surf soul tiki

I made these with a planer, a die grinder, and a small hand-sander, out of (what I believe) is sable palm.

Made a few "bar masks" too for myself and a few friends, out of some other palm that was too stringy to carve, so I just carved up the outer bark & what-not.

Definitely not on par with what some of the pieces I've seen posted around here, but I made 'em and I'm stoked.

Number #1

Number #2

and a few masks:

[ Edited by: pjc5150 2010-05-21 08:02 ]

[ Edited by: pjc5150 2011-06-02 17:53 ]

[ Edited by: pjc5150 2011-06-10 20:09 ]

[ Edited by: pjc5150 2011-06-10 20:17 ]

[ Edited by: pjc5150 2011-06-27 13:47 ]

And you should be stoked!
Looks like the beginnings of some solid design.
You are working with what you have, pretty soon you'll have a truckload of tools and your eyes on every street corner around yard trash day in your neighborhood trying to feed your new addiction.

Good luck & keep posting!

Pjc,
Hey, these look great. Nice, strong lines & great look. You're in the right place.

Welcome! Really Good 1st tikis. Well thought out and execution.

Yes, Excellent stuff for being your first ones, Especially with your limited tools. I'm sure with time and more logs your progress will continue to get better.

I like them! Very clean and to the point. Great start.

Thanks guys.

I'm purchasing my first chainsaw this evening. Looking forward to using it.

:)

My first attempt at a Marquesian.

This is the first one I've done with my new chainsaw. Pretty stoked on this one.

That's a great one!

looks good!
How do like using the chainsaw?

that's great. so all chainsaw and no chisels at all? good work

bd

Yeah, I'm definitely diggin' the chainsaw. And I actually got the inspiration for this one from one of the ones I saw in your thread!

But I can also see where the carving bars are probably the way to go. It's a bit difficult to control enough for precision cuts, but I'm sure a little more practice and experience will help with that. But it looks like a carving bar is my next purchase. Either way, at $65 bucks out the door with an exchange warranty and a bottle of chain lube, I'm feeling pretty good about my purchase.

As far as chisels and carving tools, yeah, I don't have any of those yet, and don't really know about how to use them. I'm going to try to master this chainsaw deal first, and my next step will be to learn how to use some of the more traditional, non-power type tools.

For right now, it's pretty much de-bark with the planer, rough cut with the chainsaw, detail cut with the die grinder, burn it with a torch, and sand the parts I didn't want burned.

I've sold 4 of my little bar masks to some people, and at this point they have actually paid for half of the tiki tools I've purchased (including the new chainsaw), so I'm pretty happy about that.

Already selling stuff?! Wow, awesome!

So, I'm working on this one. Rough cut the body & head, no face yet, and this one is going to have a surfboard standing behind him, which was inspired by a keychain I bought at the longboard house when I was getting a fin for my new surfboard.

I'd like the surfboard to stand out a bit and be a different color, so what kind of stain or whatever do you guys recommend? I cut it from a sabal palm (I think).

Oh, by the way....looks like my cheap-o craftsman electric chainsaw officially gave up the ghost about an hour ago. It lasted a whole month. Glad I paid extra for the exchange warranty!

But I'm stoked about this new tiki. My first that isn't just a head, this one has actual hands & feet. Hopefully I get the surfboard outline right. Think I'd better make some sort of template or something so it's somewhat symmetrical.

A little progress on the surfin' tiki.

Pretty stoked on it.

I have never shaped a surfboard before, especially with a chainsaw, but surprisingly it came out OK. Made & used a few templates on this one since I'm pretty shitty at freehand drawing. Trying to improve my detail a bit on this one.

And there's my new chainsaw in the bottom pic. Definitely a step up, and Sears upgraded me for free when I went to switch out the old one...gave me a rebate form too, so I may actually get like ten or fifteen bucks back! Bonus!

nice job

[ Edited by: Sabu The Coconut Boy 2009-08-07 10:46 ]

Thanks guys.

Just did a little work on the eyes & mouth.

Want to add some details, just not sure what right now. So I think this one is going to sit for a week or so while I figure it out.

In the meantime, I found a few interesting pieces of palm at the yard waste dump (some of which can be seen in the picture), so I'll probably start something new.

Your own style is coming out and I like where you are taking it... great job and keep the style brewing

Thanks bro, appreciate the kind words.

Funny, I lived in the Palm City / Stuart area back in 90/91. Was attending IRCC & living with my grandmother in Martin Downs. Man, I miss surfing "the rocks" on Hutchinson Island, one of my all-time favorite surf spots in Florida.

