This is where I got started! My husband bought me a $7 wood burning pen as a Valentine’s Day gift. As I learned more I graduated to a better set of tips. Here are two options for beginners:
This one is a full kit.
It comes with literally everything you need to get started. The main drawback to this style is the heat up/down time. You have to wait for the pen to cool down completely before you can change the tip. But for someone who has a casual interest in wood, it would make a great gift and is less that $25.
Another option would be this type of model:
The benefit to this style is you can switch between 2 pens. You can let one cool while you utilize the other one. And the tips are significantly more precise and allow for better gradations of shading. And you can control the temperature of the pens for darker or lighter lines.
I personally was gifted this one.
The biggest drawback is that you have to buy individual pens (which I prefer to changing tips). Other than that, I absolutely love it. It heats up quickly, interchanges easily and the finger rest is so helpful when you’re burning for extended periods of time.
Other accessories:
This is useful because after burning for an hour or so, the heat from the pen starts to feel very hot against your fingers!
As you burn, ash will sometime build up on your pen tip. Rubbing it on a piece of leather such as this will keep it clean and sharp.
This is another option for cleaning the wood burning tips. You don’t really need both.
Drawing freehand is always an option, and there are other methods of transfer, but this is the industry standard. You place a whatever image you want to trace onto a a piece of carbon paper, and place both on the wood. Then you trace it will the provided tools. It truly is magic. The good thing about this method of transfer is the carbon left behind is easily burned off in the pyrography process, and doesn’t release any harmful chemicals.
Burning wood for extended periods of times is almost as dangerous as secondhand smoke. Make sure you protect your lungs!
If you plan on doing more woodworking outside of pyrography, this is a better option.
There are dozens of REALLY good pyrography books. This is just one of them. And don’t feel like you need to own all of them. The public library usually has several to browse!
Whitney Ruiz Art 