Redwood Burl Moai Profiles

I have a little story I'd like to tell about Redwood Burl that carves so well. Stripes of colors, swirls of gold, prove to me backyard art can be sold.

The first one went to my sweet, sweet wife on her office wall protecting her from strife.

Hopefully, Moai gods don't come to bite me for carving their profiles while being a Haole.

Enough of the poetry.

One day while up at a friends ranch to pick up a big ten foot * two foot log, I came across this thin slab of Redwood burl.

It was just screaming out to me to make it a Moai profile, due to its unusual shape.

It has been super soggy in my neck of the woods this year so I was looking for some little carving action to do in my backyard while my little one is napping.

I am fortunate enough to have two carving days a week, but lately those have been spent up in my mountain carving retreat, in the pouring rain, carving 3 ten footers for a large order.

The neighborhood gets a little edgy when I chainsaw carve for hours on end. Therefore, I try to keep the noise level to a minimum amount of time. These little mask are the perfect solution since I can keep the noise factor to 30 minutes. After the noisy part, it is mostly hand sanding and oiling.

Thanks for reading,
Will
sctikis

[ Edited by: SCTikiShack 2006-04-12 16:05 ]

[ Edited by: SCTikiShack 2006-04-12 16:16 ]

Your tikis and carving style are always so crisp and clean. Every line, and deep at that, just flows gracefully to where it needs to be. Impressive.

JP

Nice stuff Will. I have Missed seeing your carvings, where ya' been?
Beautiful redwood burl, great Moai.

Those Moai look beautiful. The stain on the dark one is perfect.

Dude, that's the Sh*#!

gotta agree and toss my comps in here too....very cool TikiShack....and the big tikis look
like they're gonna be very nice too....keep em coming.

M

[ Edited by poptiki on 2022-10-12 04:57:40 ]

THose burl carvings are awesome and those 10 footers are the FO-shiznit!

What I find interesting is that whenever I look at the redwood burls I have in my back yard, all I can think about are table tops. It NEVER dawned on me that you could carve a tiki relief from them. I think I need to step out of my little box.... Great work, man seriously top notch!

You cruzin' down to oasis?

Great wood!....Great work!.......schhhhwweeeeeeeeeeetttttt! How does one just happen up on a piece of burl??

JohnnyP,
Thank you, luckily you aren't looking at them closely. It seems like I can sand forever and there are always still places that have imperfections.

Benzart,
I have been working like a dog. Everyday I am either sanding or carving. Lately there has been a lot of demand for larger tikis in the 10-20 foot realm. It has been challenging moving around 1000-200o lb tikis. Fortunately, I have access to these logs and to some heavy equipment. You will see more of me in the future and I have several other tikis that I will post soon.

Finkdady,
For some reason the shape of the Moai is very elegant. I have been enjoying being able to seal these burls with danish oil. It seems to bring out the colors and is a lot less toxic than polyurethane or marine varnish.

GMan,
From one chainsaw carver to another thank you. I think that we have proven that you can bust out a clean tiki with a chainsaw and lots of sanding.

Congatiki,
I love the comps. Large tikis seem to be the way my carving is heading. It is a good feeling burying your saw into a nice large chunk of wood. The large tikis in the pics aren't as deep as I would normally make them because they have to be split in half and wrapped around a 6 inch support beam.

PopTiki,
I always try to make every new tiki better than the last one. Unfortunately, sometimes they just don't seem to cooperate, but these ones are coming along. Thank you, it is people like you that keep me posting topics onto this forum.

Polynesiac,
How has the little left off of the rock at Royal Palms been? Up here it has been a lot of stormy victory at sea stuff. You should definitely make a tiki out of the burl. The finer you sand it the better the swirls come out. I have been going up to 1500 grit. What's great about burls is that a little danish oil seems to do the trick of sealing it. Have fun with your new project. I will be heading down there sometime soon. I made my sister a 6 footer for her wedding present and the year marker is about due. I'll look you up.

Surf-n-turf,
Fortunately, one of my friends does salvage logging. He is always pulling large fallen trees out of ravines or off of the beach. Occasionally he will come across a burl. About a month ago he had a huge stack of burl slabs and I was able to cherry pick a few of them. It is amazing the difference between the slabs, some only have swirls while others have birdseye and metallic wavy patterns. Once it dries up here a little more he will probably be milling some more. Drop me a line, I can hook you up.

Thank you all,
Will
sctikis.com

Stoked!

Nice work Will!

Beautiful burls and love the Big Gulp sized tikis!
The last big tiki I worked on was a 10 footer a few years back... all chisels.
A chainsaw would have helped!

Unfortunately I have the same kind of neighborhood... I can barely get logs cut to size before the neighbors are looking out their windows.
Even the angle grinder sets them on edge.

Can't wait to see the big guys in their final home.

