Post #601156 by Bay Park Buzzy on Fri, Aug 5, 2011 10:06 PM

hey Nixxon!

As Maddog said, I've knocked out a few seats carved out of palm. When you're making furniture, it's a step up on the carving toughness scale. It's not like a regular tiki that's just going sit outside and rot. The carving will be touched, used, moved, and most importantly, enjoyed in a tactile way. You'll have to finsh the edges and such better because you don;t want people to get splintered. They also can't be too high and wobbly.

As for the log itself, I would only use the most firm and hard wood available. you don't a big gash to appear on the top of the seat later on down the line. You also have to consider where thay will sit. A wet log will stain the spot it sits on, so you don't want musty logs ruining nice interior hardwood floors. The acid and mildew will ruin whatever it sits on

as for wetness: you have to use what you got, or wait. I've never used a log fresher than a year and a half for any seats I made. I've never rushed out a wet piece of wood either. If you ask top dollar for your stuff, you should deliver top dollar stuff. If it's just a cheap stump to sit on, it doesn't really matter and you should just hack it out and move on.

If they're real wet and you have concerns about the ends splitting, just cheat and make a stool top out of some round wood, foam padding, and some old hawaian shirts for seat the cover material. Tack it on the top of the log and Viola! Attractive padded seat that will cover ant cracks that ever appear.

Other than that, just go for it and see what happens.
Buzzy Out!