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Johnnyp Tut 2/19 |
JohnnyP
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Nov 23, 2005
Posts: 1689
From: Attica, MI
|  Posted: 2005-12-12 08:25 am Permalink
Gman- Thanks for the praise. I was nervous about posting it. It is carved on both sides. I cut three slabs out of the log. I was planning on using one of the outside curved piece as you suggested but that center slab kept calling me.
MoonDance- This one did go pretty quick, so far about 5.5 hours from the point I picked up the saw to what I posted. It needs about another hour or so of sanding then a coat of finish.
I do have 5 or 6 progress pics I could post, but since this is not really tiki, I didn't want to take up to much space. What do you guys think?
Finkdaddy- I would be honored to have one of my pieces in your Leeward Lounge (your space is just too awesome), but Gman should have a first shot at any fish carvings here. My sale was totally outside of TikiCentral. Other than that send me a PM.
Feelin' Zombified- I looked around my woodpile this weekend to see if I had anything I could give you, but I was really disappointed with the state of my stock, I need to start looking around myself.
Thanks again
JP
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Feelin' Zombified
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Jul 15, 2003
Posts: 1328
From: The Exotic Shores of Lake St. Clair
| Posted: 2005-12-12 5:14 pm Permalink
Many thanks for the thought Johnny P... very kind of you.
I know that there's a sawmill somewhere very close to you, but the address was rather sketchy, and they never answer the phone. I'll see if I can dig up that info again and maybe we'll both have a good, on-demand source.
-Z
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rodeotiki
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Jan 21, 2004
Posts: 1513
From: calgary
| Posted: 2005-12-12 9:46 pm Permalink
The fish would be a great addition to any tiki room in my opinion. Now I want one ( just another thing to add to my list of things to try)
Thanks for sharing. Any ideas on the type of finish yet ?
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Mr. Dale
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Jan 26, 2004
Posts: 300
From: a garage somewhere in Arvada, Colorado
| Posted: 2005-12-15 08:51 am Permalink
I gotta spend more time around here!
Great place and carvings, aloha Mr. Johnny!
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Benzart
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Jan 09, 2004
Posts: 10306
From: Port Saint Lucie, Florida
| Posted: 2005-12-15 10:13 am Permalink
JohnnyP's, Nice Dolphin, you going to color him or leave natural? Either way he is a tough looking fish that he is. He has that look that is difficult to capture.
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JohnnyP
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Nov 23, 2005
Posts: 1689
From: Attica, MI
| Posted: 2005-12-18 1:57 pm Permalink
Hi all, I took Gman’s advice and carved another for the sale, we decided to keep the one shown in an earlier post.. Here is me with both in an unfinished state.
Julie, my wife, modeling with finished project. She did the painting . What a catch! 
After a little diversion, back to tiki stuff. BK’s post about weapons and tiki bars had me finally motivated to start some I’ve been wanting to try. Here is my attempt and version of a Fijian Totokia club . Criticism welcome.
Club
Hope you enjoy. Thanks for looking.
JP
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GMAN
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Jul 14, 2005
Posts: 2994
From: My Island
| Posted: 2005-12-18 2:11 pm Permalink
JP,
I'm diggin it. The second mahi looks great as well. Good move!  The painting on the mahi looks great. Your wife did a wonderful job. She gets extra points for wearing a Dino T shirt. Dino RULES!
That club looks really nasty!!! I would hate to get busted in the squash with that freaking thing. Yikes!!!
-Gman
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Benzart
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Jan 09, 2004
Posts: 10306
From: Port Saint Lucie, Florida
| Posted: 2005-12-19 04:03 am Permalink
Excellent catch there Johnny and the fish are great too. A WIfe who can paint like that and boost the worth of your art is Very hard do come by. The dolphinlooks just fresh caught and would look better in my frying pan than anywhere else Of course the wall would be the next best palce. Thanks for posting.
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tikimecula
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Apr 27, 2004
Posts: 404
From: Manhattan, KS
| Posted: 2005-12-19 07:29 am Permalink
Great Job on the Club! What kind of wood did you use?
