I'm building a 10' balsa gun. I want to add a little artwork to it using a hot knife/pen (I'm not exactly sure what it's called). Up to this point I have only used it to sign my boards (see below). I'm currious to see what other people have done with this tool on surfboards. I need some inspiration.
Not mine but impressive!
its called pyrography, my mum used to run a wooden toy business and she did all the artwork on the toys, i inherited her artistic nature and used to use it all the time doodling and the like. she used to have an awesome machine from a company called Janik, it had a dial to control the heat and the pen had two prongs into which you inserted a wire nib, these came in a range of shapes and sizes but i preferred the spoon nib as it gave the possibility of covering large areas easily but could also be used on its edge for detail.
wood choice is also important, smooth grained woods like lime and sycamore burn evenly whereas strong grained woods like pine etc would catch the nib and burn less where you cross the grain making it difficult to stay on track.
hope this helps
[quote="$1"]
its called pyrography, my mum used to run a wooden toy business and she did all the artwork on the toys, i inherited her artistic nature and used to use it all the time doodling and the like. she used to have an awesome machine from a company called Janik, it had a dial to control the heat and the pen had two prongs into which you inserted a wire nib, these came in a range of shapes and sizes but i preferred the spoon nib as it gave the possibility of covering large areas easily but could also be used on its edge for detail.
wood choice is also important, smooth grained woods like lime and sycamore burn evenly whereas strong grained woods like pine etc would catch the nib and burn less where you cross the grain making it difficult to stay on track.
hope this helps
[/quote]
Ahhh.... so it's called pyrography! That helps. I did a search on another woodworking forum and saw a bunch of interesting projects. Here's a cool looking paddle that someone posted.
Is this method done commonly on surfboards? Is balsa a good or a bad wood for doing pyrography?
to be honest i haven't seen it done on a surfboard but im guessing it must have.
im not sure about balsa, the only balsa i see here in the uk is tiny strips from the model making suppliers and that tends to be very dry and feathery in texture, im guessing it would burn very easily but havent tried it.
This is all that turned up when I did a search on pyrography here on Swaylock's.
http://www2.swaylocks.com/forums/another-my-first-alaia-post
That's along the lines of what I was thinking about. I'm not artistic enough to do anything too complicated.
artwork right?
I’m working on a pyrography pic of someone getting barreled. Its a slow and time consuming process but very gratifying. I’ll post it when I finnish.
Here’s an alaia I shaped a while back:
beautifull wood!
Don’t look too close or it will be very obvious that 1) this is from only my second glass job and 2) I’m not good at glassing.
A board that I’ve burnt. Still needs glassing. Its my take on the board MP rode in morning of the earth.
[img_assist|nid=1069813|title=mp burn|desc=|link=none|align=center|width=640|height=640]
This website might be of interest aswell as this bloke does some awesome art work, mostly on alais’
http://www.surfboardartinwales.blogspot.com.au/
Haven’t been able to work out how to get my shiny boards to look shiny in photographs but it is shiny honest! Went for an autumn theme on this board.
The snail/shell was a design from the bride and groom’s invitation.
small version of my logo:
large logo:
Originally planned to be a tattoo arm-band (I’m a fish biologist by trade) but never pulled the trigger…so I put it on a board.
