Pen and setup

There are two kinds of wood burning pen. A solid-point pen is built like a soldering iron: a heating element in the barrel and a brass tip that screws into the end. It is cheap, takes about 4 to 5 minutes to heat and suits bold lines. A wire-nib burner has a power unit with a dial and a light pen whose tip is a bent piece of nichrome wire. It heats and cools in seconds and makes finer lines, at a higher price.

The feature that matters most on a first pen is heat control. A fixed-heat pen runs flat out, at around 900 to 950 F by the makers' figures, which scorches soft wood fast. A dial lets you slow down. The dial is not a thermometer: its numbers or color zones only mean cooler and hotter, so every new wood starts with a test on scrap. How to use a wood burning tool covers the first session step by step.

Set up before you plug in. Tape the stand to the table, keep the cord behind your hand and clear away paper and cloth. Burning makes smoke, so open a window and put a small fan or extractor where it pulls the smoke away from your face without blowing across the tip. If the pen will not heat, the troubleshooting page walks through the causes in order.