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Q & A for beginners. |
Tahitiki
Grand Member (first year) 
Joined: Jun 11, 2004
Posts: 324
From: San Jose
|  Posted: 2004-06-29 8:57 pm Permalink
Just thought I'll put some upgrades of my first carving. Does anybody has an idea for the finish? I kinda like the white wood but dark brown could be cool too.
the finish stage
a little family picture.
Tahitiki
[ This Message was edited by: Tahitiki on 2004-06-29 21:00 ]
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dogbytes
Grand Member (8 years) 
Joined: Mar 24, 2002
Posts: 2240
From: seattle, wa
| Posted: 2004-06-29 9:44 pm Permalink
wow, that hunk of wood came along nicely! did you get more tools.. still cant believe you got so much done with an exacto!
did you like the eucalyptus? i have a friend who's relandscaping, and will be taking down a bunch of trees. i told him to wait for me to talk to TC to see if anyone wants wood..
elicia
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Octane
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Jun 23, 2003
Posts: 316
From: SLO California
| Posted: 2004-06-29 10:22 pm Permalink
wow looks great. i can't beleive you did that with an exacto, impressive. i look forward to seeing more of your carving in the future
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Tahitiki
Grand Member (first year)
Joined: Jun 11, 2004
Posts: 324
From: San Jose
| Posted: 2004-06-30 8:09 pm Permalink
Thanks for the encouragement, I actually end up buying some tools and finished the belly and legs with them.
Eucalyptus is not that great for carving. The only good thing about it is that is so hard it makes you slow down and there no risk you're going to take out a piece of wood by mistake. So it's probably a good beginner wood.
I found a bunch of logs around my apartment. I found some palm, only it’s not cut yet, but will be soon. Some guy just cut the top of all the palm tree in his garden and left the trunks in the dirt, weird but cool, I’m going to ask him to do the final removal. I’ll be posting some picts to find out if it’s a good carving kinda palms.
Tahitiki
[ This Message was edited by: Tahitiki on 2004-06-30 20:12 ]
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Zeta
Grand Member (2 years) 
Joined: Feb 13, 2007
Posts: 2029
From: Atlantis/Basque Country/Spain/Mexico
| Posted: 2010-07-28 1:53 pm Permalink
Cool informative thread! Gracias!
Tahitiki, what happened with those palms from your neighbor?
_________________
  ¡Viva Tiki! Ambassador of Tiki in Mexico. Zeta is specialized in the research, study and preservation of Tiki culture in Latin countries.
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Bau
Tiki Centralite
Joined: Jul 27, 2010
Posts: 40 | Posted: 2010-08-02 2:02 pm Permalink
what if you don't have access to palm whats the next best? what is the most durable for garden use?
I tryed carving with a dremel but I get so much kickback that I totaly can't control it and ruin things. are chisels a better way to go?
what about small pieces as compared to large?
There is no way I could manage a chainsaw at all, a friend suggested I try a rotozip, but you get a lot of kickback with them too and I find it difficult to control. I'm afraid of realy hurting myself. An exacto knife?? out of the question!
my stuff just looks awful, doesnt even look like tikis just mangled up pieces of wood lol
I could realy use some advice
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mieko
Tiki Socialite
Joined: May 01, 2006
Posts: 531
From: San Diego
| Posted: 2010-08-02 3:10 pm Permalink
Hi Bau - I had a lot of problems with kickback on the dremel as well. I much prefer chisels and knives, although they are a lot slower. I use the knives for my smaller stuff, occasionally I'll work on something bigger, in which case I use my chisels and a mallet. For small stuff, basswood is a great wood to use, you can buy it from various places.
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Bau
Tiki Centralite
Joined: Jul 27, 2010
Posts: 40 | Posted: 2010-08-03 08:11 am Permalink
thanks for the info!
I'm not sure the wood type i've been experimenting on. I just picked some somewhat soft aged wood from my wood pile to fool with. Its cherry I believe.
the dremel does great on fine hard work, stone, bone , metal coconut shell, whch is mainly all the carving I've done -pendants and such.
I tryed the chisels and like them very much.  they are rather hard on me physicaly though (disability)but you can remove a lot more material quicker on these big pieces. Only how do you get a smooth curve?
I've got a book on wood carving but its not very helpful. It has very little on carving techniques, and mostly shows designs for animals to carve with a knife.
Any good recomendations on books websites or (preferably) videos? I looked on youtube and didn't find instruction only timelapse displays of people carving tikis with chainsaws, and i am the last person who should be wielding one of those lol
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canyonlaketiki
Tiki Centralite
Joined: Jun 11, 2004
Posts: 100
From: canyon lake ca
| Posted: 2010-08-10 9:00 pm Permalink
Hey Bau, try hitting the hobbie store, Go to the area where they sell model airplane supplies. They have all kinds of crazy super soft wood, It might work like a champ for you!No chainsaw needed. Good luck,lets see some pictures.
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