Burning patterns in to wood and green wood?

[pibbleb]

Hi

I've been carving jewellrey for a couple of months and most of my work I've stained the wood or varnished.

Now I've seen a few things where people seem to have burnt a pattern in to the wood. I've had a go but with no success what's so ever is anyone aware of a tutorial I could look at or can you give me any tips.

Secondly the carving that I've been doing is all out of fallen or chopped wood. The wood, usually birch is always old. I understand carving in green wood is a different experience and I'm sure the wood effect is usually nicer, but where do you guys get your fresh wood. I'm not to happy just popping along to the local woods and lopping off a couple of branches to feed a hobby so I'm looking for a little guidence on how to do this a little more above board.

Cheers for your help guys.

Pib

 

[falling rain]

In my usual haunts the forestry chaps quite often trim or cut down trees and I can find cut green wood there. I've got a great source of cedar and ash at the moment. I only take the odd branch from this cut wood to carve a spoon with etc so no harm done. And as normal practice leave no trace.

 

[Tony]

Burning the wood sounds like pyrographyand it's usually done with an implement that could pass for a soldering iron, you can get all different nibs for them. For more advice do a search for pyrography. There’s lots of sites like this…

As for wood, it's one of those ask about things. It might be worth calling up your local tree surgeons and asking them if they've got any about, I know that some of them are more than happy to get rid of wood.

 

[falling rain]

Hi

I've been carving jewellrey for a couple of months and most of my work I've stained the wood or varnished.

Now I've seen a few things where people seem to have burnt a pattern in to the wood. I've had a go but with no success what's so ever is anyone aware of a tutorial I could look at or can you give me any tips.

Secondly the carving that I've been doing is all out of fallen or chopped wood. The wood, usually birch is always old. I understand carving in green wood is a different experience and I'm sure the wood effect is usually nicer, but where do you guys get your fresh wood. I'm not to happy just popping along to the local woods and lopping off a couple of branches to feed a hobby so I'm looking for a little guidence on how to do this a little more above board.

Cheers for your help guys.

Pib

I remember in RM's Bushcraft series when he was in Sweden that the wife of the Sami chap featured did some incredibly beautiful etching work on knife handles and antler sheaths. As far as I remember it she used a solution of inner bark from birch which is brown and rubbed it over the etching and wiped off the excess. I think she carved out the pattern with a sharp implement and then stained it with the inner bark solution giving the effect of it being burnt in. I've never tried this but when I do my next spoon am going to give this a go, so it's being 'stained' rather than 'burnt' in.

 

[jdlenton]

I remember in RM's Bushcraft series when he was in Sweden that the wife of the Sami chap featured did some incredibly beautiful etching work on knife handles and antler sheaths. As far as I remember it she used a solution of inner bark from birch which is brown and rubbed it over the etching and wiped off the excess. I think she carved out the pattern with a sharp implement and then stained it with the inner bark solution giving the effect of it being burnt in. I've never tried this but when I do my next spoon am going to give this a go, so it's being 'stained' rather than 'burnt' in.

That's generally the technique used in scrimshaw work but with an ink instead of the powderd birch bark the sami use
The sami decorative work is amazing craftsmanship and very beautifully I'd love some.




Pib please show us some of your work i'm interested to see what you have been making ( i used to be a jeweller) bushcraft jewellery really interests me have a look in my gallery.

 

[Ed]

You can do pyrography in the field on a sunny day using a magnifying glass .... mark your pattern out first and use the lense to focus the suns rays and follow the pattern. I have used this technique with some considerable success in the past.

Ed

 

[pibbleb]

Thanks guys.

James I'll try and get a photo or two in the next couple of days, although mine just a hobby that passes the time so not as good as yours I'm sure.

Personally my fravourite has always been your fish pendant, I just love the detail.

I'll put a link here once the phots are up.

Pib

 

[Eric_Methven]

Bang a sharpened nail into a piece of wood as a handle. Light a candle, place nail over candle until glowing, draw pattern onto wood. You'll need to keep heating the nail up every few minutes as it cools quite quickly. I use a butane soldering iron with a fine tip to burn patterns onto wood. Do the burning before you oil or wax the wood as it just bubbles and boils the oil if you don't.

Eric

 

[stuart f]

Another way that i have used in the past is to mix beeswax 50/50 with powdered charcoal. Just carve out a design on your piece of wood then simply work the black wax between your fingers to make it soft and pliable,next squeeze the wax into the design,wipe of excess and you will be left a hi-lighted design. Also instead of using the birch solution that the Sami make why not try powdered cinnamon,it works rather good too.

Wayland should take the credit for this, for he's the one who demonstrated it a one of the Scottish meets.

Check out Waylands site http://www.loreandsaga.co.uk/html/viking_and_saxon_boneworking.html
On there you can see the beeswax mixture used in Waylands bone work.

 

[crazydave]

try this - get an old broken pallet or bits of teak mahogany etc and attack with a blowlamp till its charred. wirebrush it down and see what pattern turns up as the burning follows the grain deeper than the actual burn. you can then shape is to see what happen.

I worked for an architect who had a sideline making burnt pine hand made kitchen furniture - they burnt the wood then machined it up. quite stunning if a tad expensive.

 

[Wayland]

The easiest method for wood that I've ever seen is Kolrosing.

For this you make shallow cuts in the wood surface and rub powdered bark, like alder into the cuts. Then rub it over with oil to "fix" it before sanding to remove any raised edges.

For ease I usually just use cinnamon from my spice kit for the powder and cooking oil for the fix.

A neat tip is that if you use pencil to mark out the design it rubs off with the oil or sanding.

 

[pibbleb]

Guys thanks for all the idea's and tips. It looks like I'm going to be busy. Just need to get my hands on that wood now!

:You_Rock_

Pib