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Crazy Capizzi tiki carving steps

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1.First things first, i like to pick a good solid palm trunk. Preferably cabage(sable) palm or coconut. Washingtonian is ok too but it seems to rot a little quicker. i have never had good luck with queen. It rots the quickest.
2. i find a good one and i call it "sweet meat"!
3. i find the best side to carve by standing it up and see how it sits best.
4. I strip off the bark 3/4 of the way around it.
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  1. Once the bark is stripped off you have a clean slate to draw on if you cant just imagine how it will look. It is best to draw a line down the center. I see many new carvers twist up the face by not keeping center.
  2. i like to start on the nose first because i can use it as my center point and everything flows off that.
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7.get it all rough carved
8. Set it up and see how it sits, if it is crooked you can take some off here and there to correct it. Dont be afraid to go too deep. In my opinion deeper looks better.
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  1. Now you can do your finish passes to smooth it out. I only have a 1" wood chisel, but you can get different ones to make it easier
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  1. Time to burn one, get a fine flame torch and burn all the grooves. If the torch is too big it looks like crap.
  2. Use a wire brush and brush off the excess burn marks.
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  1. Step back admire your artwork and take a picture.
  2. go to tikicentral.com and post it for everyone to see.
TT

Well you sure made it look easy. Thanks for sharing the progress pics.
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I forgot to mention a sharp chisel is very important. I sharpen my chisels about 2-3 times during a carving. I am also using a cheezy harbor freight wood chisel, so a good set may need less sharpning due to better quality heat treating.

If you never seem to get a smooth cut or it looks like the wood fibers are always fuzzy, its probably your chisel, not the wood.
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My latest work in progress. Im trying something new so i started off a little different.
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BT

Nice details
J

Lookin Bad-Azz Bro!!
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That's a F.... nice post.
Thanks for that, and you carving are way cool...
Thanks again
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[ Edited by: CrazyCapizzi 2012-10-16 20:05 ]
K

that is a truly sic tiki. i love the spikes on the head. great stuff bro.
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Nice carves. And you used just a one inch chisel on all of those?! Well done.
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well i must admit i have the cheep 3 piece chisel set and i use the skinny one for the eyes sometimes but yes 99% of my tikis are carved with the 1" chisel.
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Starting to debark another one!
P

dude...you need a chainsaw!
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M

And some gnar burrs & shapes! Dude! Your killin me with what you've learned to do with so small a selection of tools.

Well done man!

Mahalo for sharing!

McTiki
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Lol, my friend JBsurf and i carve together all the time and he uses mostly power tools. He always asks me "why dont you use the chain saw or grinder". truth is, i carved for a few months, seventeen years ago and hadent touched a tiki till about 2 years back. Now im about 10 tikis in and i just feel more comfortable using hand tools. Thats not to say i wouldn't use a power tool here and there when i get tired and JB puts it in my face. Lol.
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Respect!

Keep it going!

Imma get you some pfiels for xmas!

Mahalo

McTiki
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you got those at harbor freight didn't you?

same as my first set...
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On 2012-10-27 15:24, McTiki wrote:
Respect!

Keep it going!

Imma get you some pfiels for xmas!

Mahalo

McTiki

Not sure what that is but i would love to get some different style chisels for christmas but money is a lil tight this year. Was looking at those arbortech power chisels. Those look pretty sick!
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Pages: 1 2 3 4 5 207 replies