Lake Tiki - 8/23/2013 - Red Cedar

4 hours?!?! Who needs chainsaws!!! Nice!

Very cool looking tiki!!
Love the chisel marks!

Dave, you are blowing my mind with this 4 hr carve.

Really nice "quickie" Dave....I love the big chompers! Your finishing skills
are the envy of the neighborhood.

Beautiful Pices HOw do you get that certian look with the stain
And what type of chisels do you use?
Thanks in advance brahda

The roughness of these last two is very cool!!! Nice work!!

Put the wraps on a couple new pieces today. It is a new collection that I am bringing to Festiki in Ohio next month.

Surf Tikis
34" H x 10.5" W x 3.75" D

Each board is stained and then carved.
Hand carved half log tiki.

Hawaiian

Tahitian

[ Edited by: Lake Surfer 2010-07-15 18:06 ]

Thanks drasticwagon!

Bill, many thanks! I find the chisels the "less dangerous" route for carving. :wink: I did use a chainsaw to make the plunge cut through the mouth though.

Meheadhunter, many thanks! I hate sanding, thus the tool marks! :)

Seeks, ditto on your Stub carve... mindblowing. Thanks!

Conga... appreciate the props my friend! I love the finishing moves almost as much as the carve!

tikigodz... can't give away all my secrets! :wink: Experiment! As for chisels, nothing out of the ordinary... straights, gouges and sweeps.

Captain Jack, thanks for stopping by, appreciate the kind compliment!

Great stuffs Lake!

I had fun kicking it with you at Ohana - let's do it again next year. :wink:

On 2010-07-13 23:23, Lake Surfer wrote:
Chop, chop!

Four hours! You chop like a machine Dave!
Love your work!

On 2010-07-15 23:54, laojia wrote:
Four hours! You chop like a machine Dave!
Love your work!

Thank you my friend!

Sometimes you just need to get down and dirty with 'em!

A better workout then any health club!

Great surf tikis! it's always a pleasure to see what's new around here

Love them Dave!

On 2010-07-15 18:05, Lake Surfer wrote:

Hawaiian

Tahitian

Dave, these are way cool!
Have you considered putting color in the white parts? I can see the hibiscus a nice red/orange!

Clarita, Craig and Bill, thanks for stopping by! And thanks for the compliments!

Bill, my wife did mention it to me last week when she saw them finished. So I have considered it, and I think when I make some smaller ones I am going to
add some color to them. I'll post up when I do them!

Working on some really cool Marquesan tikis right now... photos soon!

Man you are kikn ass and takn names Love the boards!!!

Thanks tikigodz!

I've been chipping away at a Marquesan tiki this week. I already have one a 1/4 of this size in Cedar carved and finished. I found a nice slice of Ash for this larger one.

I sort of tippy toed through this one trying to figure out some new cuts... typical of a new style of tiki for me. I'd like to go a bit deeper in some areas like the legs.

28" H x 7.5" W

A few things to finish carving, then he gets stained and aged.

WOW Dave! Awesome new carve! Looking forward to doing business with you.

Chris

Wow Dave! you have nailed this guy.

That is sweeeeeeet!! Looks GREAT!!!

Thanks guys! I appreciate the kind words.

Top-of-the-bar Marquesan tiki you got there Sir.
I love the way you made the nose.

Mahalo,

Benjamin.

Each stroke of the chisel is efficient... BRAVO!

J. (From your french fan club)

Lake Surfer, your work is really fantastic. I like the touches (the surfboard). I have a question. You mention your Marquesan is ash. How is that to carve? I just got a log that is ash and it is damn heavy. I know they use it to make bats, but is it tough? I just finshed two large tikis. One is of oak, not to bad to carve, but the other was made of maple and it was not much fun. Where does the ash rank?

Thanks.

Benjamin and Jérôme... thanks! Always good to hear from my fellow French carvers!

Benjamin, this nose was fun, and a nice change. I'll be using it again on another piece I'm sure.

Grand Poobah, I appreciate the kind compliment on my work!

I really do love carving Ash, and I have a bunch of it lately since they were cutting trees down in the local park! :wink:

It is my favorite hardwood right now, although when I can get it I like to carve Birch also.

As you mentioned... quite heavy, and yes it is tough. It can sometimes be brittle at times on the outside layer under the bark, but it hold a clean edge the deeper you go.