[ Edited by: pjc5150 2009-08-06 09:13 ]

The last one you are working on is brilliant, love the nose and eyes ... and thanks for the advice you sent

Cheers

OK, so I wake up this morning & get some coffee. I spent all day yesterday on my friend's boat, and decided that I was going to stay home and get some things done today.

I do my normal Sunday morning deal, and drive out to the county yard waste site to hunt for tiki stock, scored a few nice sections, and when I get home...

....the surf tiki is pissed. Basically he was extremely dissatisfied with the board I made him. He questioned the amount of flotation, he said the rails were all wrong, and that without a fin he would surely spin out on the drop if he was lucky enough to actually catch one. He said some things that were very hurtful that I won't repeat here.

So, I sliced up a few blanks and decided to have a go at it.

I roughed out a longboard, used the planer to round out the rails, carved out a fin & popped it in, and had Dinky inspect the tail section. Al Merrick eat your heart out!!!

He jumped on and felt it out, and afterward gave it the "OK".

I carved out a little slot for the fin.

And everyone's happy.

But, I got this piece of wood at the yard waste site today, and it immediately jumped out as a having a perfect, forward pitched forehead. But WOW, it's cedar or cypress or something, and it's harder than a f***ing diamond!!!

It just about killed my new saw!!!

And that's my Sunday in a nutshell.

Hope you guys had some fun too.

.

On 2009-08-09 17:37, pjc5150 wrote:

Maybe for a future project, you should do something like this, where the board is a table, and the tiki is a lamp! That looks cool!

You might want to tighten up that chain, it should not be droooping at all, ya newb. :wink:

Kool stuff,for a beginner it's look'n like your of to a
fly'n start.Cheers Watango

"Maybe for a future project, you should do something like this, where the board is a table, and the tiki is a lamp! That looks cool!

You might want to tighten up that chain, it should not be droooping at all, ya newb. :wink:"

Thanks for the kind words guys.

I was kinda thinking about something similar with the table idea. Except my idea was to use the tiki as the table base, with the board on top of his head.

And yeah, when I cut that piece of cypress or cedar or whatever the hell it was, it seriously beat the crap out of my chain (it was like cutting a piece of concrete!). For a minute there I was a little worried about the chain actually breaking on me. Nothing like a trip to the emergency room to liven up a Sunday afternoon! I'll definitely be adjusting it before I use use it again.

Got some really neat little pieces of palm at the yard waste dump yesterday, so I have plenty of stuff to hack up this week.

Now if it would just cool off a bit. Man, August in Florida is no joke.

He jumped on and felt it out, and afterward gave it the "OK".

Very cool idea. I'm liking this! :)

Your tikis are looking good, I really like the surfer tiki.

Your Surfer tiki is Cool and came out Really great, Nice work on the tiki And the Board. Now you gotta do a few more.
Than Chainsaw killer log looks like it may be Eucalyptus, Beautiful wood but Hard as nails.
If you just chop it into 3" thick rounds it makes great stepping stones! :o

Dan & Benz, thanks guys. Appreciate the compliments.

Here is my next little project: "the bigmouth"

I was sort of inspired by some of Palm City Tiki's words about "going deep", so I decided that I would try to go a little deeper on this one.

[ Edited by: pjc5150 2009-08-13 06:45 ]

Nice! Great carvins'. I was just gonna suggest going deep on the mouth, and there ya go doing just that. Go DEEP! Try some tongue action too!

Well, I had a pretty productive weekend.

The bigmouth is just about done. Might do some detail stuff on it, not sure.

I actually bought some chisels and used them on some of the detail cuts around he nose, and to take off a bunch of excess around the facial features. I have to admit, it was much easier & less tedious than I had imagined.

Tropical Storm Claudette got it's start as Tropical Depression #4 last night right off our coast, so I woke up to my cellphone blowing up at 6am. Got some decent little glassy surf for a few hours with one of my buddys.

Got to ride my new 9"2 Stewart Hydro-hull. WAY stoked on this board.

Looks like the tropics have finally fired up, so we should finally be getting a decent, overhead, glassy tropical swell either in the Atlantic or Gulf by next weekend. It's been 6 months since I've seen an overhead wave, so I'm pretty jacked.

And yesterday I began resurrecting an old ghost from the past......my old Riviera. I've had this car a long time and it's time to make her pretty again.

Sorry about the O/T pics. Just had a really nice weekend and wanted to share.

Mahalo brothers & sisters!

Very cool work - you definitely went deep on this one, looks like about half way through the palm. I love the charred look, I don't have the ability to work with palm being in the northeast - does it burn easily? That car looks like it needs some work but don't short change the carving because you've hit a groove. Keep those tikis coming.

