Trader Tom's Carvings

Well, here's some pics of my very first Tiki carving. Geedavee was kind enough to donate a log and let me use some of his tools over the last couple of weeks.

I still need to spray a coat of marine varnish on it, but it's basically done. I'm pretty happy with it, considering I haven't carved anything since my boy scout days.

Now I just have to find some logs. I hope to have more to show really soon. Thanks for looking!

[ Edited by: trader tom 2010-06-21 23:57 ]

Nice job there scout. I think you were keeping your talent a secret all this time. Isn't there a palm in your front yard? Ummmm....

That sucker's got a set of nostrils on him! You should call him "Smelly".

Good job.

1st tiki?! Good works!! :)

Wow! Great job, Tom! Especially for a first attempt!

Are you going to be carving regularly now? Would be great to see your untapped tiki talents!

Thanks everyone! I'd love to do some more carving. I'll have to keep my eyes open for more logs. I'm only constrained by what I can fit into the back of my Murano.

Outstanding first tiki!

Wow. Great job, Tom. Can't wait to see what you come up with next! (since the title of this thread is "Trader Tom's CarvingS"!!) :)

very nice first effort, tom!

The tiki is pretty cool, Tom - Love it!

Keep on with these projects. I know if you are as passionate about carving as you are with mixology - then brother the sky's the limit. RIP IT UP!

Great to see a pic of it now after talking about it last night at the RR. It looks awesome! That's some fine handy work you've done for the first time. As for more logs... how about craigslist and the free section?

Well, I got a new palm log, but it's not nearly as good as my first one.

I let it sit for a few months to dry but it didn't appear to do much good.

It's still really wet and hairy and stringy. It was so hard to strip off the bark, though, that I refuse to give up on it.

I started the carve yesterday and it was carving like a pumpkin, it was so wet. I'll let it sit for another week or so and start again when I get a chance. I fully expect it to split horribly when it dries out, but maybe it will make a good outside Tiki or a future beach burn candidate. It's all good practice.

Here's some pics before I started carving...

Well, we had that rainy spell in LA and the log got covered in mold. I sprayed it down with bleach solution a few times and once I got rid of most of the mold I saw that it was cracking pretty badly all the way around. At this point, I declared it a bad log and threw it in the dumpster.

On to the next project...

I went to my local lumber yard and picked up an eight foot long poplar board that I'm going to carve and will eventually go on the front and sides of an old bar that I have.

The bar was a gothic themed wine bar with a trim piece of repeating gothic arches, but I hope to give it a bit more of a Tiki flair.

Here are my sketches on the board, based on the Tiki Farm Logo Tiki Mug. More progress to follow. At least I won't have cracks and mold to contend with.

hint - if the end of the log is soft and spongey when its wet,
it will get spongier and stringy when it dries.
Thats what I have learned.

BTW, nice looking 1st carve !

Thanks, Kino!

I've got a couple more leads on logs and I'll try to pick a better one for my next carve.

Here's some progress shots on the bar board. I decided to carve a bamboo pattern for some weird reason. It's damn hard. I should have just bought bamboo! Even though there are a lot of mistakes I'm going to keep going till it's finished and see what it looks like stained. I'll use a dark stain on the background and a light stain on the foreground parts for definition. I may not put it on the bar but I'll use it for something.

Cool! Can't wait to see it progress!

AHH, The THRILL of that First tiki and a good one too, I wish my first was half that good. Keep chopping, every one is practice for he next!

Thanks, guys!

I have a 3 foot palm log and a 5 foot palm log seasoning right now on my back patio with plenty of tarps to keep the rainy weather off. I'll wait for them to dry out a bit before I tackle another Tiki pole carve, but in the meantime I'll work on the board project and post pics when I'm done.