surf soul tiki

Life just got a little better....

45cc ECHO 18"

Was just out in the yard "seein' how she flies" and WOW, I am super-duper stoked right now. Stepping up from a beat-to-shit Homelite Ranger 16" that I've been abusing for a year, this saw is WAY more aggressive & powerful.

...big thanks to 4wd Bill for the good advice...and to craigslist for continuing to be awesome.

Had to get out there and fire it up!

nice bro. I been thinking about upgrading myself...glad you scored a nice one.

Finished up the bigmouth. Need to start a new one tomorrow...I have a show next weekend.

and a couple of old Murray spacebikes I just cleaned up & reassembled!

NICE!! Big mouth looks awesome. Looks as if the new chain saw has paid for itself already :)

And the bikes look great!

Yeah, the new saw is really nice.

Do yourself a favor and DON'T wait 2 years before you buy yourself a decent saw. I SOOOO wish I'd done it sooner. A lot of time wasted with weak saws that took forever to get it done. This thing is sick!

I think that the next step in my "tiki evolution" may be putting a carving bar on my little beater homelite & see if I can step up my chainsaw game a little.

drew a new one out lasty night....

Nice. I admire your talent with the chain saw. Still working on that myself. I have three sizes (20", 16", 14"), but haven't mastered any of them yet.

^ thanks bro ^

my technique is pretty simple...draw some good lines, trace over them lightly with the saw the first time to make a decent "groove", and then go back over it a few times for depth.

...and 45 minutes with a saw and a face appears!

[ Edited by: pjc5150 2011-07-04 12:43 ]

Another 45 minutes with the grinder & he's ready for the torch & some stain.

Doesn't get much EZer, & they're getting better.

Nice bro! Def lookin better and better with each one...looks like you have a great handle on saw work. What color u gona stain this one?

Thanks guys.

The new saw has been reeeaaaaally nice to work with. Makes things so much easier.

Now I just need to get motivated & get out there and get one started before the sun hits the deck....

great job and beautiful machine, I am personally still equipped with a 018 and a special guide to carve Koxx (http://www.kox24.fr/Guides.htm?websale7=kox;06-aa&ci=082352)

^ Merci! (I don't speak french, but I know that means "thanks"!)

And I'm a big fan of the tiki chair and some of your other pieces. A lot of good stuff going on over there inb France.

This is a new one I started today. Essentially a commission for a friend who wants a really nice, detailed, tiki to give her girlfriend as a baby gift. And of course she wants me to put the baby's name & birthday & every other thing on there...oh yeah, and she only wants to spend a hundred bucks (we all have a few of those freinds don't we?). But she's been a pretty good friend, so I'll hook her up.

Here we are after a little log skinning, a quick draw-out, and a few passes with saw & grinder.

That's a big carve with lots of heart thrown in. Much Mana!

Good on you!

Mahalo!

McTiki

Yeah, not my best work (I totally suck at lettering)...but she's stoked & when I was sitting and looking at it I got a good idea so I'm on to the next piece...

That turned out great. Another satisfied customer :)

so, I'm literally sitting around the house, drinking some Appleton Rum & coke that my girl left over here watching a thrid reich documentary that I tivo'ed while simultaneously perusing a HOT ROD magazine, and kinda got inspired to make something. In fact, as soon as it hit me I had to grab some tools & go outside to get the piece started. A complete departure from anything I've done, this is a hot rod / chopper / Ed Roth inspired piece, complete with german helmet, and probably some mix of racing stripes, flames,etc.

So now I'm all excited and want to do a few like this, and turn a few of 'em over to one of my artist friends to paint up / stripe / tattoo / whatever.

This isn't my "new direction", just a new idea I feel like running with for a few pieces.....

duuuude...I can already tell that is gona be sick,

thank god for rum and coke :wink:

Def excited to see where this one goes...have fun!!

^ thx nixxy ^

Done for the day!

I think I'll go freshen up my drink and draw try to draw out the rest of it.

I wonder if I could actually find some bolt or screws made of wood so I could put a couple in his neck, all frankenstein-like.

[ Edited by: pjc5150 2011-07-10 16:52 ]

damned double posts!

[ Edited by: pjc5150 2011-07-10 17:19 ]

Holy $hit!

Bolts would definately "Hot Rod" that critter!

Excellent control of the saw brother.

Mahalo

McTiki

GNAAAAARLY!!!!

ACHTUNG!!! Dig this guy,he's scream'n for lime green paint.
BigDaddy would be proud!Cheers Watango.

Thx guys.