You're not alone with storm surf... we've had nothing but sloppy easts here which makes for unorganized short period waves.
We also have a problem with warm air in the spring... we may have a good wind blowing but warm air doesn't get 40 dgree water moving very good.

Hopefull we'll both get some good swell soon!

Keep up the great work!

Fantastic work, the wood is beautiful. Awesome job on those big boy's.

Hi SCTiki,
Great art.
I live in Carmel.
Is your gallery open to the public?

Beautiful Redwood carvings.

Lake Surfer,

My prayers have been answered, I actually got some fun waves this morning. It was rather crowded like it normally is in Santa Cruz. I almost had to give someone the bad manners speech for trying to paddle around me. Lately, I have been kind of an enforcer out in the water to surfers who try to catch everyones waves.

Those pesky neighbors. Don't you love passive aggressive neighbors who won't say anything. They sure seem to like to dole out dirty looks and let their dogs poop everywhere. I'm about ready to confront one such neighbor and see what his issue is.

It must have been quite a challenge carving a ten footer with only chisels. I wouldn't know where to start. Check out the progress pics of the third big boy.

Hopefully our paths will cross one day and we can score some waves.

tfisherart,

Thanks, I love being able to use redwood. It is a nice soft wood to work with and cuts like butter. The only drawback is that they are super toxic and will destroy your lungs over time if you fail to use a respirator.

Unga Bunga,
Unfortunately, I don't really have a studio. I do a little carving in my backyard, but mostly my work is done in the Soquel Mountains. Whenever you make it up here, I can take you on the sc tiki tour and up to my mountain retreat if you so desire.

J.S.G.
I appreciate the plugs. By looking at your website it looks like you like to use Redwood too. I love the chair that you made, is it out of one chunk of wood? One day, I have this dream of carving a tiki so big that I can use its mouth for a chair. The tongue will be shaped ergonomically to make it comfortable.

Thanks again,
Will

I meant to write your tiki poles are great too. Nice clean style. Your chair idea is fantastic, it's fun to work large.

Yes, I like to work in redwood. About once a year I head down to the Redwoods, visit friends, etc. A great place to be.

Thanks for looking at my work. Happy carving.

Bump for Will. Man your stuff always rocks. Diggin' it. You and quite a few others on here deserve be on the first page of this forum.

Go get'em bro.......

G.

Tiki Enthusiasts,

Hopefully life is treating you well. Over here on the central west coast there are waves, thus life is good.

I just wanted to post a few pictures of some more profiles that I kicked down to some large customers as a thanks.

This first one has a blue topaz inlaid into its ear.

Here are a couple of pictures of the other two.

Below are the tikis that this customer had custom made. They are ten feet tall by two feet wide give or take a few inches. Being that they weigh around one thousand pounds each, it was a chore moving and delivering these bad boys. Normally, I like to carve a bit deeper, but these have to be cut in half and bored out so they can wrap around a six inch metal support beam.

Thanks for check out my topic.

Will
SCtikis

Awesome Will! Dang those are some big logs. How did you move'em around?

Tiki G,

What a hassle it was moving these logs around. I first had to move them off of a steep hillside with a winch and then a backhoe/tractor. They were then place on 4*4's so I could roll them around manually to carve them.
Loading them in a U-Haul, to deliver them was a bitch, the road to my carving spot was really muddy so I first had to load these tikis into my pickup and then drive them down the hill. When we got to the bottom we had to manually push them into the U_Haul from the back of my Dodge 2500. Luckily, my good friend Gabe and I are kind of moose's so we were able to somehow get them in the back of the delivery truck.
As you have probably noticed, moving around big logs makes you quite strong. I like to use the analogy of Conan the Barbarian (Our Governator) working in the slave camps getting stronger and stronger.

Thank you for the plugs it feels good coming from a great carver such as yourself.

Will

Man, that Burl looks good when it's finished. Great Job!

Are those 10 footers the tikis you are carving for a certain well known tiki establishment??

The burls have an incredible grain. The lightning bolt shaped light colored vein near the mouth in the second pic is really cool. Funny how that works out sometimes. I really get off on wood grain sometimes!

Thanks for sharing your wares!

A-A

WOW!!!! my neck hurts from turning my head sideways to stare at those amazing 10 footers. Cant wait to see them installed where ever they are going.
Thanks for sharing Will.

That's some really great stuff there Will... way cool!

Love the burls and the incredible grain you've got going!

And the tikis.... too much for words.

1000 pounds!? I'm struggling to get these 300 lb beasts into the basement... you guys are throwing around 1000 pound logs!

Good to hear about the waves... is that the continuation of the south swell that has been going on?

We're due for some Thursday... looks like it will be victory at sea here though... maybe a no go for me...

LAKE MICHIGAN FORECAST BEYOND FIVE NAUTICAL MILES FROM SHORE

SYNOPSIS
LOW PRESSURE OF 29.4 INCHES OVER SOUTHERN INDIANA WILL
RAPIDLY DEEPEN TO 29.0 INCHES AS IT REACHES SOUTHWEST LOWER
MICHIGAN THURSDAY MORNING.

