What woods work best?

[don k]

I have carved for a no. of years working in cherry and walnut and used the woodburner on my carvings. These woods have a heavy grain which causes the tips to catch. I picked up some smooth plywood at H.D. but the graining also caused the tips to catch. I was wondering which woods work best for portrait burning and where would I find the wood? Thanks for your help!

[Irish]

Don, I prefer birch plywood. The wood is hard and gives me more control over the tonal values especially when doing portraits. The grain is very fine so there is very little pulling or catching of the fine tip points. It has a soft golden cream tone when finishes so would be a nice contrast for your cherry and walnuts.

You can get birch plywood is small pre-cut sizes on EBay which make great practice pieces.

Basswood is also excellent but a much softer wood. So keep your temp setting very low at the start to capture the soft creams and mocha tones.

I don't like poplar at all. It is far too soft to my style of burning. Too often I find that the tip, even at very low temps, has compressed the fibers causing the burn stroke to create ridges in the wood. Ridges you can actually see and feel. This, for me, makes layering darker burns over the first burns messy.

Susan Irish

[Mottles]

I like burning on Birch, Poplar and Basswood the best. Oak is very tricky because of the raised grain. I have burned on Cottonwood spirits and it seems to be simular to Basswood. Forgot the found wood commission peice I think it was one of the pines, that wasn't bad either. I guess you can burn on most any wood, it's just preference some woods just take more skill than others.
Kathy

[Pyrographer]

I've done portraits on basswood, birch ply, italian poplar ply and maple burls. I just sand graduating up from 200 grit to about 600 so the wood is smooth. Then my shader just glides over the wood.

I actually prefer the harder woods like maple and maple burl because I get clearer, crisper detail and smoother shading and they have more personality than the "boring" basswood and italian poplar. Many people prefer basswood and italian poplar because they want clear backgrounds and no grain or figuring in the portraits. It really depends on the look you want to achieve and if you have the patience to burn on harder wood.

Nedra