Wood burning is an art that first appeared at the end of the last century in the Russian capital. At first, this technique was used to make nesting dolls. Subsequently, this method was called pyrography.
A little history
The first devices that were designed for burning turned out to be imperfect. They ran on gasoline, which heated a platinum needle. In order to maintain a constant temperature, the person doing the burning had to constantly pump gasoline using a foot pedal. Although the process turned out to be labor-intensive, pyrography became more and more popular every day.
The technique was mainly used for making nesting dolls; it was only many years later that designs for wood burning became more varied and beautiful. As nesting dolls became more and more popular, labor-intensive pyrography had to be abandoned, and painting took its place. But they didn’t forget about burning, and now this technique was used to decorate boxes, caskets and other wooden objects.
Modern device
Wood burning for beginners became a very simple and accessible technique after the electric device was invented. Now it could be used to decorate items made of leather, bones, paper and other materials.
The simplest electric burner includes: a step-down transformer, a rheostat, handles and replaceable filaments, which are also called pins. Professionals recommend replacing the rheostat with a laboratory transformer, which makes it possible to obtain high-quality burning of different tones.
Wood burning at home involves the use of a factory-made school device. This electric burner is mainly used for contour and tonal drawings.
Wood burning for beginners
In order not to be disappointed in your skills and pyrography in general the first time, you need to know all the intricacies of this type of needlework. For the picture you need to take soft hardwood, for example, aspen, linden, poplar, etc. It is also worth considering the fact that some types of wood can ignite at a temperature of about 150 degrees, while others can withstand about 250 degrees. Therefore, it is better to choose a soft material, so the firing process will be easier and faster.
If you want to make a more complex design, then you should use it. In addition, you need to take into account that in order to keep the surface of the wood clean and neat, you can use the method used by real masters. To begin with, pictures for wood burning are transferred to Then, using glue made from starch or flour, glue it onto the wood itself. The burning process itself must be carried out on tissue paper. When the painting is finished, the paper is carefully removed.
You need to start mastering the pyrography technique with some kind of easy and simple design that does not require complex pins. This concept refers to brackets of different sizes, made from which can have a diameter from 0.3 to 1.5 mm. To make a pin, you need to cut the wire and use pliers or round nose pliers to give it the desired shape. To make it more rigid, the wire must first be hammered. Although you can keep things simple and buy a set of different pins in a specialized store.
Important aspects
- Wood burning should begin after the pin is hot and a small tongue of flame is visible from it, which should not be accompanied by smoke. In this case, you can conclude that the gasoline is of high quality, the device works perfectly and the temperature for burning is optimal.
- If the flame goes out and you smell something burning, the vent is most likely clogged.
- When the tip of the pin heats up unevenly, this indicates that the gasoline you are using is of poor quality or the spirit lamp is not heated enough.
- If you had to take a long break during operation and the tip has cooled down, you should not heat it up again by blowing in air saturated with gasoline vapor, as this may lead to clogging.
- It is very important to clean the pin from slag during the burning period, as it will work poorly, cool down, and the design will ultimately turn out bad and sloppy. You cannot clean it with a knife or other metal object, as this can damage and ruin the pin.
Burning techniques
You must understand that you cannot erase the burner lines like a pencil, so there should be no errors or blots in your work. To avoid such problems, it is recommended to attach the wood at an angle. The hand in which you will hold the burner must have good support. In this case, you will be able to draw straight lines and they will not go to the side. In addition, it is recommended to complete the entire drawing in one sitting. If you don’t have that much time, then at least make a background first and then after a certain period of time.
Wood burning: important rules
To get a beautiful and vibrant drawing, it is recommended to use lines of different thicknesses and shades. The first aspect depends on the speed of movement of the hot pin, that is, the faster you move the device, the thinner the line will be, and vice versa. To regulate the shade, it is necessary to control the supplied air and the temperature of the tip: the larger it is, the darker the line. To quickly cool the pin, you need to touch it to a cold stone surface, for example, it could be marble, brick or granite. The wood burning device should be used like a pencil, that is, it should move easily, without any pushing or braking.
You need to be especially careful at the beginning and end of the line, as you can ruin the drawing. At an angle, strokes should be started from the top and should not be burned to the full depth at once. To begin with, it is recommended to work with a chisel and only then finish everything with a pin. To make strokes, the device must be placed flat. In order to decorate the background, you can use pins with curly tips.