I think I tried Oak once, very hard. Maple is also hard, and for me the grain is frustrating. Ash tends to run nice and straight... easy to carve.
I do prefer young trees though in the hardwoods, around 8" in diameter or smaller.

As far as Softwoods, my favs are Yellow Pine, Cedar and Basswood. Again, nice straight grains!

After nearly getting flooded out of the basement from last week's record setting rains, I was able to get back in the workshop and finish some things.

The big and small of things...

Large Marquesan - 28" H x 7.5" W - Ash

Small Marquesan - 19" H x 5" W - Cedar

Chicago show this weekend at Chef Shangri-La!

http://www.tikicentral.com/viewtopic.php?topic=37010&forum=4&15

Lot's of great things for sale!

Goota get the stain tips! Those look Great!

Cool...
Love your work!!

Thanks guys!

Whoa, those rule. I need one of these!

lakes,kool stuff as usual,Im yet to see a copy but congratulations on the tikimag feature look forward to check'n it out.
Im with 4WD on the use of colour,some rich tones would look waykool.Hope ya well. Cheers Watango

I love your work. Theses two are really cool. I hope that maybe you could offer a bit of advice as I think we both don't have the same choices of wood as some of the other carvers. My belief is that palm wood is soft (i don't know this for sure) and the grain isn't as prominent as oak, maple etc. Being a woodworker first I have always tried to show off the grains in any furniture I make. However when it comes to carving I can't seem to achieve the same consistent results especially in hard to reach places. My problem becomes a splotchy stain. Some areas, the grain pops, but others, no. I sand like crazy, (both power tools and by hand) and sometimes I will stain it, hate it, sand it down again and re-stain. This doesn't seem like a proper method. Do you forgo the grain look by purposely showing off the chisel marks? If not how do you manage the tight spaces? How far do you take a grit? I get frustrated when a stain seems to set back what I thought looked good. Any help by you or anyone would be appreciated.

Aloha Dave,

Got my mask today! Total coolness!

Got to get some pictures of Niho on here this weekend.

Keep up the great carving!

Best,
Chris

Watango, many thanks for the comps! Gonna work on a bunch of experiments as soon as the summer vending wraps up for the year!
Watch for 'em!

Grand Poobah, thanks for your kind compliments! I have not worked much with Palm... maybe carved 3 tikis in the last 9 years outta Palm. Most pieces I have tried have been too dry and crumbly. If I could get a good piece I'm sure I'd be stoked on it as it looks like you can make pretty quick work out of it.

With splotchy stain, sometimes it happens, more times than not with lighter stains. In Pine, a sappy piece of wood isn't going to take stain well and will reject it since it is already full of sap. Sometimes different layers of wood react differently with the stain. When prepping a log, try to get the surface layer uniform before carving, although when you carve you're going to get different depths anyhow. Depending on the tree's growth, those layers are going to be thicker or thinner then an average year.

A good tip to get grain to pop is going over your finished piece with a blowtorch... just check out old Witco work for that!

I don't stress about grain much anymore, nor do I stress about sanding either. My style has settled on the tool mark look, something that I have strived for for sometime.
Sanding bummed me out. I just carve and enjoy it, and sometimes I get really happy surprises with grain, like a neat pattern around an eye or mouth. All depends on the wood.
I've been carving lot's of Ash lately, and that's got some wonderful grain to it.

I'd say just go with it and have fun. If you strive for perfection in your woodworking, go a little looser on the logs. They are a lot more organic then furniture.

Good luck!

Chris, good to hear he arrived safe! Enjoy, and thanks again! Looking forward to the pictures!

Hey Dave, awesome work for this two marq'! We recognize your style in the first glance.

I allow myself here to a few words to Grand Poobah. For my part, I find that when the grain is represented does not need stain... But it depends crucially on the type of wood, more wood is soft, the fewer need to be sanded. then it is fewer grain. More hard woods and the grain are more pronounced and will be interesting...but harder to carve. Try to find some wood relatively easy to carve with beautiful grain. As such walnut, ash also seems to be a good example, here you don't need stain. White woods(birch, basswood,..) look better with stain, it's just a opinion. For manage the tight spaces, don't sand just a neat cut with good sharpening toolz.
Hope this help!

