Tool care is important for getting a smooth burn, and for keeping your tool working for a long time.
Here are some general wood burning tool tricks for keeping your pyrography tool in tip-top shape. You will also want to keep your nibs clean. These require the most attention.
For general wood burner (machine)care:
Make sure your burner has good air flow.
Make sure it is free of dust and dirt.
When traveling, take care to pack your burner well. Store your pens so that the nibs and connection points don’t get damaged. Try not to bend any of the cords and wires with force or pressure or excessively.
I travel quite often with my burner and found that putting it in a hard shell duffel style case helps keep in tact and secure. Here I am using a vintage sewing case. It’s hard outer layer allows everything inside to keep from squishing!
Be sure to give your burner breaks, especially if you are burning on high temperatures. This will help keep your burner and pens happy for a long time.
Now, let’s talk nib care:
You will want to have a way to clean your tools while they are hot, and a deeper clean while they are cool.
My favorite cleaning tool while my burner is hot is a brass brush. I give my burner a gentle little scritch-scrath whenever my lines are looking a little '“jumpy.” This cleans up my burn by getting rid of the char build-up.
Every once in a while I also like to give my tools a deeper clean while they are cool. To do this, I use a leather strop with white compound. You rub the white compound onto the rough side of the leather, and then rub your nib until it’s nice and clean. This is the best way that I have found to clean nibs.
Here are some Amazon Affiliate links to the tools I and other pyrographers use to clean their wood burning tools.
These are other ways that you can clean them: tea strainer, parrafin wax, sand paper, and damp high-heat sponge.
These all work fairly well, but are not my personal favorites.
Tea Strainer: Many pyrographers use this, but I feel it is a little too rough on my tools. To use this method, take a simple metal tea strainer and give your nib a little scrape to brush off any excess char that might be getting in the way of a clean burn.
Parrafin Wax: This is a fairly new method that I learned about from Pat, the creator of the Optima 1 pyrography machine. You simply touch your nib to the wax while it is hot. The wax will burn right off and rid your nib of that extra buildup on the nib. It works just fine, but I didn’t enjoy the smoke it gave off. It is the exact same as a candle burning, though.
Sand Paper: I don’t recommend this for any wire tip burners. It is too rough on their delicate wires. Even with the bulk of a solid-nibbed burner, you will want to be gentle and go easy on the sanding. It will wear your nibs down over time, and this is why many pyrographers will even cringe at the idea of mentioning this option. This is a “use the tools you have on hand” situation. Since you already have sand paper, using it to carefully, and gently scrape off excess char buildup on your solid-nibbed burners just makes sense.
Damp High Heat Sponge: This is was soldering iron users use, and it works pretty well to get big chunks of char off. It won’t clean your nib’s surface completely, but it will keep your lines smooth. Does require minimal prep of dampening the sponge before you start burning, but is great because you can use it while it is hot. Be sure to use a high heat sponge for this.
In a pinch and with solid-nibbed burners, sand paper can work. I like a damp high-heat sponge as well. Not as big of a fan of the parrafin wax or the tea strainer, but I know other people in our community are. Do what works best for you!
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