When it comes to any task, having the right tool for the job is essential and there is no exception when it comes to wood burning. Having the best wood burning pens at your disposal will make sure you are able to produce the best result and avoid the frustration of using sub-standard tools.

NOTE: This post is purely informational and is designed to give you advice on what to look for when purchasing a pen. If you want to see our best recommendations read our post here.

Things to Consider When Buying The Best Wood Burning Pens

Whether you are new to woodburning or a seasoned pyrographer, choosing the right pen will have a major impact on your project. To keep things simple, there are essentially three different pyrography burners:

Variable Temperature Pens
Rheostat Woodburning Pens
Pens with No Temperature Control

Burners with temperature control are more expensive but they produce a far better result, Don’t let this dismiss the “craft style” pens with no temperature control. While they will not be able to produce a highly detailed finished result, they do have their place.

Variable Temperature Pens

These are the best style and a great investment if you are serious about producing a quality result. These pens are also smaller and lighter because the temperature control is not within the pen. The lighter weight and smaller pen mean you won’t fatigue as fast as you would with the basic pens. They will also be easier to use for those craftsmen and women who have smaller hands.

Rheostat Controlled Pens

These pens include a temperature control dial that is enclosed within the cord. The addition of the rheostat means you will be able to create different effects on your projects. Lighter strokes and finer lines will increase the level of detail. Something the Basic pens are not able to produce.

Basic Pens With No Temperature Control

This style of wood burning pen would be the first kind most of us would’ve used when starting out. With the look and feel of a soldering iron, these pens are more suited to general craft. If you’re serious about Pyrography then this kind of pen will not be for you. Great for beginners. These pens tend to be larger so you may experience some level of hand fatigue when burning for longer periods of time.

Solid Tip Wood Burning Pens

These pens are not interchangeable like the others so you aren’t able to change tips to produce a different result. Don’t let that discourage you, though, these pens are great and depending on the tip you can produce great detail.

In general, these pens will outperform the interchangeable pens because the tip tends to be more hard wearing and they have a superior heat flow. Not in terms of pure heat but an even flow.

Their pens come with different tips so depending on whether you want to do shading or writing, this will determine the tip you choose.

Interchangeable Tip Wood Burning Pens

As the name states, these pens have more versatility than the solid tip variety. Most manufacturers will offer different tips so this can add a lot of diversity to your pen and what it can produce in terms of artwork.

Another great thing about this style of pen is that you can start making your own tips and using them in your pen. Talk about getting creative!

These are generally cheaper than the solid tip pens.

Wood Burning Tips

Having additional pen tips in your tool kit will allow you more diversity to your work. The interchangeable pens have the option of being able to swap the tips out easily. The solid tip pens lack this option so keep that mind when purchasing. Solid tip pens are great, sturdy and robust and most definitely have their use.

For anyone starting out, you will be able to make do with 3 pens

Shader
Writer
Skew

These tips cover all the basics for anyone starting out. Yes, you can expand this list but these tips will be the most used tips in your kit.

There are different kinds of shaders but initially, you want to choose the one that can achieve most of the shading you require. The bent spear shader is considered one of the most versatile shaders available. Able to work in smaller areas and finely detailed work.

There are a couple different writing tips to choose from. The fine tip and ball stylus are the most commonly used writing tips. It really depends on how fine the writing is.

Skews also come in a range of shapes and sizes. The most common styles of skews are the flat and round-heeled varieties. The round-heeled skew has greater versatility over the flat style and for this reason, we recommend this as your choice.