Carving Wood 101

For those of you who may be contemplating a new hobby or career, I want to tell you that sculpting wood for fun or profit is satisfying, enjoyable and can bring some much needed stress relief.
My good friend named Jimbo Wright was a Tiki Carver and I was always amazed at the things he could make with a hammer and a chisel. I still have several of his pieces of art. One Tiki that I purchased from Jimbo haunted me. I carried the dang thing around for over 20 years. And it kept telling me to carve more Tikis. So one day I threw some palm tree logs in the back of my truck that had been set out on the street for the local trash pickup. I bought a wood Chisel set and a hammer. A few days later I drew a face on one of the logs and started beating away. When my girlfriend saw the finished product, she could not believe how good it looked and the rest is history.
The fact is that most people have more creative and artistic ability than they know. Until you get off the couch and do something that you thought you might be able to do then you will never know your true potential. Making the world a better place, one Tiki at a time. Snidely Whiplash Tikis 4 ever

100 Year Old Reclaimed Cypress Mahi

Here is one of my latest Mahi Mahi Carvings created from reclaimed worm wood cypress. This cypress was recovered from the old cypress mill on the St. Johns River in Geneva Florida. No other like it. This piece sold but I we take custom orders to your specifications.
Snidely Whiplash

Fish Carving Updates From Carvings4less.com

The April, Melbourne Art Show was truly a wonderful experience. This was the first time that we presented out products at this show and BOY was it the Bomb. We took every fish that we had in stock and came home with a lonely shark. We took several custom orders and just recently delivering the last fish. The Melbourne Art Show Committee Staff were wonderful, everything was very organized and we enjoyed all of the art, people and weather.
So, May was a catch up month for fish carving, unfortunately not for fishing. During the last weekend in May, we joined our friends at the Florida Salt Water Fishing Association for the Friday night Captain's Meeting and Vendor EXPO. The Raffle Prizes were unbelievable during the Captain's Meeting and the Saturday Tournament Weigh-In Festivities. We sold one of our 54 inch custom cypress Wahoos and one of our 40 inch Mahi-Mahi. Thanks FSFA for a great experience and opportunity. Hopefully, next year I will get to fish the tournament too.
I am currently sculpting my first red snapper in Laurel Oak. My first experience with this species of wood and I want to tell you this stuff is harder than rocks. I prefer cypress but this oak has a very unique grain that cypress does not offer.
We are putting together a partnership with Bob Brown of Brown's Taxidermy out of Port Canaveral where we will be offering a total Wood Taxidermy Service. For the first time we will offer custom fish mounts to order made from the wood of your choice instead of foam and fiberglass. We will update our progress on this new venture in the future.
I am also recovering from my first chain saw accident. 23 stitches to the right quadricep. Time for some better PPE. Man I don't ever want to do that again. Cheers