GALE WARNING IN EFFECT THROUGH THURSDAY EVENING

OVERNIGHT
NORTH WINDS 30 KNOTS BECOMING NORTHWEST GALES TO
40 KNOTS AFTER MIDNIGHT. WIDESPREAD RAIN AND SCATTERED
THUNDERSTORMS. WAVES BUILDING TO 8 TO 12 FEET.

THURSDAY
WEST GALES TO 40 KNOTS. RAIN. WAVES 10 TO 14 FEET.

THURSDAY NIGHT
SOUTHWEST WINDS 30 KNOTS. RAIN SHOWERS LIKELY.
WAVES 7 TO 10 FEET.

*The idols will be on their way to you soon... I'm getting prepped for a big job but will finish up the sealer on them this week.

Tikimecula,
I am love with redwood burl. It is like what Forrest Gump says "you never know what your gonna get". In its rough form the burls don't look like much, but once sanded all kinds of patterns start to emerge.

A.A.,
Yes, those would be the tikis. I am biting my tongue because I don't want to jinx myself. Once they are all split and in place I will reveal their new home. Right now, they are sitting in the hot Arizona sun. I hope that they don't split too bad. Fortunately redwood seems to hold it's shape pretty well and tends not to split too much. Unfortunately, I usually have to carve them a little wet to ensure that the sapwood is still intact and not rotted away.

Rodeo,
Did you get your carving bar yet?
You'll be amazed how more detail you can get with one of those bad boys.
Sorry I couldn't post a picture of them standing up and I gave you a stiff neck. I had no means of elevating them. I'm holding my breath to see them standing.

Lake,
It almost seems easier moving a these logs then a 300lb one. When they are this heavy, you have to use some heavy equipment, thus saving your back for the most part. The tiki with the tongue was the heavy mottha it was probably around 1200 lbs. I'm anxious to see what you are going to create with your recently acquired big logs, I'm sure they are going to be killer.

Waves today are flat. I guess we are kind of spoiled around here. We go nuts and start to feel sorry for ourselves if there are no waves for a few days. Good luck on the upcoming storm, get some lefts off of that jetty that I saw in the surfshop pics.

P.M. me your address so I can send you some duckets.

Thanks,
Will

Bump

those are beautiful! all of 'em

Fabulous work!.....but being a wimp I'll start with balsa and a butter knife! .....but really it'll be pine , maple , oak , or birch here in Vt. and a saws all and chisels....... hope to have half the style you show..... Aloha

Fabulous tikis! How on Earth will those be cut in half and how noticable will the cut be once they're put back together? Beautiful work. :)

That's some really fine stuff there... the finish on the close up of the burl moai is really fantastic. I'm going to have to try some of that stuff...

WOW! good job! i really like and hope to see more.

Beautiful pieces - the redwood looks a lot like the totara burls here.

Sorry everyone for getting back to you so late, I have been out of town and the waves have been pumping.
Gman,
Your piece of Burl is come your way, it is in Atlanta right now. Thanks for the bump.

Tikiwahine,
Thanks for the plugs, You have become a tikiaffiniciato, I see you all over this T.C. now. It seems like there are more and more Tiki lovers in Canada now.

Hula Cat,
Don't be afraid of the saw, it can be your friend. Just kidding when I started carving, my wife bought me a saw and I just went for it. Now, I'm not sure if I could even carve a tiki with chisels or a knife. However, I recently purchased a Foom drill which makes detail work a loot easier. Keep up carving it seems like you have plenty of great carving wood in your neck of the woods. (so to speak)

Finkdaddy,
I'm not sure how they were cut in half, I'll call the millworks and find out. When I dropped them off in Phoenix, everyone was scratching their heads about how to do it. What I think happened was that they cut around the primate with a band saw and then used a two handed saw to cut the rest in half. As for putting it back together, I believe that they wrapped it around a six inch pole and gorilla glued it back together. I'll give them a call and try to get some pictures of the finished product.

Tikigap,
The redwood burls finish up really nice. What I like the best about them is that all you have to use is Danish oil. It is a lot less gnarly than marine varnish.

Tiki Duddy,
Wow another Canadian tiki carver. I am stoked that you guys up there are carving epic tikis. There must be some huge trees up there so you can make some monsters. I have to fill in at my day job for about a month, but will shurly send some more progress pics.

Paipo,
lucky man living in New Zealand. I was looking into getting a place there, but it was quite expensive. I wonder if the totara burls are a relative to the redwood. Are they red inside and somewhat soft? It would be nice to check them out some day.

Thank you all for the plugs, I feel all warm and fuzzy inside,
Will

Hot-lanta! Hot-damn! It won't be long now! Thanks Will!

Danish oil huh? I'll look into that. Very nice work, once again!