Finns 1st shot at carving

Well, not really first, but first thats bigger than a bottle of coke :D

Not really sure where its going, but well see...:

Tortured and agonized...I LOVE IT! This is a very cool 1st(larger than a coke bottle)effort.

Thanks for posting. Looking forward to seeing the 'finished' piece. Cheers! from California

Great first try. You have something really cool going on there.

Finland! Country of Kaurismaki and Paasilinna! I would like to visit this country ... but too cold for my wife!
Otherwise your carving is so good, can't wait to see him finished! I'm also interested to see the "coke bottle" tiki.
What's the kind of wood used it?

J.

Thanks for the kind words guys!

This one is pine. Its not the nicest material to work with, but i just happened to have a piece lying around.

your work is almost spiritual...like the souls of the dead come back to earth

More magic going on there than my first carvings.

chases away the crickets

Hey peeps.... Been away for a million years, but today i finally got to do some carving again.

Heres a couple of fotos to illustrate the progress:

Hope to finish the rough work soon.

tiki finn! thats a sweet tiki and waay bigger than a coke bottle!! lol! lookin real good! cant wait to see him all finished up! cheerz!

Wow! Really coming along!

Some sanding done..... I almost forgot how much i hate dust since we moved in to our new house....

Other news, i got myself a nifty lil tool for my angle grinder. Kwiktool Woodcarver. As you might have figured out its a blade for carving wood. Very effective and also veeery dangerous. Havent managed to cut off any limbs yet, but ill keep you posted.

Heres a photo of the progress (not much notable change since last time):

Tiki-Finn, Looking Great for tiki # One! Keep plugging away and be VERY Careful with that tool, Make Sure you keep that guard on the unit and at the recommended place as that is Very Critical.
Also if you would like to gain control of that bear of a tool, get a Good "Router Speed Control", not the China Cheapie for this as it does not give you full torque and Will lead to early failure of your grinder. There is one which comes in an extruded aluminum casing

Thanks for the tip! Ill be sure to look into it.

I hope to get this one all sanded and stained this week. Well see how it goes.

I really like that upper lip. I don't think I've seen one like that before. Your log has a great deal of character and I look forward to seeing it with the stain.

Very nice work. I must applaud if you got it this nice on your first try. I tired going for Coke bottle size to somehting of that size and only mucked it up. What sort of tools have you been using?
I can't wait to see the finished version. Keep up the great work!

-LT

Nice nice! I like the eyes. Keep those fingers.

Thanks for the kind words guys! :)

The log surely has a lot of "character" :) I even dug out a .22 caliber bullet out of it :D Would have been sorta cool if it had been placed in one of the teeth as a filling :P I think the log was saved from rotting just in the nick of time. The outmost layers were already supersoft...
I was surprised by the amount of cracks that appeared, since i was quite sure the log was all dry when i started working on it. I dont find them that disturbing tho.

As for tools, ive been using a chainsaw to carve the first lines, and the mouth. After that ive done most of the work with a 24mm flat chisel, a round Pfeil chisel and a V-shaped Pfeil. Some rough sanding was done with my angle grinder, and now its mostly sandpaper til its ready for staining.

Im kicking my own lazy ass a bit for not sketching stuff up enough in the process. Its been mostly freehand carving, and im really not happy with the symmetry. I´ll be sure to work harder on that in my next project.

Here he is all finished:

And an older one, in teh cokebottle category :wink::

And something different :P :

Nice shots of your first! The coke bottle is nice too, good work for the santa...

J.

Wow Finn, that turned out really nice. I like the finish.