qq about woodburning kit

[Raif Harik]

Hi, I just read about the basket illusion technique which looks like a fun project to try. Not something I want to do a ton of but fun. So I started looking at woodburners. They are not inexpensive. That said I've found a burnmaster eagle ( like the hawk but has two pen outlets ) for $110 which seems like a great price for the tool. Now here's my question, please help me justify purchasing this . Actually my question is, what other sorts of things do folks do with burners and their turnings. I don't really see myself doing much freehand wood burning art, i.e. pictures and such. I'm not that kind of artist. But are there other techniques folks use to enhance their turnings?
Thanks,
Raif

 

[Michael Anderson]

Hi Raif, great question!

First, that seams like a great deal on the Burnmaster. If you need a little peer pressure push….do it!

Second, woodburning is a deep rabbit hole. If for nothing else than to complete some basket illusion work, the acquisition will be worth it (acquisition, not purchase—takes the sting off, haha). Woodburners are great for a number of things beyond freehanding some drawings. They can be great texturing/carving tools, are good for defining borders (or making moats) for paint/dye/ink work, and can be excellent for signing your work.

 

[Dave Hulett]

Hi, I just read about the basket illusion technique which looks like a fun project to try. Not something I want to do a ton of but fun. So I started looking at woodburners. They are not inexpensive. That said I've found a burnmaster eagle ( like the hawk but has two pen outlets ) for $110 which seems like a great price for the tool. Now here's my question, please help me justify purchasing this . Actually my question is, what other sorts of things do folks do with burners and their turnings. I don't really see myself doing much freehand wood burning art, i.e. pictures and such. I'm not that kind of artist. But are there other techniques folks use to enhance their turnings?
Thanks,
Raif

I got a burner for basket illusions a number of years ago and in addition to BI, have used to embellish a number of turnings, examples below.. plus I use it to sign all my work.

 

[Steve Saah]

I do a fair amount of basket illusion work and would recommend you call Pat at PJL Enterprises and discuss the Optima burner and pens, particularly if you’re using the D-Way beading tools. If not, just ensure that your pen tip and beading tool match. You can also use a skew pen to burn the beads, but I find the tip that’s matched to your beading tool is significantly better.

It’s a slippery slope- have fun!!!

 

[Curt Fuller]

Raif, like you I don't do much in the way of pictures, drawings, etc. But I do a lot of design work featuring negative space to highlight the design. You can look in my album and see what I'm talking about better than I can explain it. https://www.aawforum.org/community/media/users/curt-fuller.1135/ I use a Burnmaster Hawk and the pen that came with it that accepts interchangeable tips. It's a great burner with a wide range of heat adjustment. I also do basket work using the PJL bead burning pens in 1/8" and 3/16". And I use a PJL small rounded skew pen extensively for burning the braided design on the rims and for outlining the negative space. PJL pens work with the Burnmaster without any adaptors. For filling in the negative space I use a tip in the Burnmaster pen that is just simply a bent nichrome wire. So what I guess I'm trying to say is that buying a good quality burning unit (like the Burnmaster or the Optima) and just a few pens opens up a lot of possibilities for enhancing you woodturnings. Very much justified!

 

[Lou Currier]

If you saw one of the demos at the 2023 AAW Symposium, there was a demonstrator who showed how to use the wood burner to create like @Michael Anderson reference as a moat. Burning into cracks to deepen them and then filling them with a type of medium of your choice and then turning it down. It created awesome designs sometimes.

This was a piece Chinese tallow and a little hard to see but the medium in the cracks is copper. Looks much better in person as it shines when the light hits it, but I used the technique of using the burner to widen and deepen the cracks before filling.

 

[Raif Harik]

@Curt Fuller Dang you do a bunch of basket stuff. Looks great. Now what is this negative space you speak of? is it like dark matter?
@Lou Currier Now I think you have me sold. I hate filling cracks, but for some reason all my pieces have cracks. Your suggesting that if I put like a "skew" burn tip on I can widen a crack, burning out the crap that's inside it sometimes and then that will be easier to fill and maybe look better? That sounds great!

 

[Michael Nathal]

If you saw one of the demos at the 2023 AAW Symposium, there was a demonstrator who showed how to use the wood burner to create like @Michael Anderson reference as a moat. Burning into cracks to deepen them and then filling them with a type of medium of your choice and then turning it down. It created awesome designs sometimes.

Curious who the demonstrator was. I do something similar, I sometimes enlarge the crack with a Dremel and then paint the crack with black acrylic paint. When I then put the turquoise chips into the crack, the black background really makes a difference. I think woodburning is probably the better approach

 

[Michael Anderson]

Curious who the demonstrator was. I do something similar, I sometimes enlarge the crack with a Dremel and then paint the crack with black acrylic paint. When I then put the turquoise chips into the crack, the black background really makes a difference. I think woodburning is probably the better approach

My best guess would be Phil Irons' kintsugi demo

 

[John Kananis]

I really need to get creative with mine. I have a razortip with just the standard triangular tip and a ball point tip - its solitary use has been to sign my work.

 

[Raif Harik]

can you hook a wood burner up to one of those little custom logo or signature burners? That is you can get your logo or sig made on a little metal disk that you then either fire up with a torch or attach, what I've heard is a generally under powered wand to it and it burns your logo/sig. I wonder if the woodburner could power something like that.

 

[Donna Banfield]

can you hook a wood burner up to one of those little custom logo or signature burners? That is you can get your logo or sig made on a little metal disk that you then either fire up with a torch or attach, what I've heard is a generally under powered wand to it and it burns your logo/sig. I wonder if the woodburner could power something like that.

Woodburners are not made for heating up that much metal. So even if you could find a way to attach a device that would transfer heat to the custom made logo, you will trip the overheating/safety button before it got hot enough to use to brand. And I own several of the highest wattage woodburners commercially made. I can trip the button with a 17 gauge nichrome wire that is less than 2 inches long after about 5 minutes.

Several years ago, you could make your own ‘vaporizer’ with a motorcycle battery charger. But those charges today contain too many plastic parts, and they tend to fail after not much use. Graeme Priddle stopped making and selling these types for that reason.