Need advice...

Well I'm fairly new to the art of Tiki, but I'm really eager to get started! I am a very talented artist but have never done any carving or sculpting, well other then with a grinder on custom car parts. So I could use some direction to get the ball rollin'! I've been looking at Flexcut's web site and heard good things about their tools, so if somebody could recomend a good starter kit that would be great! My biggest concern however is where or how to get the proper logs for carving. I am assuming Palm logs are the best, but is there anything else that may be easier to obtain from the NW? I'm in Longview, Washington so there's plenty of trees and lots of lumber mills in the area, including the grand daddy Weyerhauser. If I have to ship or order something in that's fine too! Any help would be great and thanks in advance!

Meech,

Take a look at the Flexcut MC175 large sculpture set (4 chisels) and the MC100 deluxe set (10 chisels). I think those would get you on your way. Mountain Heritage Carvers usually has the good prices on Flexcuts. You can find them online or send me a PM and I will shoot you a link.

Can you get your hands on some redwood up there? Will from SCTikishack could probably speak better to the NW woods - at least I see he uses a buncha redwood. Search for SCTkishack on TC and read his posts and see what he has to say.

PM me if you want to discuss anything.

-Gman

Use cedar and pine. Redwood can be tricky if you're just starting out (cracks and flakes pretty easy)

Kiegs20 is in your state and does amazing things with a chansaw.

His thread:
http://www.tikicentral.com/viewtopic.php?mode=viewtopic&topic=13682&forum=7&start=0&hilite=kiegs

He's also the featured carver in this issue of Tiki mag

http://www.tikimag.net/

Thanks for the help GMAN and Polynesiac. I'm definitely gonna pick those tools up and I'm thinkin' of starting out with some cedar! I've got a buddy that works at Longview Fibre(a large paper mill)that's helpin' out with a few leads towards some cedar logs. I'm thinkin' about starting with a 10" x 5' log, but just keeping it simple until I get comfortable with the tools. What would be a fair price for a log this size? We figured, just off the top of our heads, that the mill could cut 25 6' cedar fence boards out of a 10" x 6' log, which would sell in the store for around $75. So I was thinkin' $40 would be a decent price? Thanks again for the help!

[ Edited by: meech11 2007-05-27 22:43 ]

Meech,

Free wood is always best :) but do what you have to to get a chunk to start with. $40 bucks is a small price to pay for good wood. I've was lucky and got three whole cedar trees cut up and seasoned in my garage - I've been using that cedar for the last two years (happy happy). I'm on my last big piece now (not so happy).

Cedar can be very chippy too, so keep those chisels sharp and that edge polished. Get the Flexcut slip strop and yellow compound (12 bucks) if you do not have a flat leather edge polishing setup already. PM me or search for sharpening on Benz's threads if you want to talk about sharpening. Would suck to ruin expensive tools, yes? You'll need a mallet too. Search MHC for that, I use an 18.

So now that you have wood and toolz picked out, are you going to research a historical design? Pick a good one, because we'll all want to watch your project through progress pics. If you want to talk designs or need old photos to digest shapes, give me a PM and I will do what I can - I have lots of pics here.

-G