Billy the Cruds' work, via KINGMAN ARIZONA-Maori BAR!!!

COOL...
Billy....maybe you should start carving mug replicas....

that would be cool.............

He coming out killer Billy, The peanut texture looks xlnt...

So how about a Tiki Leilani to stand next to him??? :wink:

Post a pic of it, man. Not sure I've seen one......

Looks awesome :D

Cool man I'll see ya friday. Maybe you can give me an idea of what to carve as Managerial Accounting 116A has sapped the creativity right out of me lately and I'm open to suggestions.

Its time for you to carve a Moai, Randy. Pretty basic, but the depth lessons you take away from it will apply to just about everything you'll carve in the future. Plus, it really requires no thought, just a day long wood wackin' fest like a teenage boy with his first Hustler. Maybe we'll toss some dead animals in the smoker, too.

A 5' pepper shaker? I guess you will not have to reach across the table for that one....lol. Can't wait to see it.

Yay, Billy!

Now don't go sellin' it for peanuts! :wink:

The first place it's going next week when it's stained is Johnny Angels photography studio to be used as a prop in his tiki bar set. Johnny Angel is the guy that photographed that tattood nazi chick that Jessie James was nailing. His work is amazing.

BTC%*#...that's a VERY nice job....VERY NICE JOB!

HOLY SH**!!!! A compliment from Trav without sarcasm? This thing must be impressive, man! Thanks Trav. Hell, I even got a kind word from Monkeyman. Thanks, everyone. I've really needed the boost. Working on a HUGE Ku head today. I'll post on it when it starts raining again. It's a Ku, like I'm ALWAYS carving, but Im traying a couple of different things on it.

I was drunk.

On 2010-04-22 17:00, Tiki Trav wrote:
I was drunk, you A-hole.

Fixed it for ya!

This is what I got in today before the rain shut me down at 5pm. It was time anyways. Im freakin' exhausted. This was the fattest stump I brought home from my last log run and unfortunately it was too short to fit a little body, so I just carved a head. This thing is 5 feet tall(just under) and as big around as I've ever carved. Was a swampy, 2" thick barked stump this morning. My main motivation here is to get my driveway back. Only way to do that is make tikis out of the mess.

Having some friends over to carve tomorrow. If you're in the Grove, stop by.

bILLY THE cRUD That head dress is going to be sick!!!
And the last piece was pretty damn cool. I own a couple of those mugs and never thought to attempt to carve one.
VERY NICE KEEPIT UP!!

Thanks, man. Planning on doing some majorly different things with this guy. No body, 5 foot tall.....LOTS of room for detail.

The Peanut mug looks amazing. Great work man.

Thanks, Matt. Long time no see, man.

Had Randy and Thomas over today for carving and smoked ribs and totally forgot to take pics. Sun fried my brain...and faded my ink a bit. When will I remember that everyone is free to wear sunscreen?

This is todays progress on the giant Ku head. Had to improve or die. Even in the face of stagnation, water decides to move on if it can. Sick of carving tiki clones, man. Hopefully this will be something similar but different. Focus is the key. I'll be starting that pepper shaker as soon as I fix my power planer.

Gheez billy....your coming back full steam.......
carving like a wildman.......
I hope you plan on attending oasis
it would be great to hang out and catch up.......

good day of choppin man! mmmmmmmmmmmm RIBS!

Glad you liked the ribs, Thomas. Still have some for tomorrow and the potatoes are almost done. The lamb was alright, but it was still lamb. Can't smoke out that freakin' gamey flavor no matter how hard I try.

I will be at Oasis, hopefully in the carving village again. Seems I'm the only one who stays and carves all day so people can see carving demonstrated so I hope I'm invited, we'll see. Beats the shit out of me and I don't really get to enjoy the rest of Oasis because I'm so beat, but I truly do enjoy it.

Closet, you can bring me Mai Tais while I carve myself to a frazzle!!

