looking for tiki blanks

[palmazon]

[Tad]

jump in yo truck and c'mon down danny I got a a tractor trailer load worth

[George Sparkman]

Hi Danny,

email me your phone #.

I have a couple hundred linear feet of W.robusta and we are cutting down more.

George Sparkman

Cycads-n-Palms.com

[doubravsky]

hey... is that tiki takin' a dump?

[Kris]

Here are some for you from chennai....on route to E.C.R !  ::

[tjwalters]

I've seen some carved upside down, where the palm roots become the hair standing straight up.  Pretty cool.

[palmtiki]

I have a couple of dead King palm trunks down here in S.D.  If you are interested, pm with your phone # or email and I can save them for you.

Bob

[PalmGuyWC]

I have a Washingtonia hybrid growing next to two tall W. robustas and the hybrid is growing in front of the two robustas and in a prominent position. The hybrid has an enormous trunk, even larger than most W. filiferas. It's about 40' high, but the crown doesn't look all that good. I think it's affected like many W. filiferas by to much moisture in the Bay Area and our long cool winters. It's also crowding out one of my nice Butiagrus.

I've been thinking about whacking it off with about 20' of trunk left and having it carved into a totum, not a tiki, and left in place. Are there any enterprising artist out there? This would have to be a labor of love, but with some financial inducements and room and board until the project is finished. It is growing in a very accessable spot. Any experienced takers?

I can almost garentee your work of art would appear in Sunset Magazine, or some other garden magizenes.

Dick

[tjwalters]

Found a nice example of a root hair tiki here: http://davesgarden.com/community/blogs/i/37788/

[elHoagie]

Some guy with a gorilla mask and a hippy shirt cut down a huge tree in my backyard a couple weeks ago....

[DippyD]

anyone know how i might be able to purchase one of these guys? im looking for one as a gift but havnt found anything i like in particular! i also live in southern cali we had a guy in our town but he went out of business. what a shame!

[doubravsky]

check out www.tikiroom.com   in the forums, under carving forum, there's lots of carvers. Also in the marketplace forum.

One who is pretty prolific is "bay park buzzy". He makes quick, inexpensive tikis as well as intricate, well done, much more expensive ones. He's in San Diego...

I carve a little bit.... but nowhere near enough to sell stuff these days...

[DippyD]

wow are these your carvings in those pics? those are all awsome these are some of the better ones that i have seen...way better than these mass produced tikis! i will check out the site but would you be interested in making something if i found a picture?

[doubravsky]

Those are mine... thanks! But I just don't work fast enough to sell or do one on commish these days. Been trying to catch up with the ones I need for the backyard for like a year!

[DoomsDave]

So, Danny, are you feeling a bit sorry you posted this?

Or not?

Hmm.  There's always that washie by the pole, maybe a tribute to some poor schlub who got electrocuted . . . .

dave

[Dypsisdean]

Here's another "root hair" type tiki in my Leucadia garden.

[tjwalters]

Love it!

[palmazon]

Dick - a word of caution about your filifera : be sure to leave some device to prevent water from entering at the top. I had a prospective carving trunk left in the ground with the crown removed, but it filled with water and collapsed. I'm going to try one from some dicot we felled in elHoagie's backyard; I may also attempt a palau-style storyboard.

[Kim]

(palmazon @ Mar. 30 2008,07:03)

QUOTE

That's a simian grin if I ever saw one!  You going to put a little red beret on top of that?

Nicely done.

[PalmGuyWC]

Thanks guys for the information. I did a little checking on the web and totems can run $500 a foot, and they are carved in hard wood.  $500 X 20' = $10,000, so I think I can live without a totem. Maybe I can live with my not so healthy Washingtonia hybrid. It does have a beautiful trunk and it's been manicured. Tikis are becoming a fad, and some of them aren't all that pretty, and I can't think of anything polynesian about my cold hardy palm garden.

If I got a tiki, I expect my dogs would bark at it, and they bark enough as it is.

Dick

[DippyD]

hey dean where did yours come from? or did you make that one yourself also?

[TikiRick]

I also do some (amateur) tiki carvings. I use ONLY Sabal palmetto. I have used Washingtonia, while okay, it tends to decompose faster in our FL climate, than say CA.

The Sabal palmetto trunks are more dense since they are slower growing. I use only a chainsaw....but I do like the look of Dave's details....however, it does take much more time. I can carve a 6' tiki in about 45 minutes.

Use SPAR URETHANE not POLYURETHANE outdoors. Poly turns yellow and does not protect the wood as much as Spar does. Keep it up and off the ground...it will still absorb water from the top and the bottom.

[PalmGuyWC]

Question:

Do you guys who carve tiki's use a template for the design, or do you just do it free form? Rick, I think a Washingtonia would last much longer in Calif. than in Fla. I was even thinking about injecting some kind of preservative into the trunk to help preserve it and put a tin cap on the top to shed rain.

Someone sent in some pictures of a couple of Washingtonias that were living, standing trees with tikis carved into them....a little radical, but it seemed to work.

Dick

[doubravsky]

Dick, I would think a few generous coats of marine spar varnish, or another exterior protector on the top would go a long way towards protecting the log.

Washingtonias are pretty porous- especially the top cut. You can almost pour the varnish on it its so porous. But in our dry climate, unless you have sprinklers hitting it, it should be ok if the top is sealed.

As for templates, when I try to replicate a true style, like the Hawaiian Lono or Ku, or a Marquesan or Maori style piece, I have several polynesian art books that I refer to. Drawing it out and getting the symmetry just right is the hardest part for me. When I do something with a saw or freehand, I just go for it.

Palmazon, I'd love to see the Palau storyboard! go for it! If you get near riverside I've got a few logs I could share....

[malcthomas]

Question:

"Do you guys who carve tiki's use a template for the design, or do you just do it free form?"

Dick,  I have carved a few from Washingtonia trunk using a template...With a tiki,  the template is a piece of plain paper from roll which is folded in half length wise and the basic out line of one side of the face/body drawn onto it...the outline is gone over in felt pen so that it can be seen from the underside allowing it to be traced onto the second (blank side) half of the paper. This way the head/body is in symetry.

The template is then taped over the trunk to be carved and the drawn outline gone over with a hammer and flat chilsel to score the outline onto the wood...hope that all makes sense...

I use metalX to preserve the carving...

To mount the carving in a garden, drill a hole up the cetre of the bottom, pour some preservative down the hole and on the base a few times,  and then hammer in a rod of deformed steel reinforcing, leaving a couple of feet protuding from the bottom....   bore a hole 2 to 3 feet into the ground where the carving is going to be sited, fill with concrete and lower the carving with protuding rebar onto it....this way you are gauranteed that no idiot is going to knock it over or walk off with it...

cheers... Malcolm

[malcthomas]

Further to the above, should have mentioned that I clean off the elephant hide texture of the trunk with a small electric planer to give a smoothe finish for the outline work to be marked out...

Also..probably would be wise to put a bit of melfoy/ tar paper between the base of the carving and the concrete base...

regards..