[Marci MN]

When you burn in details, like beard lines and creases, and paint over them.. will the burn show through my painting? Or will the burn lines come back as detail when I do the antiqueing after sealing?

I did a few small santa's and I would like to try burning in details for the first time.

I'm just a bit confused on how this is done.

If my carving has been soaked in BLO.. and I take a wood burner to it.. will the BLO and hot iron be a bad mix? Will I end up with charcoal? Or do I do the burn before soaking?

Thank you.

[Kenny_S]

I would worry more about fumes from burning the carving with BLO.
Burning should be done before any type of perservatives is put on the carving.
ONly get the the burner as hot as need to indent the details and sometimes that is a little dark. Look at Lynn's carvings. Use a stiff bristle bruch to remove as much of the charred area as possible without eating away the detail. Maybe the use of Gesso would also help.

[Thomp]

Originally Posted by Marci MN

When you burn in details, like beard lines and creases, and paint over them.. will the burn show through my painting? Or will the burn lines come back as detail when I do the antiqueing after sealing?

I did a few small santa's and I would like to try burning in details for the first time.

I'm just a bit confused on how this is done.

If my carving has been soaked in BLO.. and I take a wood burner to it.. will the BLO and hot iron be a bad mix? Will I end up with charcoal? Or do I do the burn before soaking?

Thank you.

Burning should always be done on bare wood,
over on the pyrographic thread, i seen many times of folks complaining of the wood smoke and fumes in their eyes, some woods more than others have natural repellents in them and this might be the cause for the irritation,
some folks burn outside on the porch, or such, others put a small fan blowing away from them to pull the smoke away from them,

i burn clean and dry, but I use a painting method that lynn drought tought me, it is to wet the carving, then apply light coats of wash to the carving, in this mannor the paint stays away from the burned in detail and wont cross the line, so you dont get much paint mix colorations, or paint creeping, but if you want to cover big scorches where the burner gets away from you, or you touch the carving, you have to work on it with thicker paints ....look below at horse-pony

I would never burn over paint, unless it was outside, and then it might still be dangerious to you or the carving, blo might scorch to a candy mess you would have to cut off...

on this blog is the first thing i burned for detail with a soldering iron type wood burner, it got a little dark, and took several coats to cover the scorched mark where i messed up. i didnt test on scrap i went right to the work at hand, it was pine 2x4 scrap. the little pony i burned for detail, remember the blog posts backwards so the first posts are at the bottom.
http://thompsblog1.blogspot.com/
other burned items on the blog you might get some idea of what to watch out for.

best way to tell you marci is to test in a scrap of the same piece of wood,

[Irish]

Hey Marci,

You have been given some great advice so far.

1. Don't wood burn any carving that has been already sealed or painted. You are burning varnishes, oils or paint instead of wood.

2. Use a cool tool to start. If you have a variable temperature tool you can set the thermostat to a low setting. If you are using a one-temperature tool start your burning soon after you plug the tool in, while it is heating up.

3. Use gentle pressure, let the tool do the work. Forcing the tool tip into the wood creates dark colored burns. You can always go over a line that you have already burned to deepen the line depth without deepening the tonal value color of the burn.

4. Keep your tool's tip very clean. Stop often and make sure there is no carbon build-up on the tip. The carbon can be sen when a brass tip starts to turn browninsh in color or a variable tip starts to turn deep gray colored. Clean tips burn clean lines.

Susan

[AlArchie]

Boy, some more good advice ....thanks, Susan, Thomp, and Kenny. Here's one more tip(?) maybe just an observation. A lot of pine, especially some of the heavier varieties, and white cedar, has an inordinate amount of pitch in the wood fibers and can add a lot of irritating smoke to the air and burned pitch gunking up your tips and burn lines.

Al

[Kenny_S]

Susan, I found out the hard way on burning wood with a finish already on it. In my early Scouting(Cub) days we put on a three day Day camp for the Cub Scouts up through and including 2nd year Webelos. They were there from 8am till 3:30 pm and we had 10 station for the boys to go through. I was in charge of one of the wood projects as someone had donated all the finished walnut pieces to make book ends for each Cub Scout. The director of the camp had a branding iron made in the shape of the Scout emblem so I was to brand each piece so the Cubby could finish it by putting everything together. Now after branding, the piece did cool down quickly, but created a lot of smoke/fumes.
Well, being Mr macho, I did not wear any breathing portection and after a couple of hours of heating the branding iron and branding the walnut piece I as so horse and sick, I could not anntend the second day of camo which let it to my assitant who in turn got sick from branding. Luckily, not an ever lasting effect(that we know of) but a lesson well learned. Luckily also, we had branded each Cubby's pieces so not a one went away from there with out a branded piece.
One of thoose things, one doesn't think of when they agree on doing it but learned that no more branding with out a resperator.

[Hi_Ho_Sliver]

There is one thing you can burn thru..."KT Super Sealer"

[Marci MN]

Thank you , Thank you.

I have bought a wood burner..but its an el cheapo. One temp. I will watch for the carbon build up...but how do I clean this tip? Will the tip have to be cooled down first before cleaning it?

The wood is basswood. I will burn it first and I'm glad I asked about doing it before or after painting. I will also have my air cleaner and respirator on.

When asking about the coloring of the burn after painting.. its because I'm looking for the look that Teri Embry has on her beards.. that dark in the creases. I'd like to do a tassle look on a robe with that dark deep down in the crease. I was thinking that was from the burn showing through. Is it ok to ask how that is done or is that maybe a trade secret?

Thank you again folks... you make asking questions easy and non embarassing. Much appreciated.

Marci.

[AlArchie]

A piece of that foam backed sandpaper on your work bench works great for cleaning tips. Just drag the tip across the pad a few times..rapidly enough so the foam backing doesn't melt. Easy and cheap!

Al

[Marci MN]

I read your post Al and had a DUH moment on myself. I didnt even think sandpaper.. I was thinking a wet solvent or something to wipe that tip. *chuckling at my stupidity here*

Thanks much for explaining that one for me. I do have those type of sanders here. I love those things. Hubby bought those bigger blocks from Harbor Freight and I cut them down to tiny pieces to help sand the tight spots.