Wood burning as a hobby or business step-by-step instructions
Wood burning can be performed not only by super masters of wood burning, but also by beginners.
The conversation will be about wood burning.
To begin with, it is better to train with plywood, then you can switch to alder. Having learned all the tricks, you can safely post advertisements with your services.
Remember!
If you become a master, you can earn good money and have a great time.
Step-by-step instructions for wood burning
- not only an interesting activity, but also a way to make a beautiful gift. You can make a sign for a bathhouse or just a postcard from wood. Unusual, isn't it?
Today we will make a sign for your bathhouse)
What we need:
— burner;
- a board on which you will burn (the size depends on the design);
— drawing (for convenience, it is better to take black and white);
- adhesive tape or tape;
- scissors;
— a pen without paste or a key.
Stages of work:
1) First of all, you need to decide on a pattern. After coming up with a specific theme, you need to find a drawing. This can be done in any search engine.
I advise you to search with the words “black and white” or “tattoo”, then the found designs are easier to transfer to wood and easier to burn. For example, " for bath drawing black and white"or "zodiac Aries tattoo."
2) The printed drawing must be attached to the board using tape or tape.
3) Using a key or a pen without paste, you should trace the entire design, lightly squeezing your design into the wood. Peel off one of the corners occasionally to keep track of how you're doing. But don’t peel off the drawing completely!
4) After tracing the entire drawing, you need to remove the paper and tape. It's time to start burning.
Use a fine nozzle. During the burning process, you can add new elements to the main design.
5) After burning, you can cover your wooden card with varnish for preservation. But you don’t have to cover it, then it will still have a pleasant smell of burnt wood.
Wood burning or pyrography is one of the most ancient arts. Some of the first objects decorated by burning were found in Peru. They date back to the 7th century BC. Ancient craftsmen obtained images using hot rods over a fire. Currently, there are more and more people who like to decorate their homes, and twigs have been replaced by special devices with which lines of different thicknesses and color saturation are applied to wood.
Read also the article: - lessons for beginners! 
How to choose a burner
You can even burn a simple picture with a regular soldering iron. But for regular practice, it is better to buy a wood burner. It fits comfortably in the hand, has an optimal heating temperature and replaceable attachments, which significantly expand the artist’s artistic capabilities.
There are two types of burners - with a wire or with a hard pen. Both types operate from a 220 V network, but samples with a hard pen do not have heating adjustment. When choosing, you should pay attention to the power of the device.
If the burner has a power of less than 20 W, working with it will be quite slow. Such devices are designed for children or those just learning the basics of burning.
More powerful devices allow you to work faster, but are suitable for those who are already confident in their actions.
Advantages of hard nib burners
These models are easy to use and low in price. With this type of burner it is easy to apply simple images with a minimum of details. They are most often bought for children or beginners. Disadvantages of the device include:
- long warm-up and cool-down times;
- handle that heats up during operation;
- large size of the handle and the feather located far away from it.
The latter feature makes it difficult to draw thin long lines and requires breaks from work to rest. If used for a long time, the device may overheat and fail. Therefore, to burn out a large complex pattern, it is better to choose a different type of device.
Features of devices with a wire pen
Samples of devices with a wire pen have great advantages:
- fast heating and cooling;
- comfortable handle;
- trouble-free replacement of wire in case of burnout;
- long pen life;
- Possibility of drawing lines of different thicknesses.
Such models are noticeably more expensive, so they are usually chosen for professional woodworking.
For testing, it is better to purchase an inexpensive model with a hard nib. If the activity takes you seriously, there is a wide selection of wood burning devices with a wire pen on sale.
How to choose a wooden backing and a pattern for burning
The wood chosen for work is linden, poplar, ash, aspen, and pine. These rocks are soft and easy to work with.
The softer the wood, the easier and more comfortable it is to work with.
Before work, the board must be carefully processed. The smoother its surface, the neater the design looks. The planed board is sanded with fine sandpaper, running along the grain. This will eliminate minor irregularities and chips. Finally, it is wiped with a damp rag to remove shavings and dust to make it easier to transfer the design.