The Mai Tais are on me....and ill drag you around to some room partys afterward

last year was just to much fun.........

billy, strap yourself to your dolly and closettiki will wheel you around through the room crawl!

Nice peanut mug tiki, and a great start on the next one. Go Cruddy!

On 2010-04-23 20:15, Billy the Crud wrote:
The lamb was alright, but it was still lamb. Can't smoke out that freakin' gamey flavor no matter how hard I try.

Lamb is only good for one thing; feeding the dogs that guard the pigs - you don't want no one stealing the pigs before you can eat 'em! :lol:

damn good time on friday, those ribs were awesome sorry I had to leave just as they were getting done thanks for letting me take some to go. It was tough driving home with them setting next to me in the truck.

Thanks for getting me started on that Moai.

That's what we did with the lamb. The damned weenie dog got lamb that was smoked for 4 hours. Spoiled mutt!!

Thanks Grog!! And thanks for the Futurama news from the past. Just found out on Comedy Central that I get see new episodes!

Here's some updates on the Giant Ku head along with sketched ideals for the finish. I absolutely HAVE to get as much into this giant bastard as I possibly can.

LOTS and lots of things going through my head for this one.

And finally, here's the smoker getting ready for 3 pounds of Pacific Salmon.

3 pounds of brining Salmon. Will be reduced to prolly less than half that after 1 gallon of apple cider, 1 pound of Hickory chips, and 20 pounds of Mesquite are all burned and vaporized to impregnate it with flovour sent straight from the angels themselves.

Thanks to everyone whos been looking and commenting. Closettiki, you're going to be held to that Mai Tai promise. I'll bring you a mask carved just for you if you bring me a Mai Tai every time you see my hand empty!!

Ku is looking cool. Looks like a heavy sucker.

Seeksurf, that KU wieghs as much as my motorcycle with me on it. It's a freakin' behemoth. It took three Hondurans, a Mexican, and two Irish pigs to load it into my truck.....and it still isn't the heaviest log in the pile. I took a HUGE bite this time. Let's see how it all digests, man. Here was today. Started out with a little sanding......

Trimmimg down and rounding out the top of the head....

Then my ADD kicked in and my attention went to this 7 footer

Started up the smoker

Good wood, good chips, soaked in Merlot and apple cider...

Salmon and chicken, getting smoked up just right. Damned thing looks like Spicoli's Van.

Got this far. Don't ask what it is yet. It's just a 7 foot Stump right now. Had to sharpen the chainsaw twice while doing this. Tough ass bark and hit a screw, even after taking the metal detector to it. Pissed me off bigtime.

Todays progress on the HUGE KU head

Then spent an hour on these guys. 11 chisels, 6 grits of hohning paper and 10 sore fungers later,

You can see your face in this sucker. Thanks Randy! Enjoy that Electromac. That's one hard to find chainsaw.

More to come, unless Im killed somehow. That would suck.

lOVIN THE NEW GUY !!!! LOTS OF DETAIL.

Thanks, TKGDZ. Im putting everything Ive learned into him and it should be sort of a review of what I've picked up. I obvioussly have yet to learn that I need to carve smaller stuff, too!

Well, today I put KU on the backburner to get ready for Bamboo Bens garage sale. Gotta pay for gas in my behemoth truck, so I'm trying to crank out some masks. Did a "Zebra face" and am starting my first "Cook Islands" style.

Turnin' and burnin'!!

hey billy.........
sweet smoker youv'e got there.........
and the Salmon..........DAMN my mouths watering.......
and the mask...........nice..........

Here's todays work. Still sanding, but just about done. This is my very first cook islands style. Yes, I did look at someone elses work for reference.

And I stained this guy. Not happy with this color for this style. Too red. Needs to be more brown. He looks like Eddie frekin' Munster.

The one behind him is a re-stain I did for my mom two years ago. I would never even CONSIDER using whitewash on a tiki nowadays. Was too much work to sand it off and mom liked it, so it's staying as it is.

