Tiki Carvings - jbensch

I'm pretty new to carving tiki's but here are a few examples. I'm still working on the large one, it needs quite a bit of detailing.

Comments are surely welcome.

I have a few more - considerably smaller made from aged maple from my backyard...I'll post a few more pictures soon.

Thanks for looking.

[ Edited by: jbensch 2012-06-22 04:44 ]

Wow nice work can't wait for the detail work.

This one was a request for a friend.

I used some dry maple from the yard.

Mapped out:

Finished:

Nice carves. They're lookin good. Should finish out nicely.

well done! dont stop!

Those look excellent!

Good work, I really dig the smaller one on the first pic and the maple one.
Out of curiosity, do you use the flexcut carving knife then the flexshaft (see on the last picture) for sanding?

Christophe

BTW, welcome on Tiki Central

[ Edited by: Cljha 2012-06-04 00:24 ]

Thanks Cljha! Yep, I use the regular Flexcut KN12 for everything but chipping out the open mouth and then sand with the mini-sand head and emory paper. I've been trying to figure out the proper speed for sanding...anything above 5 seems way too fast.

Just another small one I made from the dried maple:

I was given some dried cherry but my poor chisels can't seem to bite through easily. They lose their edge after just a few cuts. Hopefully I'll have some pics to share soon.

Thanks for looking!

dude, those are VERY good for early efforts....way better than my firsties for sure...

keep 'em comin', and welcome to the party...

I understand you on the cherry, it is a superb wood, but very demanding on the tools. I had my first try recently :wink:
Good luck

Be Water
Christophe

[ Edited by: Cljha 2012-06-05 11:26 ]

Excellent detail! I will be using some of your design ideas for my next carving. Keep it coming.

Keep on truckin

Thanks everyone! I have a few more and should have pics up soon. I liberated a larger piece of walnut from a downed tree last fall, it's been drying in my work-area for the last few months...it's just waiting for the blade. I'd love to get my hands on some palm, but it isn't the easiest wood to get here in Pittsburgh.

Yep, palms not a "burgh-thing"
:)

Just a couple more. Thanks for all the kind words!

Time to try a full body - I think??

AlohaStation - yeah, it's probably time to do a full body...I'm still practicing carving deep and getting clean lines.

hey bro, if you click on this and scroll about half way down on this page (which is page 94 of Buzzy's thread) he gives a short tutorial on how he cuts the body. I found it helpful back when I started doing bodies, hopefully it'll come in handy.

http://www.tikicentral.com/viewtopic.php?mode=viewtopic&topic=19078&forum=7&start=1395

keep on truckin!

Thanks pjc5150! It definitely gives me some ideas. I still have plenty on the one I'm working on right now, maybe I'll make it full size...

Very nice!

the under-bite puts the fierceness factor over the top. I like the way you do teeth, and I like the forehead crest bits as well. My wife just asked "what are you grimacing about?" I replied that I was grimacing like the tiki heads I was admiring. She thought I was staring at a spider on the wall or some such. That there is what you call a testimonial!

I've just started another - I'm going to use this one as a shift knob for my car.

It's cherry, roughly 2 1/4 x 5.

I'm may offer resin copies later, the product mimics the wood grain rather nicely.

Obviously it's still in the working phase, I have a lot to do...the cherry is kill my knives.

Another WIP shot. Nowhere near done, but you get the general idea.

Another one, it's getting cleaner and a bit more cut.

...almost done...

Here's one more of the cherry shift knob.

I need to finish the teeth, level out the base and then one more light round of sanding.

I added a body to my most recent maple tiki.

Not sure if he's laughing or just ate some bad shrimp the night before.

works either way :)

I've finally completed the cherry shift knob. Now it's time to find either a t-nut or rubber grommet and attach it to the shifter arm.

I've started something quite a bit bigger - the biggest I've tried to date.

It's still rough and I'm undecided on if the mouth should be open or closed. I have big plans for the sides/back - we'll see if I follow through.

Looks like a hard piece of wood! What is it?

It's maple - not as hard as the cherry.

On 2012-08-17 04:45, jbensch wrote:
I've finally completed the cherry shift knob. Now it's time to find either a t-nut or rubber grommet and attach it to the shifter arm.

NICE.

A quick one for a friend.

Another WIP - it needs quite a bit of sanding and quite a bit more work on the teeth and flames.

My brother found 4 old pins and peeled them for me - this is just the first.

I dig the bowling pins!

very cool!

Another quick one for a friend.

Just a couple more.

All of them are still in progress, the middle pin is far from done.

The pin on the right is finally ready for staining.

Very cool concept and I like the detail.

Beautiful work! Very creative use of pins!

Mahalo for sharing

McTiki

Beautiful work! Very creative use of pins!

Mahalo for sharing

McTiki

love the pin tikis

first pin is SICK!, sick sick!
:D

rest are very nice too

Carved a couple golfballs I found in the yard:

Thought I'd share.

Nice work, love the pins. The golf balls are cool too. Once I tried to carve the core of a softball but failed miserably and gave up. Keep up the chizzling.

cool work on the pins!

Nice work jbensch, especially like the golf balls-Wish the grew in my yard.

keep up the good work