Volume 1,
Issue 4
ISSN Pending
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After you trace your pattern go over the lines LIGHTLY with the woodburning tool tip. Then erase the lines before proceeding. It makes it easier to erase the traced lines that way. Otherwise, the tip of the woodburing pen will make a small detent in the wood, pulling some of the trace material down with it.
To hold your transfer paper and pattern use masking tape rather than regular tape. It is made to stick, yet be easily removed. I think I saw this tip a while back in the "Woodburner"
http://www.carvingpatterns.com/
projects/burn.htm
This site has a nice basic woodburning tutorial.
You can buy 2 inch by 2 inch studs and slice the studs to make square blocks. Sand the blocks smooth and arrange them to form a square, say 16 arranged to form a 4 X 4 square. They can be secured with duct tape wrapped around the outsides or even with string. You can now draw an image across the square, burn the image, then flip them over to burn an image on the back side. Now when the tape or string is removed you have a nice "block" puzzle for rug rats (kids). If you are ambitious you can do the same with the other 4 sides.
Applying a wax coating by using 0000 steel wool makes for a very smooth finish. Do it lightly, and practice on a piece of scrap wood first. I think it is a great way to apply a wax.
In issue 2, there was information concerning transfer patterns. Cheryl has added some other information about their use.
"The first transfer is always very dark. You can deal with this by sanding it away until it is lighter, or by doing the first transfer onto a scrap piece of cloth or wood. If you don't, the heat from the burner somehow pushes the ink to the sides, and you can still see the ink when the burn is done, which doesn't look nice. If you've got the right pattern and you know what you're doing, then you can compensate by burning a little outside the pattern and shading away the ink, but it's much easier to avoid the problem altogether by "wasting" the first transfer. You can still get a good 4-6 transfers per pattern."
Don't forget that wood can darken with age, so at least apply a UV (
ultra violet) protection for the burned image.
Also be aware that a finish can darken the wood also, so apply it to a
small area of the back to see the results. If you have a scrap piece of
the same wood as used in the burn, you can burn a small test area and
see how the finish looks with it.
The glass cigar containers can make great storage tubes for some woodburning tips. Old film canisters can be used to hold the small Walnut Hollow type of tips.
Sometimes it is easier to sand small pieces of wood by attaching the sandpaper to a surface and moving the wood over the sandpaper.
Thrift stores have inexpensive old books and magazines, that can contain exellent pictures and images. Old greeting cards provide great sources of patterns.