THE CUTTING EDGE VALLEY MOM'S FOCUS GOES FROM PUNK REFRAIN TO SAW WITH CHAIN.

Byline: Brad A. Greenberg Staff Writer

CHATSWORTH - After attracting attention with screeching vocals and a risque wardrobe while fronting the '70s teen punk band The Runaways, Cherie Currie now turns heads with the blare of a chain saw and the sight of long blond hair contrasting with her flannel-clad shoulder.

After 25 years as a singer and actress, Currie is enjoying a rebirth. She's found her way as a chain-saw carver, turning 4-foot-long logs into wooden dolphins, bears, dogs and her favorite, finely detailed mermaids.

``I don't miss being an actress. I don't miss that stuff,'' said the 46- year-old West Hills mother. ``I'd much rather be doing this. I like being my own boss.''

Seven days a week, from 9 a.m. 'til dark, Currie carves wood at her Chatsworth studio, established in a vacant plant nursery across Topanga Canyon Boulevard from a firewood lot. Currie is a rarity among the 4 million American women woodworkers, most of whom build chairs, cabinets and picture frames. Only about 100 use a chain saw for their craft, according to the United Chainsaw Carvers Guild.

Currie uses a grinder to perfect details, a blowtorch for coloring and a lacquer for sealant.

``It's a God-given gift. You either have it or you don't,'' said Bob King, a former guild director from Edgewood, Wash., who carved with Currie last year on the show ``Monster Garage.'' ``There are only a couple (women) out there that are Cherie's caliber.''

Currie happened upon this hobby-turned-job after seeing mermaids and tikis in the Malibu Mountain Gallery on Kanan Road about five years ago. ``I can do this,'' she thought, and asked the owner, Rio de Jarnett, for advice.

``She's a good artist to start with,'' de Jarnett said. ``She went from one thing to another. Chain-sawing is just one of the things that she does.''

Currie's first stop in the spotlight occurred at age 15, shortly after the Encino teen and four other girls formed The Runaways. Wearing skimpy lingerie on stage, Currie spent two years with Joan Jett and Lita Ford, paving the way for other female rockers.

The rock magazine Bomp! dubbed her ``the lost daughter of Iggy Pop and Brigitte Bardot.'' She made three albums with The Runaways from 1975-77, then split to make her name as an actress.

It never happened, though. She co-starred alongside Jodie Foster in ``Foxes'' and appeared in ``Parasite'' with Demi Moore. But throughout the '80s she struggled with drug addiction, which she discussed in her 1989 autobiography, ``Neon Angel.''

In 1990, she married actor Robert Hays, Striker from the movie ``Airplane!'' The two had a son before divorcing in 1997. She appeared to have settled down (except for a duet reunion with Jett in Anaheim in 2002).

Last year, she began entering semipro chain-saw carving competitions, mainly in Oregon and Washington. She met Bill Towers at one in Reedsport, Ore., in June. They were briefly engaged, but have since taken on the serious relationship of chain-saw-carving partners.

Tower, who lives near the University of Oregon in Eugene, trucks down to the San Fernando Valley several times a month, bearing gifts of soft, strong wood.

He and Currie prefer cedar and redwood because they don't crack, aren't too sappy and are durable. A sharp chain saw will cut through these soft woods like a warm knife through butter, they said.

``But the redwood down here is small, and you just can't get cedar,'' Tower said.

That is one reason there are few chain-saw carvers in Southern California. Another is a casualty of limited open space.

``It's very hard to find a place where you can carve. It's loud and it's dusty,'' Currie said.

Her initial refuge was Log Cabin Mercantile on Valley Circle Boulevard. She also established chainsawchick.com. Currie moved her work this year to Topanga Canyon Boulevard. Model homes have been constructed at Chatsworth Street, half a block south of her studio, and Currie is worried she and Tower will soon have to move her gallery again.

They'll be looking for a place with a bit more security. Their visibility has attracted drive-by business and burglaries.

During the past four months, thieves have ignored surveillance cameras and stolen three carvings and even tried to make off with Tower's trailer, which popped off the getaway vehicle's hitch and was abandoned on Tulsa Street. About $10,000 in merchandise was taken.

It typically takes Currie and Tower a day to transform a log into art. Prices range from a couple hundred for a small bear to $10,000 for a 12-feet-tall eagle clutching a salmon.

Sometimes a week or more will pass between sales. Christmas, though, was busy. John Wilkins of Woodland Hills spent $800 on a special-order bear carved to look like a knight.

``My brother has always seemed like a bear to me, just a big hulking guy. I saw her work and I thought that would be a good present. And she made it work,'' Wilkins said.

There has been talk the past few years of a reunion for The Runaways. Currie, who remains close with Jett and Sandy West, wouldn't be opposed. But for now, she's content to clasp a chain saw instead of a microphone and to ogle wood hobbyists more than headbangers.

``I've always loved to perform. I always will perform. But I just like a simpler life,'' she said.

Brad A. Greenberg, [phone]

brad.greenberg(at)dailynews.com

CAPTION(S):

6 photos

Photo:

(1 -- 2 -- color) Cherie Currie, above, wields a chain saw to sculpt a whale at her wood-carving studio on Topanga Canyon Boulevard in Chatsworth. The West Hills resident hasn't always been a carver; in the 1970s, Currie was part of the teen punk band The Runaways, left, which included Joan Jett and Lita Ford.

(3 -- color) Chain-saw carver Cherie Currie uses an air hose to blow sawdust out of her hair after working on a dolphin creation at her Chatsworth studio. Currie is one of about 100 American women woodworkers who uses a chain saw.

(4 -- 5 -- color) Bill Tower, above, of Oregon, carves an eagle at the Chatsworth studio he shares with Cherie Currie. Above, Currie sands the base of a whale carving.

(6 -- color) An eagle carved by Bill Tower stands Monday at the Chatsworth studio he shares with fellow carver Cherie Currie.

Andy Holzman/Staff Photographer