Wood burning pictures for beginners should have clear outlines and a small amount of detail. Simple images are more difficult to spoil; there is always the opportunity to play with the line thickness or add an additional one in case of an error.
Themes for burning can be anything:
- congratulations on the holidays - such crafts will be a good gift;
- cartoon characters - the drawings are simple and fascinating, children love to burn them;
- funny images of animals will decorate and enliven the interior of the kitchen, hallway or nursery;
- landscapes look great in any setting;
- ornaments are always appropriate; they are easy to make using a stencil.
The most difficult design for wood burning is a photograph. This requires high skill of the performer and a set of attachments to convey all the nuances.
Burning patterns can be downloaded from the Internet or made yourself. To do this, place a sheet of tracing paper on the drawing and carefully trace all the lines, trying to convey their thickness.
Children can draw the simplest pictures themselves. In this case, burning becomes much more interesting.
Transfer the image to the board using carbon paper. It is fixed on the wood with the ink side down, tracing paper with a design is placed on top and all the lines are transferred, trying not to move the sheets in the process.
To make your first job a success, follow these subtleties:
- use a burner to apply thin strokes instead of thick lines, this makes it easier to direct the pen in the right direction;
- press the pen with equal force over the entire surface of the board;
- the longer the pen is held in one place, the darker and deeper the line becomes;
- try to move the pen along the grain of the wood, turning it with the fibers in itself; when burning against or across the grain, more effort must be applied;
- before work, practice on an unnecessary board with different attachments to get your hands on and have an idea of in what cases they should be used;
- start burning from the edge of the sketch - this is the most inconspicuous place in case of an error;
- move over the same place several times with light, thin strokes, achieving optimal thickness;
- place a small board under your hand so as not to smear the translated sketch and stain the board;
- First, burn in the main lines of the image to see the basis of the composition.
Once you've learned how to draw precise, even lines, experiment with shadows. Using this technique, you can achieve a three-dimensional image. Different attachments are used to display shadows.
The picture on the tree does not have to remain one color. For coloring, use watercolor paints (or pencils) and brushes.
The nozzles must be periodically cleaned of carbon deposits. To do this, use a special grinding pad or belt and aluminum oxide.
The finished product is coated with varnish or PVA glue.
Compliance with safety regulations
Teach your children safety rules when handling a burner and always follow them yourself:
- When changing attachments, use pliers to avoid burning your fingers;
- Be careful when working with a heated burner;
- always place the device on a special stand;
- do not leave the device turned on without attention;
- When working in enclosed spaces, use an exhaust fan, as some types of wood smoke heavily and can cause allergies and respiratory irritation.
Wood burning is a fun and rewarding activity. It will allow you to relax after a hard day at work, teach children perseverance and accuracy, and decorate your home with unique works.
Video review of the burning station
Video about drawing transfer and wood burning process
Good day, brain artisans! Today I will share my experience in the field of wood burning or pyrography, using which you can with your own hands create a real masterpiece!
Burning tool
You can choose any tool for pyrography: from cheap to expensive. My first burner was from a supermarket, it came with 5 different attachments and, in principle, it did its job perfectly. But over time, I began to use it only for filling in the background, since after many hours of working with it, it begins to slowly “fry” my fingers, and the tip becomes so hot that accuracy is lost.
So I purchased a professional brain instrument pyrograph, with the ability to adjust the heat of the tip, which is very convenient when using different types of wood and creating different shades. And of course, the big plus is that you don’t have to wait for the burner tip to cool down before changing it to another.
Material for pyrography
First, let me note that it is necessary to have a hood or fan when burning, but do not direct the air flow to the burner so that it does not cool.
— MDF: Not the most beautiful material, but I had it in large quantities. The material is hard, so it requires more heat; There is no grain, which allows you to draw more clearly and without errors; when doing a gradient it gives a nice golden sheen, but sometimes a lifeless grayish glow. Important! Since MDF is compressed-glued wood dust on a formaldehyde basis, a hood is required!
- pine: cheap and widely available material, soft, easily burned. The grain makes you play with the temperature of the heat and pressure on the tip, the resins give the craft a varnish shine.
— cedar: soft material, grain does not cause trouble, lines appear well, but the gradient is hardly noticeable.
— cherry: it smells great when working :) I've only worked with it once, but the quality is excellent.