This weeks masks, darying in the garage. Got two days to go, hopefully I can crank out a couple more!

New stuff looks awesome Billy!Cheers Watango

Great masks, the cook style is wild!

Thanks, guys. The Cook style is a TOTALLY ripped off design, but I loved it so much I just had to. I think this is the first time I've so blatantly copied someone, so I hope he's cool about it.

Are you referring to this Bosko Tiki ?

That's the one! Saw it on his website and absolutely loved it. The one I'm working on now is even closer. Hope he dosen't get mad at me!

I realy Like the carvings, very well done.. The only thing i would have to say about the cook island mask is that bosko is one of the most copied tiki artist aside from mabey Wayne Kolms (not sure thats spelled correct) and it does take money out of his pocket when people use his designs and sell them..He has spoke of having problems with this here on tc in the past. That why I wouldnt advise it...Unless your carving them for yourself.. I would see how he feels about it first, Its common courtesy , Specialy because we are in a small group of tiki carvers. We dont need to step on each other toes.. besides that nice work!!

Thanks, Kirby. You just had a kid, right? Congrats on that. Fatherhood is fun.....most of the time.

As far as anyone losing money, Bosko is not going to lose anything over BtheC doing a three part study of one of his works, even if I sell them. If I were to do an EXACT copy of it,(with graphing and the whole nine yards and then sell it as a Bosko replica) that would be one thing(and extremely rude+illegal), but mine is simply inspired, not exact.

you're Nuts Billy!
Pee-NUTS!

that is one awesome Tiki Crud!
looking forward to seeing you
SUNDAY!
SUNDAY!
SUNDAY!

Bring your tools and make the chips fly!!!

On 2010-05-01 21:27, RevBambooBen wrote:
Bring your tools and make the chips fly!!!

Got extra logs loaded, couple of half logs, tools, tikis, table, chairs, etc. This will be fun, Ben. Miss all you crazy effers!

Hey BTC%@#*.....
Seriously (and by that i mean sober too), your work of late is incredible, the accuracy and proportion is just brilliant.. You sure you dont have a 5-axis router in your shed? looking forward to seeing some of this stuff in the flesh..
Cheers A-hole

On 2010-05-03 04:05, Tiki Trav wrote:
Hey BTC%@#*.....
Seriously (and by that i mean sober too), your work of late is incredible, the accuracy and proportion is just brilliant.. You sure you dont have a 5-axis router in your shed? looking forward to seeing some of this stuff in the flesh..
Cheers A-hole

The new stuff is the result of a LOT of sh@@, man. Some good, but mostly bad. My fault, but bad nonetheless. I'll bring you up to date at Oasis. Be great to seeya, man. Koala f#%&er.

Hey Billy, you are Really getting totally Cool with your Tiki Skillz,, AhhSome Stuff man, Love the Maori guy too!

Ok, so apparently, I'm a tree trimmer now as well. I had to buy a new 18" chainsaw for this job and it was stolen. The customer(Coach Sutton from West Hills and Valhalla high schools) bought me a new one in exchange for doing a pina on his healthy Date Palm. FILTHY work, I tell ya! Don't think I've ever met a kinder man and I was a little bummed that the job came to an end. Here's the pics......

Here's the tree when I got there

Got it whittled down to this...

Buy the tree had apparently died of some sort of blight that ate the cellulose and left the strings. A big stinking mess and had to be cut down, so we got creative.

and Mr. Peanut found a home

Got the pina cut into the other palm

And threw in a contemplative Moai to round out the whole job.

Was a bit of work and in actuality, I lost on it because I didn't get to sell the Peanut mug AND do this job........but in the long run, I've done well as the referrals and extra work are beginning to pour in. The enormous laughing KU head is going in this yard as well. All from my nehpew telling his coach I carved tikis. Thanks, Andrew!!!

And thank you to Coach Sutton and his very pleasant family.