) Maybe they are very s l o w :)

[ Edited by: Turbogod on 2003-09-24 16:39 ]

A little deeper (the body looks more scraped than carved), a little taller, and a little more experience would serve that one well. I don't think the product justifies the price at all.

not saying i'm in the top league among carvers on here but that is a long time. now as Gecko said the detailing and other factor effect the time, but 200 hours. i think i spent about 300-400hrs (excluding any drying times for stain or varnish) this summer carving arround 13-15 tikis ranging from 1-4 feet. i'm with Gecko and others on the price $800 and the reserve isn't met wow!

The eight foot mailbox tiki took me 50 hours from debarking to the final coat of urethane...

200 hours for that tiki is outrageous... and so is the price...

The seller is obviously not serious about selling it.

"It is very rare to come upon a real wood, hand carved tiki in this day and age" Gee, I wonder what you other carvers have been doing the past year or 2? What a crock!

[ Edited by: jungletrader on 2003-09-25 08:09 ]

[ Edited by: tikifreak on 2004-12-20 12:13 ]

Sounds like she's not aware of other carvers and their products. Innocent enough. Maybe Gecko could show her some tricks/tips.
Gecko, this might be an excellent student for you, what you were asking about. I'd partner up with you but I gotta raise my kids first.

dats da aloha spirit TF. Nice of you to email her to talk story about her niece's carving.

I could teach her but I don't know when I have time to teach. Sounds like she has a teacher already anyway. I could really use someone that already is good although I would still do what I can do for her and her new hobby.

Aloha
Have been carving small Tiki's by hand for a couple months now and came across a great score. Found someone chopping down 2 Coconut Palms about 15 feet each, with 24 inch diameter at trunk (Trunk is much fatter than top 13 feet), rest of tree about 12 inch in diameter. Got 4-4 foot logs about 12 inch diameter and 2-2 foot trunks about 24 inch diameter out of it. Beautiful wood, striaght, smooth ect... Very fresh. Each piece wieghs about 4-600 pounds. How much will they wiegh when fully dried? How long will it take? I have been through this Carving Post and garnered it's info. My only reference on the subject, any more help is Very appreciated. My first understanding was I would need to seal the cut ends to slow drying and prevent cracking. One post however mentions this is no use for Palms. My plan is to let logs dry 3-12 months, probobly try first one in 3 months. Leave bark on until carving, yes? Will not be using any power tools unless absolutely necasary. These were grown in South Florida, are there differences between these and the ones I from Hawaii? I'm used to carving fully dried Hardwoods, what don't I know I need to know? Have lots of Gouges, a good mallet and a chissel or 2, some good knives. Can't wait to carve into these but want to do them right, have great hopes for this wood. I would really appreciate any pointers with this wood. They will be stored in a open air garage, no rain will get in, but Florida's hot, humid envirement will be drying them. Should I do something to prevent mold now? I fear and am alergic to some Molds. Mahalo and hope to show you all one of these logs, carved, at next years Hukilau...my stomping grounds.

Topic locked.

Hi all, I'm locking this topic so that we can branch out and post our stuff in the Creating Tiki forum. I encourage all of our resident artists to create a topic dedicated to your work. Put your name in the title then and post replies to it when you have new stuff to show off. We'd do it for you but then you wouldn't be able to edit your own topic.

To copy your postings from this Topic to a new one:

• Find the reply you want to copy here in the Carving Post topic.
• click "edit" to edit the post.
• In the Edit screen, highlight all the text (you can do this by right-clicking in the text field and choosing "select all") then Copy the text.
• Go into the Creating Tiki forum and click on New Topic.
• Paste the text you copied from the Carving Post into the text field on the New Topic page.
• Submit your post.
• if you want to copy more than reply from the carving post into your new topic, you can do it by replying to your original post.

Mahalo, and thanks for being trailblazers!

~Hanford

[ Edited by: hanford_lemoore on 2003-09-30 00:55 ]

We'ved locked the carving post to the top of the Creating Tiki forum for everyone to see!

[ Edited by: hanford_lemoore on 2004-07-11 21:15 ]