Help for a pyrography newbie

[jen84288]

Hi,

Im a bit of a newbie to pyrography but have been looking into burning messages into wooden photo frames. I have the woodburning kit, various toppers and frame decoration but just no frames as of yet! I bought a couple from my local craft shop in pine only to discover that using the kit on pine was not a great idea due to the grain. I have been told to opt for solid oak, maple, birch or beech but cant find these anywhere at an affordable price. In online shops, these personalised frames retail at about £6.00 so you must be able to source these solid frames cheap. Any ideas? If not, can i engrave into wood effect or is that a silly question?

cheers :)

[Scorch]

Hiya!

Take a peek at my site for spme hints & tips, and also stockists of pyro blanks.

Pine is a terrible wood to burn into, indeed. It spits and smokes and the gairn is terrible to use. You should aim to use unfinished light-coloured hardwoods, such as sycamore, beech, birch, lime, ash, maple, even oak.

You should NOT try to burn on wood-effect, or on MDF, as you'll poison yourself with toxic plastic fumes.

If a solid-wood item is oiled, waxed or varnished, you also need to scrape or sand that off, as it will melt and smoke and can poison you too! Some people do this, I know, but you can give yourself SERIOUS health problems this way - like not being able to breathe...

I don't know who is making solid-wood pyrographed picture frames at £6, but I'd guess that they must have a foreign supplier knocking them out cheap. Either that or they're complete tat, or are actually branded with a stamp as opposed to pyrographed...

[woodtattoos]

£6 for a personalised frame?! Crikey, that doesn't sound right at all.

I would heartily recommend getting in touch with local framemakers to see if they are able to supply you with untreated wooden frames ready for burning on. I luckily found a fantastic framemaker near me who supplies me with readymade frames to sizes of my specification. If you don't have any luck finding one near you, get in touch and I'll pass on the details for the maker I know.

Si.