Great looking tiki!

Sweet looking ride, one of my All time fav's. Keep us posted with the re-birth? Oh Yeah, Nice tiki too.

Great pics. Cool car. Find any raccoons in there? :P

Raccoons no....

...dead squirrel yes.

Anyway, looks like (what could be) the best swell of the year is about to batter the east coast, courtesy of Hurricane Bill, so the tiki & car projects are on the back-burner for this weekend.

I'm so jacked about overhead, glassy waves I can barely contain myself.

Hurricane Bill!!!

Best swell of the year!!!

Surfed 3 days straight and I'm completely exhausted. Good night everyone.

OK!

Just hammered out tiki #7.

This is my first "chisel only" tiki. Well, except for chain-sawing out the gaping hole that became the mouth.

Kinda stoked. Using only power tools before, I almost felt like I was cheating or something.

Anyway, not quite done, but getting there.

On a side note, drove over to St Pete today chasing craigslist deals, and scored this kick ass late 50's Rollfast bike (for only 30 bones!), and this ridiculously awesome piece of palm that was BEGGING to be a tiki.

It's been a productive weekend.

[ Edited by: pjc5150 2009-09-06 14:24 ]

Nice work with the chisels,look,n good.Rad score on the pushy and the Buick look's
like it will come up a treat with a little tlc.Cheers Watango

Great tiki!!

Thanks guys.

I'm really stoked on that raw piece above next to the old bike. I have a good friend that's an avid spearfisherman & all-around water-man (in fact, we just had some freshly speared snapper at his place last night), the dude has done me right at every turn, and he wants a tiki. So yesterday I got inspired to do a spear-fisherman tiki. It'll be holding a bamboo spear, and I'll carve a fish out of something and impale it upon the spear. I'm stoked about this one on many levels, but also because I think that the theme is consistent with polynesian / pacific island culture.

I also met a really cool guy through one of my surfing bros who makes tikis, and he was in need of some new tiki stock, so this morning I took him to my secret spot.

Muahahahahahaha!!!!!

We had to go all Dukes of Hazzard to drag this one out through the mud and brush piles, but Scott scored the big-ass bohemoth on the bottom right of the 1st pic (I swear it must weight 300lbs). The back of my 4 runner was seriously dragging ass. Thank God for 4 wheel drive!

Either way, he was WAY stoked to get this one out of there, and I'm way stoked for him. Go Scott!!!!

It's already been a productive day and I haven't even picked up a chisel yet!

I think I'm gonna crack open a cold one and head out to the back yard. It's going to be a good day.

[ Edited by: pjc5150 2009-09-07 15:42 ]

Man. Between fishing all day Saturday, hackin' out some tikis for the last 2 days, and hoisting the heaviest piece yet into my truck earlier today, I am beat.

Here's the progress on the spear-fisher. Check the pecs!!! He's been working out.

This is the same piece of palm next to the 50's bike above.

As you can see, the body is pretty much a rough chainsaw cut. Note the ultra-realistic temporary cardboard fish on the spear. You know you thought it was real. Don't lie.

My boy Mike will be stoked. So I think I'll go over to his house and drink all of his beer!

Mahalo brothers & sisters!!!

[ Edited by: pjc5150 2009-09-07 16:23 ]

Hey Bro! Great to meet you today! I'm really stoked about the monster canvas... I wonder if anyone reading this thread knows how date palm cures. I am not sure it is date, but I kinda think so. In any case, it is bigger than it looks in the picture and I can't wait to get carving on it! I've been SO slack in my carving. Hopefully having someone else around who is actively into it will help me get back on the Path. Tomorrow or next week I'll bring over one of those raw hide mallets so you can see the difference. I broke way too many knuckles with the rubber mallets which would have been OK but the precision and cuts are better with raw hide mallets too.

Much Mahalo to all!
-Scott

That old palm log cleaned up pretty good for your fishing tiki, I would have thought it was rotted all the way through. Nice "secret" stash of logs you have there. That log being sat on is a monster, rare to see them that big around.

Hey the fisherman dude is looking pretty cool already. Great idea.

Thanks guys.

And yeah, I was a little worried about that one being rotton on the inside too. Got lucky I guess.

I showed my boy Mike a pic of the spearfisher so far and he's really stoked on it.

And I'm eager to see what Scott does with the big log. That pic kinda makes it look smaller than it is. Gawd, that thing is HEAVY!!!!

[ Edited by: pjc5150 2009-09-08 10:42 ]

Nice Nice Nice the offshore wave shots! Holding up so well.
Tikis not bad either there keep them coming.