04/26/2025
I thought it might be cool to show, in pictures, the process of wood burning. So here are pictures I took while working on the hammer last night.
1. First step is creating the look you want on the computer. I thought this was a font size and style that went well with the overall look of the hammer. Then, you size your design and tape it to the wood with carbon or graphite paper between the design and the wood.
2. Next is carefully outlining the design so that it transfers on to the wood. This is especially painstaking when you have letters because you don't want to have shaky lines - they need to be straight.
3. The third step is to burn around the edges of the design.
4. The last step is using a shader to fill in the design or letters. You have different "nibs" or ends that are used for different textures - so I used a different nib for outlining the letters than I did for shading the inside. If I had wanted to fill the inside with stippling or dots, that would have required a different nib.
I'll also post a short video later of how slow and intricate the shading process can be - especially for smaller designs.
One step I didn't show here is sanding down the wood before putting the design on it. Since this was already a finished piece, it only required minimal sanding. However, on my other pieces, it can anywhere from 30 - 45+ minutes of sanding with different grits to get the wood as smooth as glass. You want the wood as smooth as possible or you won't get a smooth burn so that's an important step.
