Cammo's Corner - Volcanoes of the World

Gauguin...the cat's the father of the midlife crisis as well - right? Left everything...moved to the islands...spent the rest of his days painting naked women...yup, Island paradise - he lived and breathed the South Pacific right on the cutting edge way before most. It was the 50's and 60's that caught up with him. If I remember right, VanGogh was one of his biggest fans...he idolized the man.

That ebony stain is an interesting choice Cammo. I really like the direction your going with your work brother...

Cammo, I see what you were talking about the other day. And yours is Looking Great! Keep it up and Thanks for posting his Awesome stuff!

I've got to chime in on how much I've enjoyed the art history lesson and all the pics, as well as your carvings.

This is all sort of an anti-art-history lesson cause it goes against what's usually taught. Only very recently have Primitiva carvings been (very slowly) seen as being obviously important to Western art.

Anyway, it's glossed. Three coats, still drying, fine sanded with 400 grit emery between coats, like 4 days of watching paint dry.

The poly is still sort of milky on the sides, but I think that goes away....

Cammo: Are you the 21st century tiki version of Buck Rogers in the 25 century? That carving is going to be worth a fortune in 2117!

Buzzy Out!

Very Nice, sleek, stylish and classy looking piece.

I'll post a final shot of ZorMok and it's children later, I'm on to the next projects - a mask and a MONSTER LOG.

Here's the Monster Log - it's the stump of a fan palm that guarded the Hwy 5 entrance to Pacific Beach here in Merry San Diego for years and years. It died, and I spotted a tree servive chopping it up. A quick phone call later, and Buzzy rushed over to grab the stump part - it was way too big for my car.

The problem is, it's a freakin' MONSTER. It's big, ugly, heavy as hell and coated with a 3 inch thick hide of bark that growls when you try to scape it iff. Draw knives won't touch it, they sort of bounce off like bullets from Superman's chest. There's Gman's foot and the leetle teeny utility knife I've been using to saw away the husk.

It just won't come off. I'm down to actually chiseling it off a section at a time with my scoop chisel. It's giving off this creepy sand/dust and seems to be sprouting hair wherever I cut it.

Here it is, ominously rising out of the mist;

Laytah.

i sadly think what you have there is a TOSSER. I got one of those from a friend of mine..it was in her backyard and was totally waterlogged when we got it-weighed about 150 lbs and was HORRENDOUS..left it in the garage for like 3 mos. and then attacked it..got fairly far down and had something deecnt carved WHEN...
suddenly every time i would start a LITTLE bit of refinement the damn thing would just CHUNK OFF with these large HAIRY INOPPORTUNE bits ..it required STOPPING when the possibilities of destroying what was there got out of hand..i think it actually ROTTED too far in the drying process

or i could be wrong

Dude, Moondoggy may be right...this is that corky one I stripped...

I'm gonna see this one through. Don't worry, Cammo has a plan....

That palm is crazy it looks like a dead animal.

Rick, why is my name on that log???

cammo that log looks like a wooly mammoths foot

It ain't a wooly mammoths foot cause its too BIG! I swear it was breathing this afternoon, though.

I'm calling 911-TIKI about it right now.

HELP!!!!!

kewl schooz :D

Big nasty log.....

Grande gracias to Buzzy who rocketed out of bed this morning and dashed over in answer to my All Points Bulletin 911-TIKI call.

Well, actually he fed the dog first, watched TV for a while, checked on how much Colonial Maple he has in the pint can, cruised ebay, then decided he needed to go to Home Depot and stopped by my place on the way. But for Buzzy to make a house call - thanks man.

Here's what was tried;

650 horsepower planer. No dice. Barely scratched it.

Grinder. This was almost as long and slow as hacking it off with my chisel, but it took the bark off by disintegrating it into powder.

Then it ATE the grinder. No kidding, it burned out Buzzy's grinder.

So Buzzy looked at it a long time and meditated, and he remembered hearing somewhere that Leroy would burn the hair off in bad cases. We tried that with a cheesy propane torch, and it sort of worked. Then I hacked at it with a draw knife, which sort of worked too.

(My neighbor thought we were crazy. When we started burning the log she literally ran into her house.)

Here it is, I can't believe this f*%#ing log.

Laytah.

lets pray that its worth all the trouble!!!

good luck!

Cammo, I know you're with me when I say:" I absolutely REFUSE to give up on this log!"

I just tried the grinder and it works again. It was playing "possum." I think that the on off switch melted or something. Unlike Wheeler's though, it didn't melt on the "on" position. I have to bang on it a little to get it going, but it has some life in it still...Might have to bring it back over for the rematch soon, with a little mapp gas this time. Call me when the neighbor lady leaves...

Buzzy Out!

Dam ! Woolly Mammoth Kill Here.

