Pyrography wood sources

One of the most exciting things about pyrography is discovering bits of wood upon which to do some pyrography work.

Since I took up the hobby in April 2011 I have sourced wood from many places. If you search the Internet for pyrography supplies you will get a few websites that have a good range of wooden items. One that I have used frequently is found at this website They sell a full range of wooden items and tools associated with pyrography. Service is friendly while delivery is quick and reasonably priced.

Another company I have used to get wood from is Craft-supplies who are based in Bradwell, a nice little village at the southern end of the peak district. I haven't tried using their internet based service because I always go there in person. Bradwell is a nice day trip out for me and the wife. We have a spot of lunch in the beautiful peak district and enjoy the stunning scenery all the way there and back.
Lots of cheap items can also be found in shops that sell kitchen items. On the left you can see a cheese board onto which I burnt a blackberry design. Wooden spoons are very cheap and look very nice with a pyrography pattern burnt into them. You can also find cutting boards, egg cups and rolling pins. The only thing you need to bear in mind when buying wooden items from kitchen shops is to make sure any wood you buy is light coloured like beech, maple, ash or birch. It might seem obvious but darker wood will not show your work up so well.

Lastly, and perhaps more interesting, is in keeping your eyes peeled in charity shops and places where they sell bric a brac. In these you will find many items that are made of wood and ripe for any pyrographer to take advantage of. Just a few words of caution if you go down this route. Please make sure that you remove any traces of varnish or other lacquer before burning into the wood.


Above, you can see a honey pot which my wife found in a charity shop. I sanded it down and did some flowers and bees on it with my pyrography iron. Then I coloured the items in just to give them a bit more life. That's the thing about pyrography, if you create something that doesn't quiet work you can always add a bit of colour if you want to.

In my next post I will tell you about the various mediums I use if I want to add colour to my pyrography.

If you would like to see more about me and my books please click here
Or if you would like to see some more of my pyrography work, please click here
Lastly if you want a special gift for somebody please visit my discounted pyrography shop on folksy.com which can be found by clicking here.

Pyrography Tips

Hi All,
Apologies for the delay in making this post; my only excuse is that I've been busy getting my latest book in the Fishing Detectives series ready for publishing. I find writing books is an enjoyable challenge but getting one ready for publication can be quite a bind. Having said that, it is still a pleasure compared with some of the things I've been involved in over the years, but we won't go into that here.
Anyway, in my last pyrography post I discussed the pros and cons of the two types of pyrography iron that are currently on the market. The conclusion was that a fixed tip iron was cheap but if you wanted to do some fine work you would have to fork out more money for a hot wire pyrography iron.
Okay, so let's suppose you've had a rush of blood and decided to go down the hot wire route, what are the choices?
Well basically, there are two popular hot wire pyrography irons.
The Razor Tip or the Peter Child's. Both irons are very capable and the choice is often made on price. The Peter Child's machine retails at a shade under £110 where the Razor tip comes in at about £130.
The other difference is in the tips. On the left you will see the two main tips used in the Peter Child's machine. The wire tips can either be purchased for £2.40 for 10, or you can buy a roll of wire relatively cheaply and make your own. The spoon tips are a bit more expensive at £4.60 for 10, but they do last a long while. I have a Peters Child's machine and 90% of the work I do is with the spoon tip. The edge of the spoon can be used for fine work and the underside can be used for shading.
On the right, you can see a small selection of the many tips that are available for the Razor Tip. At first glance it might seem that this would be the best way to go, and perhaps it is, but I'm not so sure that there is a need for so many tips when a spoon tip will do much of the same work.

Having said that, I have two Razor Tip tips which I use in my second Peter Child's machine (I have a second iron (the pen part) to save me having to keep changing tips) one tip is used for doing heavy shading and the other is for lettering.

Now, I can see the money saving wheel going around in you head and you are probably thinking that if you buy the cheaper Peter Child's machine, you can still get the benefits of the range of tips that are manufactured for the Razor Tip and use them.

Well you could, because that is exactly what I am doing. However, please be aware that the suppliers of your Peter Child's pyrography machine may take a dim view of you using Razor Tip tips in their device. So I would suggest that if you decide to take that route, it is at your own risk.

I hope you've found the information on tips interesting and I'll leave it there for now. Next week I'll talk about where to get wood from.

If you would like to see more about me or my books please click here or if you would like to see some more of my pyrography work click here. My discounted pyrography shop can be found here, and last but not least, here is a link to a supplier of the pyrography machines and tips that have been mentioned in this post please click here.

Burnt Hare

Hi All,
I'm having a bit of a rest from writing this week. My sixth book, the second in the Fishing Detectives series is in the capable hands of my proofreading service, so I've managed to do a bit more pyrography.

During my last trip intoto Derbyshire I picked up some off cuts of wood from a cafe in Longnor. Now, you may wonder why a cafe would be selling lumps of oak alongside, cakes, cream scones and tea. The answer is that the cafe is also a gallery that sells a lot of pyrography pieces and that is why they had bags of wood for sale.

Anyway, seeing as the piece of wood I was going to work on looked very rustic, even after I'd sanded it down, it seemed to be calling for a rustic image. I decided on a hare because these creatures are quite magical and I hoped it would do the wood some justice. Below you can see the finished piece.
The big issue now is what should I do with it. Like a lot of artists I find it hard to part with some of the things I have created and this one definitely comes into that category. The other question is, if I did want to sell it, how much is it worth?
If you have any thoughts on the value that you'd put on the hare I'd be pleased to know what you think. I'm not trying to sell it I'm just interested in the value my readers would put on such an object, then if I did decide to sell it at a later date I could sell it at a discounted price on Folksy . com or my website.

I leave it there for now and get back to the box I am working on for Valentines day.
If you would like to find out more about me and my books please click here
or if you want to see more of my pyrography work click here
Click here to go to my discounted pyrography shop at Folksy.com Folksy.com