Are you able to burn direct on wood now?

[barry8]

Hello, I used to do Pyrography a few years ago.
We had to sandpaper the piece of wood first, then do a tracing of the item that you wanted to burn. Stick the tracing on the wood, put a blue thing between the wood and the tracing paper. Then trace it onto the wood, with a pencil.
This used to take ages to do.
I was wondering, with a variable voltage controlled unit. Are you able to burn straight onto the wood please?
I think it would be a lot easier.
Thanks in advance.
Barry

 

[Walney Col]

Hi Barry.

You always could burn directly onto the wood following a pencil sketch or even freehand if you were up to it artistically.

The blue stuff you mention was probably carbon paper which has ink on the shiny side... you put it shiny side down onto the wood put your pattern on top the go round it with a pencil and the pressure of the pencil cause small amounts of the ink to adhere to the paper. (Lots of opportunities to accidentally move the carbon paper or tracing and mess the image up there if you're not careful.)

I do a lot of scroll sawing and our patterns used to be transferred the same way, but since the advent of computers many people prefer to print their patterns out on a laser printer (or have them photocopied) then put the pattern face down onto the wood and use a solvent to dissolve small amounts of the toner (the ink used in lasers and photocopying machines) onto the wood.

Hope that helps but if not try searching you tube https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=pyrography+pattern+transfer there's lots of ways to do it that don't involve carbon paper.

Col.

 

[barry8]

Hi Col.
Thank you so much for your quick reply! Yes - it is carbon paper. I have a Kokak hero printer, would I be able to do the same as with laser/photocopier please?
Years ago I used to do Pyrography with other people. I found it takes longer to trace the image onto the wood, than it does burn it.
I have the urge to carry on again.
Again - many thanks for your help Col.
Take care
Barry

 

[nanscombe]

Would iron on T-Shirt printing paper work, I wonder?

Transfer Photo Images to Wood Using Your Inkjet Printer

 

[Walney Col]

Hi Barry.

The thing about laser printers and photocopiers is that the toner they use can be dissolved enough by chemicals that it transfers to the wood. Whether your Kodak Hero uses that sort of toner I've no idea but if it's an inkjet printer then the clue is in the name - it'll use ink rather than toner and you'd have to find some other solvent to dissolve it with. I know there are ways of getting inkjet printouts transferred to wood (I'm just not familiar enough with them to advise you further) hence suggesting you google it or search youtube regarding your specific print method.

Col.

 

[barry8]

Hi Col.
I could always get a picture, that I would like to burn on wood, photocopy it and do as you suggested Col.
Again - thank you for your advice. I hope to scan one of my Pyrography's soon and load it on here too
Take care Col.
Barry

 

[barry8]

Hi Nigel,
What an amazing thing to do! Thank you very much for your advice.
Take care.
Barry

 

[monkeybiter]

Toner prints [laser printer or photocopier] can be transferred to a flat surface using an iron, similarly to the T-shirt transfer paper method, without the need for solvents [common method of creating printed circuit boards].
One difference being that only the toner is transferred from paper to surface, i.e. just the black lines. T-shirt transfer paper transfers a film, which has been printed on, to the entire surface, whiich would probably need sanding off once the pyro work was complete.

 

[barry8]

Thanks Mike, I will try it very soon. I just need to get the right equipment first. Mind you - today at Lidl - I purchased an Air Sander. So I will sand plenty of plier boards first