first time carve, which tools best recomended?!

Hi everyone! i live out in AZ LOTS of palm trees here, i recently bought a tiki man for my little sister and have actually just gone nuts for it lol! I foud a downed palm tree on the side of the road and am going to cut up it up tomorrow morning =)i can get about 10 3ft stumps from this log! i have a chainsaw and disk sander. what other tools might i need to begin my journey of carving! tomorrow will be first attempt at this new awesome hobby any advice would be GREATLY appreciated! Ive been viewing people creations for HOURS on here getting some mental ideas! Thanks you Deemo!

Check out this 20 page thread, lots of info on tools.

http://www.tikicentral.com/viewtopic.php?topic=10451&forum=7

Unfortunately, many of the photos from the older posts are gone but there is still plenty of good info there.

Thank you very much, i am headed to get my stumps now!

I'd say your already off to a great start. All I had when I started was two bench chisels. Lot's of good advice on previously mentioned thread. Also, learn to use the search function. Looking forward to seeing your first carve.

get on craigslist or go to harbor freight and get yourself a cheap-o angle grinder, a decent chainsaw, and a set of good wood chisels.

I got an angle grinder and i also got a chainsaw attachment for the grinder its literally a round chainsaw very cool and i carved my first today i will post pics!also when using the angle grinder do you use the regular grinder disks? wouldnt they fill with wood material?

Yeah, that "chainsaw" attachment for the grinder is called a "lancelot blade", and be careful using it....they bite!

As far as disks I use the 60 grit flap disks (they have little sandpaper flaps on them), and usually slap a new one on every few pieces or so as they wear down / sap up / whatever.

And get some gloves unless you like living with your hands in a constant state of injury!

But definitely get yourself a cheap mallet and a few chisels & start experimenting with them. That is where the real, true, hand-cut looking detail comes, and in my opinion is the most rewarding part of the carve.

So post up some pics of your firstie!

Alright guys this is my second guy! His name Boomba haha! Any comments would be very appreciated . The suggestions given helped me a lot and I am very anxious to learn more!

This was the first one I carved out I carved a bowl into his head as well as boomba , drilled drain holes and sealed it so I can put a plant in it! I lined a coconut basket in it.

Real nice!

oops, double post

[ Edited by: 4WDtiki 2011-06-21 19:03 ]

You are off to a great start. I would definitely recommend getting a carving mallet and maybe a 2" flat chisel. You can do a lot of work with those tools.

Ok I will see if homedepot has one! I have a set up to 1inch I am going to try n use just chisels on a small palm stump tonight! Can't wait to get started! Thanks for the advice!