Another note - never burn on surfaces that have been treated with anything (varnish, paint, etc.)! This will cause fire or poisoning.
Drawing contours
For my first homemade products I applied the contours painstakingly, by hand, believing that tracing paper or templates were not acceptable, that this was a kind of deception. But when I realized that customers did not appreciate this, that this was a moment of little concern for them, I began to apply the drawing using black tracing paper. It is the black and blue ones that cause a lot of unpleasant trouble.
The trick: some pyrographers apply a design using thermal transfer paper by printing the design on a printer and “transferring” it using a warm iron. But this method can cause overheating of the material even in volumetric homemade products The proportions of the drawing may be lost, and distortions may appear. But there is such a way.
Burning contours
To pass the contours, I use a spear-shaped tip with heating 7/10 for MDF and 5/10 for pine. A sharp tip makes it harder to keep the lines smooth, and it also leaves quite a furrow, but I like it. The ball sting does not penetrate deeply into the wood and allows you to burn lines in different directions.
Trick: Try to burn the outlines with one brain sketch, in one fell swoop, but move the tip slowly, as you may scratch the wood rather than burn it. With long lines, you can move not only the hand with the burner, but also the material itself.
Fill
Filling surfaces is easier than creating a gradient, but also looks good. For larger volumes, I recommend a flat tip with medium to high heat. For small areas I use a calligraphic pen, which also gives high quality.
Trick: Do not try to fill surfaces quickly and at excessively high temperatures, as this will ruin the homemade, leaving deep black scars-furrows on the tree. Work at medium temperatures using gentle circular motions.
Golden trick: When you first touch the wood, blow on the tip of the sting, this way the black starting point will not be visible when making circular movements, and the start will be smooth.
Gradient
To create a gradient you need less heat, more patience and precision in hand movements. To achieve a gradient effect, I use a flat tip with a 4-5/10 heat setting.
The gradient itself is applied in a circular motion over a small area; no changes are visible during the first pass, but passing over part of the area a second time, this area becomes darker.
Important: for large grains/fibres brain stuff Treat coarser fibers at a higher temperature than when applying the entire gradient.
Hatching
Hatching and cross-hatching give excellent results and sometimes they are even better than gradient, for example, with very high fibrous material.
For shading, I use the same tips as when drawing simple lines, for example, a spear-shaped sting. Start shading in one direction, always from the edges, so the edges will be darker than the inside. To do shading crafts darken in some places, apply cross-hatching.
Textures
Various textures come out well when burning, I’ll tell you about some:
- Scalp hair: For crazy 80's style hair (see Kiss) or just a little messy (see AC/DC), use a high heat flat tip. At the same time, do not try to make the lines smooth and flowing, this way you will achieve volume of the hair. Vary the shades by how much you press the burner, or leave unburned areas as highlights.
- fur: with a thin tip, sharp or round, you can create an amazing fur effect. In dark areas of fur, use a larger one brain heating both pressure and light, quick strokes in light areas. If the fur is too angular and crisp, go over it with a flat tip and refine the texture.
- scales and skin: use sharp and broken lines to create this texture. This will give a cracked effect, and use the flat tip to create shadows to add volume. For this texture, do not use shading, otherwise you will end up with a furry dragon :)
Background
After burning the main design, it is necessary to supplement homemade background, this is especially true when working with cheap and low-quality wood. My following tricks will help you with this:
— rust: the easiest way to apply rust is to “scrape off” the rust from old bolts and pieces of iron with ordinary brain sandpaper, and then apply the resulting brown powder to the homemade product. I do this with my finger, but the cotton swab version works too.
I often use this effect on MDF to remove excess shine and add realism.
- fan: using a regular movable fan that smoothly directs the flow to different corners of the room, you can create an amazing vignette effect. Just point it at your homemade product and begin to smoothly burn out the lines of the design; the effect will not appear immediately, but you will definitely see it. The point is that the flow from the fan periodically cools the tip, thereby the same line has different blackness along its length.
Be careful when working close to brain ventilator! I somehow forgot myself and got a decent burn when the fan hit the burner.
- shading: when the design requires a completely black background, or when you have patience, or the amount of shading is not large, then you can use a flat tip at high temperatures or use a gradient technique. But at the same time, be sure of the final result, otherwise everything will end in a waste of time and material.
