Nerding Out: Wood Burning
Author: Barmacral Tigana, April 2018
So once the runes and sigils are sorted I need to carve them into a staff, but I wanted an authentic look to it. I wasn’t interested in painting black lines or anything so I was considering using a soldering iron to burn the marks into it and what do you know? There’s an actual hobby called wood burning and it has its own pens (that are very similar to soldering irons). With this in mind I did some research and got my own pen and gave it a go.
- What is it?
Wood burning is the act of using heat to carve images or text into wood. It uses a pen that gets extremely hot, so safety is definitely paramount if you are interested in this. Essentially it is a matter of using different techniques of burning wood, not that different from using a pencil to draw or write.
- How deep does the rabbit hole go?
For getting started you can pick up a pen for fairly cheap that has one or two heat settings and maybe a few fancy tips to try different things, but once you’re deep into it there are far fancier pens that can be used and trying different types of woods, plus you can use the hobby to compliment woodworking as well, if you’re into that.
- How can you too get into this?
The easiest way is to get a wood burning pen and a piece of wood. Doesn’t need to be anything fancy, any nearby scrap will do. I understand though that a softwood is easier to work with and might be a good way to go to start. If you want to know a bit more though I recommend this tutorial on youtube and this in depth article on the art of manliness.
