Historically, Pyrography or wood burning was used to brand different tools and musical instruments to convey the owners’ personality. Folk guitars and kitchenware were mark with a little bit of art. This helped distinguish ones product from others. Straight to today’s’ business, here are things you need to know about Pyrography specific woods.
A Pyrography pen is the most important tool that you must familiarize yourself with – like right now. This pen allows heat to transfer to its removable tip. As stated by Arts of Manliness, Pyrography pens are all variable temperature tools.
Pyrography Woods Need Specific Tools
The first thing you need to do, before working on any project, is to simply get familiar with the tool. Get a piece of scrap wood, plug in the woodburning tool and let it heat up for about 5 minutes, and test out “drawing” on the wood with the various tips just like you would with a pencil. It’s that simple. (Be sure to let the tool cool down for 5 minutes before changing out tips; it’ll then have to be heated up again for a few minutes.)
As a wood burner, it is important to get familiar with almost all tips. For example, a pen with a rounded tip is a multipurpose pen while a pen with a flat bottom helps you burn a large surface area at one time.
According to Life Hacker, free pallet wood is what most people use for Pyrography. Make sure that they are free from any chemical and sanded down smooth. Pinewood could be the other alternative from lumberyard or your home center. Just give them a light sand and you will be ready to start burning.
Know the kind of Wood to Use
Other popular woods for pyrography include basswood, butternut, mahogany, and walnut/birch plywoods. Hardwoods that are lighter in color will provide more contrast and show detail.
Soft woods will burn at lower temperatures while hard woods will require a very hot pen. Pine is the wood you can easily work with. If the wood is a raw piece you will want to sand it well and decide which way you want the grain.
The author of Wood Burning Beauty loves using watercolors when they want to add colors to designs. You can also do the same to make your wood burning = more visible.
Know How to Color the Woods
I recommend painting with watercolors only before adding up in other paint. You can thereafter add water to the color of your choice and paint the section you have filled with water.
Also, it can be helpful to keep a damp paper towel and wipe over your wood burning lines to keep them more visible.
We color our wood works so that they may appear more attractive. You never know, you may be lucky enough to attract a customer with the well painted wood and even earn a good amount of money out of it.
Conclusion
Use any wood to do Pyrography. There are no limitations to the kind of woods to use, as long as they are recommended. But remember, we prefer pine. But before getting into all these, first know how to relate with your Pyrography tools.
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