Creating Safely

When I first started woodburning, I imagined the smoke would smell like a campfire. I even worked outdoors until I realized that the breeze cooled my wire tip and blew the smoke right back into my face.

Proper ventilation

Good ventilation is essential, whether you work indoors or outdoors. If you are woodburning indoors, you have several options to manage the smoke that your woodburning produces. You can use an air purifier to keep the air clean in a given room or, for a localized area such as a desk, you can use a smoke extractor.

For a simple but less effective option, you can use a small desk fan and place it near your wood canvas while you are woodburning. The fan needs to face away from you to draw the smoke away. While using a fan helps to draw smoke away from your work space, it doesn’t eliminate it from the air. The smell of woodburning can linger in your home or workshop if you don’t properly ventilate your woodburning space.

I eventually replaced my desk fan with a smoke extractor that filters the smoke before it reaches my breathing space. Seeing the smoke drawn into the filter gives me peace of mind while I work.

Protecting yourself

For added protection, you may choose to wear a face mask or respirator. Working on a tilted drawing table also helps keep your face farther from the smoke while creating a more comfortable, ergonomic workspace. I use a tabletop drawing table that I purchased from my local art supply store.

Depending on the woodburning tool that you are using and the heat setting, you may feel the heat on your fingers. You can use finger guards or leather gloves to protect your fingers from the heat or accidental burns. I tend to woodburn at a low- to medium-heat setting and haven’t felt the need to use finger guards. I do, however, use white cotton gloves to protect the wood from any dry or oily skin.

You can protect your work area from your hot tools with a heat-resistant mat. I purchased mine from Razertip. Check out their pyro studio products available through their online store. I chose the ocean blue colour. I now have two of them in my studio. I keep both of my woodburners on the mats.

Safety habits

When I’m woodburning I’m always careful to place the pyrography pen that I’m using back on the pen clip and turn the woodburner off when not in use. It’s a good safety practice to double-check that objects on your workspace are at a safe distance from your woodburner and hot wire tips. I like to wear my hair back for the same reason. Some wire tips, such as the skew tip, are as sharp as a knife. Take care that your skin doesn’t accidentally brush against the sharp edges of your wire tip, hot or cold.

Woods to avoid

Safety begins with choosing the right wood. It’s unsafe to woodburn on sealed, treated, or manufactured wood. Avoid burning on pallet wood, pressure-treated lumber, MDF, plywood, varnished wood, or any wood containing adhesives, as doing so can release harmful, toxic fumes. Driftwood is also unsafe to woodburn on, especially if it came from salt water, because the trapped salt releases chlorine gas when heated, which can cause serious health issues.

To protect my health, I only woodburn on untreated and kiln-dried wood purchased from a reliable source. I also never woodburn over any color or finish that I’ve applied to my artwork.

Take care of yourself, and you’ll be able to enjoy woodburning for years to come.