Any Lava Rockers?

Hi,
I ‘m a new member and this is my first “Creating Tiki” post. I have been searching around for others who may be carving up Lava Rock Tikis. I have recently finished a mask and a Tiki figure carved from lava rock.
I have been wearing out tools pretty fast in the process. Man you should see the chisel and saws I used. They are pretty darn toasted, but lava is fun stuff to work with.
Has anyone here tried it yet?
I will try to get some photos up soon.
It has been really great reading all the posts from all the carvers! I would love to hear from other lava rockers.
Aloha
FlickOn _Tiki

Welcome FlickOn Tiki. I'm not sure anyone here has carved lava yet, though I know some have tried the areated concrete with nice results.
Post some pictures if you have any, we would love to see your work

here a link to one of those airated concrete forum. There are more too from the past. http://www.tikicentral.com/viewtopic.php?topic=6616&forum=7&12

Welcome, Flick. We are all anxious to see some pix of these tikis.

On 2005-04-05 23:02, FlickOn_Tiki wrote:
...I have recently finished a mask and a Tiki figure carved from lava rock.
...lava is fun stuff to work with. Has anyone here tried it yet?

Is it feather rock that you're working with? I have a large chunk of feather rock that I had "boxed out" & prepped for carving about 2 or 3 years ago, but got sidetracked & haven't gotten started back on it yet. I wore out a few sawzall blades and grinder discs in the process. But this stuff was nasty... sharp as glass, and little shards of it flew everywhere when I used the power tools. I wore goggles, but can only imagine the damage it could cause if a piece of it got in your eye. After working, I'd sweep my patio really well, but inevitably I would get a shard or two stuck in my foot when I went out later with bare feet. This was before we had our son. I'm afraid to even mess with the stuff now with the little one running around.

Have you had any of these problems with the stuff? How did you go about carving it? I'm just curious cause I'd like to finish my project if there's an easier way. Please post some pix if you can...

Mahalo,

A-A

A-A,
Sweet - a fellow rocker! Great to hear from you!
Well I guess I do not know what feather rock is. So it could be called that. ???
The rock I am working has light grey ,darker grey, and black in color with vein layers running through it. It’s is a pretty light weight rock. It has a grain direction to it if you look at the edge of it. The grain is wild and wavy on some pieces. The black layers are dense and splinter like glass. But the pieces I picked out are mostly like pumice rock with about 2% black layers. It is mostly crumbly layers with fine air pockets in various layer densities.
I could drill a whole clean through with an old screw driver. Yes this stuff is pretty nasty, but it is mostly dusty. I have been wearing eye goggles and a respirator. The dust is more like sand than like glass. I am sure it could do a number on your lungs.
A note to the Gods: No BAD KARMA LAVA was stolen from volcanoes to make these creations. I got the rock from a landscape place in San Jose, CA (on Monterey HWY). There I picked up 4 good chunks and I gave the dude a five spot for it.

A-A sounds like your rock is denser with harder layers of obsidian that splinters and shatters on contact with a masons bit.

To work this stuff, I tooled it with a masonry bit on a power drill, a chisel, a jewelers saw (small bow saw) and some crude steal tools made from pins and old screw drivers. This stuff does fly when hit with the power bit. But it mostly crumbles away when worked with a chisel. I gauge it out mostly by hand.

The work was started from 10 x 8 Cubic inches or so of rock - each. I will defiantly post pictures after I get a friend to flash some for me. I will post some of the tool carnage pics and raw materials pics of the rock as well.

Aloha
FlickOn

TeaKEY,
Thanks for the nice welcome! That is an interesting link to the aerated concrete forum. The way they described working the material sounds a lot like what I experienced working this "Pumice Like" lava rock material I found.
I have made some stuff with brick but not concrete - Yet.
Keep-On Chipin-On
-FlickOn

Hey FO.

Ive been working with a Clay called Soldate60 mixed with Coffee Grounds Paper Fragments and Sawdust. It's tough to throw, and looses it's "Plastisity" but should have a nice pummicy feel when it's buisqued.

There is a fellow who sells lots of carved volcanic stuff in San Jose. I think it's from Bali. They work in sand stone or the black ignius. He has these large Ka's made that run about 500-600. for a 4 foot tall head, that reasonable.

The guys who make them just use sharpend re-bar.

His warehouse is called Pacific Blue Traders, and it's right bye the sharktank...only a few blocks from "WORKS"

Cheers

Yeah Flick - that's feather rock for sure. I've read up on it a bit. They say to stay away from the pieces with pink ribbons running through it. Those veins are really hard. The light grey/dark grey pieces are way easier to sculpt. Like me, it's dirt cheap. 22 cents a pound was about what I paid I think and that's what attracted me to it for carving. I just wanted to try out a small piece, but was dreaming of doing a huge Aku Aku Easter Island head with it. But that's a pretty big piece. MAybe someday, who knows.

I recently saw an ad in "Skymall" magazine for planters made from feather rock. Basically someone hollowed out a piece & put some dirt & a plant in it, then marked it up about 10,000%. Not a bad idea, really, because this rock retains water like crazy. When I hit it with the grinder disc the surface turned to volcanic mush because it had been sitting out in the rain.

Lokking forward to those pix...

On 2005-04-07 00:24, Gigantalope wrote:
Hey FO.
Ive been working with a Clay called Soldate60 mixed with Coffee Grounds Paper Fragments and Sawdust. It's tough to throw, and looses it's "Plastisity" but should have a nice pummicy feel when it's buisqued.
/quote]
What a trip -So do you mix Paper, Coffee and the sawdustinto it your self?
Or is this a mix you buy and just add water? Or is it premade.
Do you carve it? How do you fire it?
GiG,
This sounds like the strange ass stuff I make. I have been known to make paper out of strange and fun materials. Such as palm bark and pommigranite juice for color.
-FlickOn

Regarding Feather Rock:
A-A,
Thanks for identifying it as such, now I know what I am working with!

I was reading about a technique of carving feather rock using a power nozzle on a garden hose to blast away the rock. They say it makes easy work of it. Still eye protection and full body protection is required. That’s what I call the Full Body Condom.
I’ll give it a go when the weather gets a bit warmer.
Aloha
FlickOn_Tiki