How to Wood Burn

The stand in the box folds out and bends backwards. Open it so the cradle faces you, then push it back until it stops. Set it on the bench with the loop pointing toward your body.

Run a strip of painter's tape across the base and press it flat. An untaped stand slides around, and a new cord has a mind of its own for the first few hours out of the packaging. Tape it down once and the pen goes back to the same spot every time you set it aside.

Nibs go by several names. Tips, points, nibs, all the same brass part that screws into the front of the pen. A starter set comes with a handful of shapes: a flow point for general line work, a rounded shader for filling areas, a calligraphy edge, a couple of stamps.

Start with the flow point. It draws a steady line in any direction and it is the one you will reach for on outlines. Brass turns brown and dingy after a few burns, which is normal wear. Clean a nib when it stops laying down an even line, not before.

Hold the pen in one hand and start the nib into the threaded socket with the other. It should catch on its own and turn freely. Snug it down finger tight and stop there.

If the thread will not start, back it out and try again at a different angle. Forcing it cross-threads the brass, and a nib that snaps off inside the socket takes the whole pen with it. Do this while the tool is cold and unplugged.

The Versa Tool puts its heat control on an inline box partway down the cord. The printed arc runs from mustard yellow through orange to red. Turn the knob round to the red end for general line work on softwood.

Then leave it alone. Five to ten minutes is what the brass needs to come up to temperature, and a cold nib scratches the surface without darkening it. Use the wait to sand your blank and get the pattern ready.

Poplar, basswood and sourwood all burn cleanly and take a line without fighting back. Pine works, and it is cheap and everywhere, though the hard and soft bands in its grain will send one stroke dark and pale in the same inch. Practice blanks sold for pyrography spare you from cutting up good stock.

Run 220 grit over the face until it feels smooth under your fingertips. Plenty of people skip this and pay for it later. A sanded surface lets the nib glide, which means fewer passes and a faster burn.

Print or draw a pattern sized to the blank. Lay the carbon paper dark side down on the wood, put the pattern on top, and tape one edge so the stack cannot shift while you work.

Trace every line with a stylus, a spent ballpoint or a pencil. The tip leaves a shiny track on the paper, so you can see what you have already covered. Lift a corner and check the transfer before you pull the tape, because lining a pattern back up after it moves is close to impossible.

Rest the nib on a traced line and draw it toward your body. Do not press down and do not push the pen away from you. Pressing tires your hand and adds nothing. Pushing fights the grain and throws the tip off the line.

Speed is the dial that controls darkness. Move fast and the line comes out thin and patchy. Slow over the same path and the wood takes a deep even brown. Burn Savvy sorts the hand moves into four: pulling, touching, sweeping and swinging. A second pass darkens a weak line, though layering eats time.

Let the piece cool and brush the dust off. A finish is optional on something that lives indoors, though it deepens the contrast between the burn and the bare wood. Butcher block oil, polycrylic and polyurethane all work. Test on a back edge first, since some finishes lift a fresh burn a little.

For hanging, glue jute twine across the back, drill a small hole through a top corner and thread twine through it, or screw on a sawtooth hanger. The video names all three and demonstrates none, so treat it as a menu, not a method.