New stuff added!!

GROG thought it was carved in Florida?

GROG funny cave dude.

Nice muddler man. Mahogany - how hard is it?? Like oak, pecan, sweetgum..? thanks!

People always ask me what I think is the best kind of wood for carving. The answer is always the same - FREE (or very cheap) WOOD! Will Carve and I hooked up with a craiglist seller this weekend. He was a nice guy, who had stored a deceased friend's wood shop in his garage for several years. The deceased wood worker was WWII veteran that survived the Battan Death March. There was a lot more available but that was the limit of our budget (for this trip). Scored some great tools, jigs, turning tools, and wood. Here's the wood I scored - guessing its mostly mahogany but there are some other interesting species in there too.

[ Edited by: AlohaStation 2015-09-28 08:32 ]

On 2015-09-28 08:31, AlohaStation wrote:
People always ask me what I think is the best kind of wood for carving. The answer is always the same - FREE (or very cheap) WOOD! Will Carve and I hooked up with a craiglist seller this weekend. He was a nice guy, who had stored a deceased friend's wood shop in his garage for several years. The deceased wood worker was WWII veteran that survived the Battan Death March. There was a lot more available but that was the limit of our budget (for this trip). Scored some great tools, jigs, turning tools, and wood. Here's the wood I scored - guessing its mostly mahogany but there are some other interesting species in there too.

[ Edited by: AlohaStation 2015-09-28 08:32 ]

I hear ya on the FREE part. I have lots of free oak and pecan. It's like stone when you take a mallet and chisel to it. I don't think I have enough cartilage in my shoulders left to consider those anymore. :lol:

Here's my take on a Moai Muddler. Needs to be sanded one more time.

Super!

Nice muddler...looks a little like George Washington. A George Washington Tiki! Only in America.

oh nice! very nice!

I'm with conga.

So I drove into the box of wood and pulled out what I think is mahogany?? WOW - great stuff!! More to come.

it came out of the box like that?! where do i get one of those boxes?

I'm a little behind on posting my muddlers, just need to take some photos. in the mean time here's something I just finished over the weekend. Its the beginning of new ideas - this one was practice. Back to palm fronds. Lots of new concepts - just need time to execute them.

Always beautiful Tom, even just a "practice piece". What kind of fronds do you use?

That's awesome Tom.

Crazy cool carving.

MDM - I use Royal Palm fronds. They are the largest we have in the area. Not me (just an image off Google), gives you a sense of size.

WOW.

Awesome
They are hard as heck to cut down
Can't imaging carving into 1
Awesome and hats off to ya
Keep up the great work

Jon

Hang10 - these fronds fall off on their own - no labor required (and the homeowners don't mind you taking them). They are surprisingly moist when the fall off - I like carving them both wet and dry (you get better detail when they are dry, but they are easier to cut when wet). Palm fronds are surprising good carving material. It carves just like palm. Knives are the tools of choice.

A new muddler in progress. This is carved in mahogany and has posed some interesting challenges. The grain in Mahogany has a tendency to swirl - this has a definite swirl to it. I'll be carving along nicely when all of the sudden the grain changes direction.

Some process pics...

First is to trim the stock wood

Then place it on the lathe and get it round

Shaping and sanding

Carving

You make it look so easy to make, love how it looks.

cool, i didnt know u did any wood turning.

BigT - I started carving because of wood turning. Many moons ago (around 2001) I was hanging out with buddies drinking in a garage. We started working with his lathe making pens (alcohol and power tools are a great mix). While making the pens I looked at it and decided to try carving a tiki (at the same time my day job required me to do several tiki themed illustrations - hence inspiration). First one was rough but I continued, and decided to buy my own lathe. Then a drill press, then a band saw, and so on... I've always loved working with power tools - this grew into a love of hand tools. While making pens I met Benzart and he got me hooked on the Hook Blade. Its been an evolution and I continue to find new things to do and try. Pens and Pencils, Letter Openers, Pepper Grinders, vessels, and now muddlers - the opportunities are endless. I strongly consider myself a student and will always be open to learning new things. The lathe started it all!

Here's an update...

I was asked to do another Marq muddler. I found a piece of wood in the pile that was marked "Spanish Cedar" (I think I got it from Benzart), this stuff was a dream to carve. This could be considered my fastest carving so far - I carved it while on my holiday road trip (approx 80mph). Waiting to finish...

Somehow I missed all the cool how to stuff on the previous page Aloha, you are a master!!

[ Edited by: cy 2016-01-05 19:26 ]

On 2016-01-05 11:22, AlohaStation wrote:
I was asked to do another Marq muddler. I found a piece of wood in the pile that was marked "Spanish Cedar" (I think I got it from Benzart), this stuff was a dream to carve. This could be considered my fastest carving so far - I carved it while on my holiday road trip (approx 80mph). Waiting to finish...

Sweeeeet. Now carving whilst traveling 80mph.... sounds like a good candidate for a video on safety practices! :D

I can testify to that.
I was talking to him on his cell phone
while he was doing it.

I got a new toy and started practicing on a some scrap wood. I became confident enough to break a reject and do some xperimenting. This is gonna be fun!

Gotta love new toys! I'm sure you'll be putting it to good use. Nice muddler too.

ive been wanting to try one of those

Great looking work. Congrats on the new toy. It is always amazing to see how a new tool can make carving a lot easier.

Excellent Muddler Tom, Your progress is Showing!

Man that palm frond is incredible. Love it. And I dig the character of the darker colored muddler. The angle of the eye gives it a nice touch of sinister that I really like. Great work!

Nice new toy, and some really nice detail! Those palm fronds are ridiculously cool work and the muddler is such an amazing piece that it looks like it is will self propel somebodies drink into next week!

After a month or two of harassment, WillCarve finally broke down and let me take a sweet chunk of pine home.

Here's the Cedar tiki all done. Carved in cedar it looks great and smells awesome. This Cedar was a real pleasure to carve, wish I had more!

[ Edited by: AlohaStation 2016-02-05 09:13 ]

That is a beautiful carve!

[ Edited by: Heath 2016-02-05 12:44 ]

niiiice. love the attitude he has.

A little something I'm working on...

Excellent as always Aloha!

That little guy is sweet!

This is me sort of sketching wood. I did it this weekend when I wasn't working on something else. Carved in a palm frond.

Nice "sketch"!

So I'm trying to carve my way through a full stem (at least the length that I cut - maybe 5'). This was carved last night watching TV.

On 2016-03-08 10:23, AlohaStation wrote:
So I'm trying to carve my way through a full stem (at least the length that I cut - maybe 5'). This was carved last night watching TV.

nice. surprised you still have all 10 fingers with those kinds of tricks! :P