So I took him down to the bar last night & my buddy Jeremiah was there, and he laid a few flames down with a pencil, so it looks like he will be sort of standing in fire about waist deep.

And I may actually put some primer the helmet & rattle-can it Jet black, with some kind of metal-flake Triumph-style racing stripe across it, and he may a get a few other "painted" details, but his face will remain wood stained, and I may even try to dremel in some polynesian style "tattooing" around the facial details, because it is important to me that at the end of the day it remains a tiki. A completely off-kilter, not very "islandy", theme tiki, but a tiki none-the-less (and I feel somewhat conflicted even doing this piece because I usually think that "theme-y" shit is totally lame, like some orange county chopper made to look like it's a helicopter or spiderman or something...dumb. There's a fairly lame, poorly-done Tampa Bay Buccaneers-themed tiki at a bar I frequent, and every time I see it I'm like "wow, never" but somehow this seems less lame to me...that or I'm just rationalizing...)

Anyway, he'll probably get my buddy Dallas's car club logo on his chest or helmet, as Dallas has already come over & seen the progress so far and called "dibs". He's pretty much a tatt-ed up rockabilly car dude & a huge Roth fan, so he was all over it.

It will probably be hangin' out when they go to car shows and stuff, and that's pretty cool.

traditional or not...that piece is super cool...and not lame in the least.

OK, a little off-topic I suppose, but I saw this & got all freaked out over it, because to me it's a fusion of 2 things I enjoy: making stuff out of wood, and playing around with vintage bikes. I think I may have to make one (or more) of these.

ha...typical scene in my living room. The other side is surfboards and old bikes (the complete, operational ones). And If I were building a car, there would be engine parts scattered in the mix as well.

My girl hates it but I love it.

So, for the last couple of days I've been obsessed with making a tiki out of cedar.

Finally this morning, despite my hangover, I went up to a buddy's place that just cut some trees, and most of the stuff was hauled away, but I was able to score this little piece, jut under a foot long:

went out & played with it for a bit & came up with this (not done yet):

I know cedar isn't exactly "traditional" tiki wood, but I really love the colors & smell. I'll be on the lookout for more cedar logs for sure...

On 2011-07-17 16:12, pjc5150 wrote:
"traditional" tiki wood

Whats that?

^ yeah, I suppose it doesn't make any difference.

So, I had some had someone recommend boiled linseed oil for cedar. Anyone have any thoughts on this?

So yeah, cedar is pretty cool. I'll definitely be snatching it up when it becomes available in the future.

....and I found a dude locally who sells the really tough bamboo that they use to build stuff, so I'm going to buy like 12 or 15 feet of it & try to make a bamboo bicycle! And if it works out ok, I will build the coolest bamboo-framed, tiki bike EVER!!! * insert evil mad scientist laugh here *

Dude that Cedar looks awesome! Looks like it carves well too. Is it a really big difference from the palm?

Different than palm for sure. Hard to describe...I did that whole thing with an angle grinder (and it responded reeeaaally well - and made lots of very fine dust, as in, like, I need a breather if I'm going to keep working with it), but the next one I'm going after with the chisels. I'm gonna sand the hell outa this thing & hit it with boiled linseed oil & see what I end up with. Stay tuned...

I have carved quite a bit of our local version of cedar in the past. At that time I was using linseed oil exclusively. It will bring out the grain but it dries after a while and will need to be retreated yearly. If you don't thin out the oil and apply it too heavily, it can remain tacky and darken the wood.

is there something else that's better for cedar in your experience?

Hand-rub Poly - it will soak into the wood protecting it and be thin enough where it will not be glossy.

free cedar on craigslist! whoop whoop!

oh my. that looks like it is going to keep you busy for a while. nice find!

yeah, that should keep me fairly occupied for the next month...

looks like we BOTH scored this week!

No Doubt. Happy Carving Brother :)

4 inch cedar mini I just made for a friend who's hanging out at the house. A little rough, but kinda cool.

^ WOW! That pic is twice as big as the actual piece!!! ^

more cedar stuff. Gotta fix the eye on this one, and then start a few others.

The cedar adds a new dimension. Very nice.

Thanks man, and yeah, it really does add another dimension. It reminds me of the multi-colored tikis from Hawaii (is it Koa?). I am super stoked to do a big lono out of one of the larger pieces. Gonna have to get the chisels tuned up for that one for sure.

So, that one is sanded, and is my donation to the silent auction at tomorrow's art show at the Sail Pavillion here in Tampa, benefitting the Mike Alstott Foundation. The next one is a super rough next piece.