wood burning tutorials

These Videos Will Teach You How to Prepare Wood for Pyrography

I love pyrography as an art, because there are no limits to my creativity. One of the areas that I have always struggled with, though, is getting the best woods ready for writing with fire. After doing a lot of research, I came up with three videos that can help you get your woods ready for the job.

Dylan’s DIY Workshop is one of the top go-to guides that teach beginners – like you – how to prepare wood for burning.

Learn from Dylan DIY Workshop

In this video I go over a few ways to prepare wood for wood burning/pyrography. I also go over which way I like the best and which way tends to produce the best results! So I hope you can add to your wood burning know-how today.

Watch the Video

You will love the guide because the author even includes samples of their creations, so you can have a clear picture of what exactly is going on.

The Learning Droid also has a guide that will walk you through everything you need to know about preparing your wood for the task ahead.

Basic Guide by The Learning Droid

This video shows the basic steps I go through just to prepare some basic bits of storebought model shop style wood planks.

Watch the Video

This video is long than the first one, which means it is a lot more detailed. But we’ll leave that up to do you to decide anyway.

There is another video from Dylan DIY Shop, which we think was worth including as the third option in this guide.

A Trick from Dylan

Here is a video explaining how to prepare wood for wood burning. (how to prep wood for pyrography)

Watch the Video

You can use what you learn from this video to make the process of preparing your wood very easy, and fast.

Conclusion

These guides are in-depth. So, it would be great if you can pay close attention to the coach so you can get the most out of each guide.

Wood Burning Books For Beginners and Experts

by Patience

The range of books out there written by and for pyrographers is astounding. There are books on how to do pyrography, about the tools for pyrography, and also pyrography designs.

Many books have been published in both eBook and print format, and you might find there are some books at your local library on the subject.

Popular Books Online

Some very famous books written about pyrography include Pyrography Workbook: A Complete Guide to the Art of Woodburning by Sue Walters and Pyrography Basics: Techniques and Exercises for Beginners by Lora Irish, amongst many others.

Sue Walters is a renowned pyrographer throughout the trade and her book covers all the basics as well as provides designs for beginner, intermediate and expert pyrography artists.

It goes over a huge range of techniques and explains how to burn on many different materials, as well as all the tools that can be used. She also gives pointers on how to do some of the more difficult techniques, like drawing animal fur, feathers, and eyes.

Lora Irish’s book walks you through all the basic techniques of pyrography and tells you about the different tools and materials you can use. It also has 7 step-by-step projects that will take through a range of techniques and styles. It’s great for beginners.

Both books have good reviews and are best-sellers. They are only two among a great many available on Amazon and other sites like Goodreads.

The Pros of Having a Book as a Beginner

When starting out in any craft, teaching yourself will always be somewhat of a challenge. However, having something in front of you with clear instructions and photographs can make it so much easier and enjoyable.

When there are so many books available for beginners written by well known and expert pyrographers it would be a shame almost to not take advantage of the resources there for you.

A book can take you through all the information you need to know to start you off, as well as providing examples of techniques to make your pyrography stand out.

When choosing a book, while some are relatively timeless and will prove helpful ten years after it was written, it helps to have at least one or two very up-to-date books. This ensures all the information you’re reading about tools, nibs and materials are accurate and relevant to you.

Books for the Expert

Just because a lot of books are written with beginners in mind doesn’t mean they can’t be incredibly useful to well-practised and expert pyrographers as well. Some books will be goldmines of new techniques and interesting designs that will challenge and inspire even a veteran of the art.

The advancement of technology has meant that the internet is now a treasure trove of information for crafters and artists, so finding a book suitable to you online will be easy for anyone, regardless of their level of expertise.

Along with eBooks you can buy books online and have them sent to you in print format, so even if reading online isn’t your thing there is still a way.

The Art of Fire Writing, or Where You Get To Start on Wood Burning

by Patience

Pyrography is the art of fire writing. The idea is to burn text of drawings onto wood, creating a charred image. The art itself may be as old as man. With the increase in popularity of do-it-yourself projects, pyrography has also seen a revival of sorts. If you are a wood burning amateur check out this post.

A lot of the young people who are into pyrography have found this to be a craft requiring a lot of patience and skill, as well as being handy with tools. Men and women alike have found this art, and have fallen in love with it.

Found under the ArtofManliness.com website, the article was written by Jeremy Anderberg, for beginners who are interested in pyrography.

A Beginner’s Guide to Pyrography, aka Woodburning

image credit: ArtOfManliness.com

“A woodburning pen is a very simple tool. It’s a pen-like device with a metal end through which heat is transferred to a removable tip. All but the cheapest models are variable temperature tools.

With any kit, you’ll get 4-7 different tips for various methods of burning: straight lines, rounded lines, shading, etc. You’ll also get a metal safety stand for the pen so it’s never just sitting on a table or workbench.

“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.”

Read the full article here.

One of the most common advice relates to the wood burning pen. In this case, the pen is more like a soldering iron which you use to burn areas of the wood to come up with the artwork.

Timothy Dahl wrote some other tips about starting to do pyrography. His article could not over-emphasize the need to choose the right pen for the right strokes.

How to Get Started with the Art of Pyrography (aka “Wood Burning”)

image credit: Lifehacker.com

“The most common way to burn wood is with a pyrography pen (see the photo at the top of this post). These are called solid-point burners and are similar in look and design to a soldering iron. They have a solid brass tip which is heated by an electrical element, and operates at a fixed temperature.

“More advanced pyrography tools have variable heat control and use a wire-nib burner (shown above) to create more precise wood burning detail.

Read the full article here.

It may seem from the above advice that it takes a long time to do your project. It is. During that time, you are going to be beset by fatigue, cramps, burns, and just generally lose your patience. Taking it slow is a sound advice.

There are also a lot of videos on YouTube about pyrography. One of those who’ve created a video about pyrography is Cantrip. She has a lot of interesting materials on her page.

“Pyrography is like a spectacle. It’s kind of a spectacle. You can take a drawing, and the drawing is awesome and you take it, it looks great. If you take that drawing and you burn it onto wood, the perceived value is many, many times greater than that of the original drawing.

“Why is that?”

“It’s a different kind of skill and it takes a bit more to burn something. It takes a little bit more patience to burn something into it.”

If you are the type who wants to learn new things, and then move on to the next without mastering anything, pyrography is not for you. It is not a skill which requires lots of practice in order to create your first work. It is not a trivial task. It requires dedication and a different level of creativity to come up with true art.