- pointing or "dot": this is an old technique used in many medieval works of art. The idea is to simply heat an iron template, such as a bolt, and “brand” it repeatedly. homemade products. Now a sick round tip is suitable for this, which needs to be heated sufficiently and periodically cleaned of carbon deposits. When working with soft wood, this technique allows you to create a contrasting pattern and textured background.
If you liked my craft, then buy a burner and feel free to plunge into the world of art called pyrography.
Successful brain masterpieces!
Procedure for working with an electric burner
Burning drawings, paintings or ornaments on plywood should be done in the following sequence.
We choose a drawing we like from a book or magazine, in our case it will be the frog princess.
We cut out the plywood of the required size (if the size of the picture is small, then the thickness of the plywood does not play a big role, but if the picture is equal to or larger than A4 format, then the plywood should be taken with a thickness of at least 8 mm, so that future work will not be ruined). 
We take sandpaper with a medium grain size; the base of the sandpaper does not matter to us.
And we carefully protect the working surface of the plywood, that is, the side on which our drawing will be. Try to move the sandpaper along the grain of the wood (as shown in the photo), the plywood sanded in this way will have a soft, even matte appearance. The transverse movements of the sandpaper will create grooves on the surface of the plywood, which will be especially visible during the final finishing of the work with varnish. Traces of circular movements will also be visible under the varnish, making the work look sloppy.
We place the tracing paper on our drawing in the book and secure it with two clamps so that it does not get lost during the process of translating the drawing.
Using a soft pencil, trace the outline of the drawing.
When the entire drawing is outlined, we release the tracing paper from the clamps, now we have a copy of the drawing on tracing paper and a completely untouched original drawing in the book.
Take a sheet of copy paper.
We place it under tracing paper with a pattern and, using clamps, secure it in the right place on the front part of the plywood.
Now use a pencil or ballpoint pen to trace the outline of the drawing on tracing paper.
Having made sure that the entire drawing has been copied onto the plywood, remove the clamps, remove the tracing paper and carbon paper, and in front of us on the plywood is a ready-made drawing for burning.
To burn a picture you need a burner. Burners come in different designs, but most of them are a hot piece of wire or thermoelement fixed in a holder with a handle through which a wire from an electronic unit or electrical outlet passes (if the thermoelement operates on a 220-volt network).
Electric burners in our store are presented in three types. Two types - this is a classic burner with an electronic unit.
And one universal device for burning, soldering and cutting from STAYER 3-in-1.
We will use the STAYER burner for work as it is the most modern and interesting.
Let's unpack it by carefully bending the two brackets and opening it like a book with the yellow side of the description facing up so as not to spill the contents of the package.
In one of the recesses of the package there are three nozzles for wood burning
In another recess there is a short burning attachment and a collet clamp with a knife for cutting foam and plastic.
The soldering iron tip is screwed into the heater of the device. We remove the cardboard, and taking the device in our hands, we find a special metal plate under it, bending the central petal, with which we get a stand for the burner.
We install a burner on it (after replacing the soldering iron tip with a short burner attachment). The nozzle must be tightly screwed into the heater with force so that it does not dangle and has good thermal contact.
We plug the burner into a power outlet, while laying the wire in such a way that you do not accidentally throw the burner off the stand, since after a while it will heat up quite strongly. Be careful.
Attention! Always keep the burner on the stand, even if it is not turned on!
After the burner has warmed up, start burning the pattern prepared on the plywood. The first time will not be entirely accurate, but by the end of the work you will have confidence and some technique of work, you will feel how hard you need to press the tip of the burner when tracing the contour of the pattern along the fibers and across the fibers of the plywood. This cannot be explained in words, it must be felt.
Having finished burning the design, place the burner on the stand, unplug it from the outlet, and after it has cooled down, replace the burner nozzle with a shaped nozzle.
We turn on the burner again and after it heats up, we burn out several stars in the corners of the plywood to create a contour frame.
Now change the nozzle again and continue normal burning.
Attention! Change attachments only after turning off the device and cooling it down. Failure to follow these instructions may result in serious burns and injury.
At the end of the work you should get something like this picture on the tree.
Of course, you will have your own drawing - the one you chose yourself. Now you can safely burn any pictures you like, you will succeed. In the next lessons we will show you how to give a burnt design a finished look.