First post in St. Pete, Any tips would be appreciated!

Greatings from St. Petersburg FL. My name is Shawn and I just finished my first tiki. I only used a hammer and some chisels. No pics yet but working on it. I started carving before I could find any information about do's and dont's. I used what looks like a queen palm that was freshly cut. I have a place where I can get as many palm logs as needed. But Im finding I need to dry the logs out for quite some time. If you guys could shot me any feed back while Im trying to read all the information on this site, I would greatly appreciate it. Like what is the best palm to use, do the logs have to be dried for a long period of time, and what can you do to help preserve the tiki. Or anyting else I should know. Feel free to email me or just post a reply. Thanks for looking and happy carving.

98% of you questions can be answered by a search of "creating" posts.

Use the search feature, and read, read read!

Hey from Madeira Beach, Know where to score palm logs? I could maybe help defray your costs a little if you want so sell me a couple Logs. I can pick 'em up anywhere in Pinellas. Thanks

Have fun and ask if you need anything. I live in Tampa

frogger, you can carve palms fresh cut, they may mold a bit as they dry, just spray with bleach water, also queen palms suck for carving, i use sable, coconut, washintonias mostly, to preserve mix 50/50 min spirits with polyurathane and do first coat to soak in good, after several coats of straight poly and thats good. hope the info helps, i carve mostly with a chainsaw, and have a tree service so i get plenty of materials lol

[ Edited by: blaydewizzard 2012-09-08 07:58 ]

welcome to the west coast florida club....the learning will never end.....ya always learn something with every carve....im with lakesurf...just start typing in the search section and and start read. i avoided alot of mistakes before i started from everyone here on TC...

MAN ITS HOT IN FLORIDA.....!!!!

hey man, I'm across the bridge in Tampa.

what's funny is that I personally PREFER to cut palms wet. I have found that as they dry, they get crumbly. Will once compared them to carving an apple, which I think is dead on.

And yeah, I'd stay away from queens palms. There are sables everywhere and they carve waaaay better.

If you need any help give me a shout.