J.

Thanks for all of your ideas and explanations. I really appreciate the time it took to respond with some excellent feedback

Have a good one

Lake, I'm Really liking your In the round carvings, they drag more detail out of you and your chisels. One day I'd love to see you go totally Berzerk on one..Nice stuff.
PooBah, on the splotchy stain, I've met that when I findend grain showing in a carving, Every line you carve across the grain opens up the end grain, like the top of a foot, leg, nose and all those details and those areas will not take stain like the full on side grain, at least that's always been my experience. Hope this helps a bit.
Thanks lake for a spot on your thread!! :o :D :P

Aloha guys, and thanks for the compliments!

I spent the weekend in Dayton, Ohio vending at Festiki.

It was great meeting and talking with everyone at the event! We had a few thunderstorms roll through, but survived it all unscathed for the most part.

I was able to carve a really special chunk of Yellow Pine my Dad cut for me. Stretched the carve out over 6 hours so everyone could watch the progress.

He's home now, and I'll be coloring him up Tuesday.

Ku
31" H x 7" W
Yellow Pine

[ Edited by: Lake Surfer 2010-08-17 00:12 ]

Awesome! One of these days I'll get to one of your exhibitions.

that is fantstic!

Thanks guys for your kind compliments again!

Its been a busy summer full of tiki events for me. I started the year on the West Coast and I'll be finishing the year on the West Coast again! The wahine and I are looking forward to spending some time in the Bay Area and vending at the Forbidden Island Parking Lot Sale. I had a blast there back in 2008 and can't wait to get back!

Before that, I've got the Dairyland Surf Classic here in Wisconsin on Labor Day Weekend. The Largest Gathering of Freshwater Surfers on Earth!

I was surprised to open up the local paper the other day and see one of my tikis from Foundation Tiki Bar staring back at me. The paper did a story on tiki themed bars and restaurants in the area. There's a shot of one of my canoes on the wall also.

Lot's going on in the studio these days too as I get ready for the next couple of events.

Here's a Maori influenced guy I did on Wednesday... A chunk of Ash 20" H x 5" W

Today we spent some time down at the beach, so I brought along a chunk of Birch to work on. 27" H x 7" W

Made some decent progress on this Tahitian influenced tiki... super hard birch and a bit difficult to carve sitting on the sand.

I'll do some more cleanup work on him and deepen some areas tomorrow.

[ Edited by: Lake Surfer 2010-12-05 22:57 ]

Everything is looking great! I like your pic in the article as well, make a cool frame for it Lake!

On 2010-08-21 20:40, Lake Surfer wrote:

Lake, this is killer! Love the design and the finish. Do I detect two tones there? A reddish and a black? HOW did you do that?! A little torching here and there? Nice application, if so.

The tattooing really puts this one over the top.

Many thanks guys... really appreciate the compliments!

Big T, you're spot on. Something I've been playing around with on my Maori pieces. A little torch on the grain and some Sedona Red.
Actually, 4 colors going on... there is a Sandstone and a Burnt Umber wash over all that... it got a little washed out in the photo.

A piece with a lot of depth in person.

The tats are a fun addition... I'm trying to work more of them in, but not get too nuts with them.

On 2010-08-23 22:08, Lake Surfer wrote:
Many thanks guys... really appreciate the compliments!

Big T, you're spot on. Something I've been playing around with on my Maori pieces. A little torch on the grain and some Sedona Red.
Actually, 4 colors going on... there is a Sandstone and a Burnt Umber wash over all that... it got a little washed out in the photo.

A piece with a lot of depth in person.

The tats are a fun addition... I'm trying to work more of them in, but not get too nuts with them.

Thanks for expanding on that. Very expertly done. Just the right amount of torching and just the right amount of tats to give it a little extra pizzazz. :)

I've got 3 chunks of Yellow Pine that are real choice pieces. The first was carved at Festiki a week and a half ago. I grabbed the second piece tonight and carved this guy out of him. I call him "Kona Ku" and he comes in at 37" H x 5.5" W. He's inspired by the tikis at the Isle of Refuge.

Went for some big depth on this guy.

Finishing on Wednesday...

[ Edited by: Lake Surfer 2010-08-28 22:15 ]

DUDE! You are a MACHINE!!

Fantastic stuff. GROG like.