Hearing the words “wood burning” may conjure images of a campfire on a midsummer’s eve or sitting around a fireplace on a cold winter’s night. Yet, to those who practice the art form, wood burning is the age-old technique of pyrography. Taking a heated metal pen to wood and burning images, patterns, designs, and lettering into it is an ancient medium, one that connects the present day to the times of Egyptian pharaohs and other past civilizations.
Today, burning strokes creatively into wood, leather, canvas, or gourds with wood burning tool tips is an artistic expression practiced widely by novices and award-winning carvers alike. Craft or hobby, wood burning offers a creative outlet for anyone wishing to learn new things or develop an artistic flair for plaques, wall hangings or even duck decoys that could produce part-time income.
As a hobby, wood burning can be a fun way to develop your artistic skills, as you learn to decorate and brand various objects from kitchenware to tools. Whether you are just starting to explore pyrography or you are a long-time artist, burning designs into wood begins with having the right tools. For best results, you will want quick heating tools with adjustable tips that can burn at variable temperatures. To get started with the exciting, creative and fun hobby of pyrography, here’s what you need to know:
What do I Need to Start Wood Burning?
Pyrography is practiced with a woodburner, a heated metal pen with interchangeable tips that allow for different types of effects and brushstrokes to be burned into the medium. M.M. Newman Corporation introduced the Hot Tools Woodburner in 1978 and today it is regarded as the premier woodburner on the market. Our Woodburner is a lightweight wood burning pen with a thin varnished wooden handle for easy grip and attention to detail. The woodburner reaches 800 °F within two minutes but stays cool in your hand because it is designed with the heating element directly under the tip.
What Type of Woodburner Tip Should I Use?
Because there are a number of tips to select from, choosing the “correct” tip will really depend on what you are making, the design of the subject matter, along with basic wood burning techniques you wish to achieve. Wood burning tips come in a number of sizes and shapes. Having a selection of tips for your wood burning pen will allow you to explore creative patterns and designs with varying diameters, depths and strokes.
Our Woodburner has 13 specialty tips available. The Standard Tip, which is included with the Woodburner, has an outside diameter of 3/16” and can be applied for drawing straight lines, burning in veins on feathers for decoys, curving lines, or lettering. Other specialty tips allow for further creativity. There are needle sharp pointed tips used for making fine lines, intricate details or even small eyes in animals and birds. The fine lines of M.M. Newman Corporation’s Multigroove Tips allow for burning veins and feathers of medium-sized songbirds or full-size ducks. For intricate details, sizes and lengths of tips can offer various temperatures based on their actual sizes. A full review of individual tips for our wood burner tool is available if you are looking for additional information.
Hot Tools Wood Burning Kit
Hobbyists and artists alike will benefit from M.M. Newman Corporation’s complete wood burning kit. The kit contains the Woodburner, 13 different specialty tips, the Hot Tools Stand which provides a handy resting place for any of our tools, and the Dial-Temp precision temperature controller that allows you to adjust your own tip temperature. The Dial-Temp features an easy-to-use dial on top to adjust tip temperatures from 150°F to full heat. The Dial-Temp controller plugs into any grounded 115 VAC outlet, and your tool plugs into the Dial- Temp.
Modern wood burning tools allow hobbyists and seasoned artists to experiment creatively with an art form that has been practiced for centuries. Wood burning can lead to other woodworking skills like carving, too, or allow you to create decorative pieces for practical purposes for house and garden use. The diversity and choice are open to you, the individual artist, so let go and let the creativity flow.
Have questions about our Hot Tools products? Contact us at M.M. Newman Corporation to speak with our experienced team today.