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Basement Kahuna
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Oct 14, 2002
Posts: 3587
From: Jawja Province, Isle of North America
| Posted: 2005-12-19 4:53 pm Permalink
Hey, Johnny P. I'd say you nailed it. That's one of the more unusual shapes..translates to "beaked battle hammer". Made to punch a neat little hole in the skull, thus preserving the rest of the "long pig" without contaminating it for the grillout!! Totokia are a tough carve from standard wood...The Fijians used an ironwood sapling that was "trained" at a 90 degree angle when it was small. They'd take the sapling, pull it up by the rootball leaving the tap root in the middle intact, and dry it exactly as it was, before scraping it and decorating it. The natural shape and very heavy weight of the bent ironwood sapling made an almost perfect weapon. Neat piece. It's great to see others doing some warclubs finally. That's the first totokia I've seen around here!
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JohnnyP
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Nov 23, 2005
Posts: 1689
From: Attica, MI
| Posted: 2005-12-19 5:07 pm Permalink
Thanks Gman and Benzart
Yeah, I think she's quite a catch also. She even encourages this crazy hobby of mine. Just her posing with it makes my art look better. Dino does rule.
Tikimecula
Thanks. I used elm for this one.
BK
A complement from you on the club means a lot to me.
I've been wanting to try this club for a while but I couldn't find the right chunk of wood and had other projects to do. BK's post boosted me in the right direction and while I was cutting firewood last weekend I found the right piece. If I carved this piece out of straight grained wood it would be really weak at the bend in the handle near the "head" or pineapple part and might have broken with a simple fall. I cut this out of large crotch in a tree trunk and the head, knob or point, and the curved part is made of the curly twisted grain of the heart of the crotch. I had to cut away a large amount of wood with a chainsaw to get this. (I'd suspected the original makers found a branch just the size and shape of the handle and just cut the head out of the trunk. I didn't have such luck. Thanks BK for the insight) It was very difficult to carve the head since every bump had the grain going a different direction.
Sorry about the quality of the photo. How do you get good resolution without the flash washing out all the detail.
I'm working on a somewhat shallow relief piece now and was hoping somebody would give me a tip on how to make the bottom of the cut outs clean? I keep getting tool-marks and splinters at the very bottom.
Thanks in advance.
[ This Message was edited by: JohnnyP 2005-12-19 17:11 ]
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JohnnyP
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Nov 23, 2005
Posts: 1689
From: Attica, MI
| Posted: 2005-12-22 12:08 pm Permalink
I just completed another Fijian Club. I don’t think mine holds a candle to Tikimecula’s or BKs . I did manage to get a sharp edge out of it. I tested it on an apple and sliced it right in two. I was unsure how thick to make it so I did some rough measurements from photos in a couple books and quick math to come up with my estimate. (read-- guess). It is about 2.25 inches thick in the handle and the thick part of the club head. It is spaulted (sp?) elm sliced out of log with a chainsaw. The spaulting gives it the dark line you can see in the middle of the club head in the second picture. All the checkering is done with a very low tech Stanley utility knife. I need to get a decent set of chisels.
Here was last night’s project. A quick Christmas gift. Just some chainsaw, angle grinder, and blow torch fun. It's elm as well and had dark /light grain contrasts that you can kinda see, but not too well. It was about an hour and half's worth of play time, (looks like it too)
Thanks for looking.
JP
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GMAN
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Jul 14, 2005
Posts: 2994
From: My Island
| Posted: 2005-12-22 7:49 pm Permalink
JP,
Nice job on the club! I like your quickie tiki too. Check ebay for some gun stock checkering tools, I bet they would really help you make those clubs really, really, really fancy. They would probably be a bit safer than using a utility knife
-Gman
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Sam Gambino
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Dec 02, 2003
Posts: 2197
From: www.samgambino.com
| Posted: 2005-12-23 08:45 am Permalink
Fine club-work, Johnny P. It's also nice that your wife gets involved too.
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Benzart
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Jan 09, 2004
Posts: 10306
From: Port Saint Lucie, Florida
| Posted: 2005-12-23 10:12 am Permalink
Yes Excellent club work. The Totokia is awesome, especially considering how youharvested the wood for it.
To get the bottom of your cuts clean, don't carve a channel, carve a "V" line that comes to a point at the bottom. start narrow and as you get it to the width you want you can make it sharp, crisp and clean. If you must carve tha square bottomed channel type line, you can get "Bottoming chisels, even Micro ones, 1 mm and up wide. Basically it is just a mini mortising chisel.
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