Woods with minimal grain also work best for wood burning. The grain of wood can cause the lines of wood burning to be bumpy and less precise. Wood with little grain allows you to draw smoother, more precise lines.
Sand off any coatings that are on the surface you will be wood burning. Burning through paint or stain can create a lot of toxic smoke that is not good to breathe in.
It’s also possible to freehand your letters with the wood burner. However, when beginning wood burning it is easier to have a pattern on the wood to follow.
When placing the carbon paper on your wood, make sure the the carbon side of the paper is facing the wood. The side facing up is typically shiny in comparison.
This process can only be done with photocopies. If you have an ink jet printer, this process will not work. You need to use a special tip for your wood burning iron to do this. If your iron did not come with one of these tips, contact the manufacturer to see if there is one available.
The price of wood burning irons can vary dramatically depending on the level of heat they can produce and what kind of heat controls they come with. You should be able to find a basic wood burner for about 40 dollars (USD). However, high quality wood burners that professionals use can cost over 200 dollars (USD).
In addition to large and small tips, there are differently shaped tips that make different types of lines. For instance, your wood-burning iron likely came with a tip that is teardrop shaped. This is made for shading. There are also tips that are made for drawing straight lines, which are wedge shaped and come to a point on on side. Once the iron has been heated up, use a pair of pliers to change the tip out. The pliers will save your hands from the hot iron.
When using specialty tips to stamp letters, you will have to switch out the tip for every separate letter. Be careful when doing this and remember to use pliers, as the tips will be very hot.
If your iron has heat controls, make sure that it is set to the heat your would like. If you want to make solid outlines, this usually requires an iron that is about 700 °F (371 °C). If you want to do some light shading, then you should set your iron to a more moderate temperature.
However, you can play with the amount of pressure you use on the surface to get different effects in the wood burning. For instance, If you want a darker area of your design, pressing down harder will make the burns deeper and darker.
Getting consistent lines can take some practice. If you are worried about have smooth lines, take some time to practice your technique on a scrap piece of wood before burning on your project wood. [7] X Research source
For example, the letter O should be done in one single stroke. The letter R can be done in three strokes: the upright line, the loop at the top, and the leg on the lower right side.
If you have an iron that doesn’t have a temperature adjustment knob, you will have less ability to fine tune the temperature. With this kind of iron, if it is not hot enough after a few strokes, you simply need to wait for the iron to heat up again before continuing your project.
Be sure to use a larger tip if you want to fill in large areas. Using a small tip to fill in a large area will take a long time and is likely to create inconsistencies in the color you get.
There may be specialty tips in your tip kit that you can use to stamp designs on your work. For instance, many wood burning irons come with stamping tips that have hearts or flowers on them. Try using some of these to elevate your design.