Who said anything about giving up?! Who runs this planet, anyway? What's smarter, Monster Logs or Human Beings??? Huh????

The whole time it was trying to kill us with powder-fine bark powder I was thinking -

"F%$# YOU, LOG. You will bend to my will and I shall laugh over your dead, dry, finely carved bones."

On 2008-05-29 18:45, Cammo wrote:

Here it is, I can't believe this f*%#ing log.

:lol: funny post - Im sorry to laugh but this is slap-stick & made my day! :lol:

That sure is one reluctant and ugly beast - I hope whatever is eventually torn from its hairy heart will reflect the unique story of its creation. 'Ku-asimodo'?

Dont give up - explosives? uzi? combine harvester?

Draw blade?

[ Edited by: GROG 2008-05-29 20:41 ]

The first time I tried the draw blade it kept skimming off the hairy parts like a toboggan going down snow. It actually works if you use the blade like a two-handed hatchet, Lizzie Borden style;

HACK and pull,
HACK and pull....

like that. Gimme one more session and we'll see who da boss.

Good to hear Buzzy's Buzzer is still spinning. I felt responsible.

Haven't heard a peep out of the neighbor. Nice.

That thing doesn't need judicious application of power tools, it needs an exorcism! Find yourself a powerful kahuna. :P

p.s. Buzz, Harbor Freight tools are like condoms!
use it once and........

As wacky as this sounds, are you guys using the right remover?

"Made in France" hee hee hee heee!

WELL? Does the Log STILL have Hair?? Did the log defeat the Buzz Master?? We are all waiting on the edge of our seats?

OK, Benz & everybody - here's the update.

Both Buzzy and Our man in Gonzoland, Billy Crudilly, showed up today to take a few hacks at the Monster Log.

First Buzzy slid the chainsaw all along the remaininmg bark - it worked, it pulverized the stuff, but it still took a while. The ML doesn't go down easy. This is our SIXTH session de-barking it.

Another view of the process.

Then we hacked at it with Billy's draw knife.

Hack, hack...

Here's the problem up close - this is what Evil Monster Hairs look like. Even if you burn them off, they remain as burned stumps:

Hi Billy -

This off-cut rolled out into the street. We thought it was funny. It rolled real good.

Billy goes at it. This isn't the ML, he brought his own.

And more. The driveway was getting real messy right about now.

And back to tyhe Monster Log, which has visably shrunk without its protective husk. It sweet underneath, I'm going to round off the edges and thin the bottom. This is gonna be NICE.

Oh yes, it will dance a fine jig on the tip of my knife, soon, so soon my sweet.

Right On! Looks like a good time. About time you all
got ahead of this stump :)

That definitely looked like a brawl!!!

Monster Log 5; Cammo's team 1!

That log'll sit up and purr for us, now. Good, fun chop today, Cam. GREAT food, too! See you in the AM......now, it's off to work, protecting the country from the scum of the earth.

Glad to see you finally tamed the beast guys! Who wouldve guessed there was such a sweet log under all that shag?

offcut roll good.. :lol:

"Monster Log 5; Cammo's team 1!"

There's only one winner, and it ain't the log.

I have plans for that log, oh yes my pretty. The dance has just begun and it is naked, just the way my sharp knives like it....

Lookin goooood! draw knife you say? good for cleaning logs?

I have a ML that is challenging my patience as well. I have an unlimited supply of Sabal/cabbage palms from my MTB trail project. The problem is that they all have about an inch of Palm Fuzz under the bark. Grinder doesn't work, chainsaw doesn't work, drawknife is the only thing that seems to work well and mine is an old P.O.S. My log is 12' long and has taken several hours to strip!! The wood under is awfully nice tho :)

Yup, draw knives work, but its long slow and sweaty. Go at it in layers.

AlohaStation - is there any kind of REALLY heavy duty planer out there, like a gas operated lawnmower engine kind of thing? That's the only thing I can think of. Maybe talk to a tree service place (or lumberyard?) and ask if they have anything like that, you could pay them to do all the logs you have then just let them dry in a spaced stack.

This one stump just about killed three guys.

http://www.logwizard.com. :D

On 2008-06-03 16:24, 4WDtiki wrote:
http://www.logwizard.com. :D

Holy S**T!! That tool ROCKS!

Really wished i knew about that earlier...

AlohaS - Holy CRAP lookit that log! Do it! Carve that toothpick!

Has anybody actually tried that chainsaw planer thang????? What is that thang?

Asparagus, anyone?

Progress.

There's Gman's foot -

I'm slimming down the bottom, rounding the top off and making her more - well, shapely. All with a draw knife used as a planer. What ya think she's gonna be?

And Billy's at it again. He ripped through this in 1 & 1/2 sessions.

First Tiki in Outer Space?