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.
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