When to wire burn?

[angboy]

I am working on a pen and am to the point of having sanded to 2000 and getting ready to MM. What are people's opininons about when to do any wire burning? I know I want to do it before any finishing, but should I do it before I MM? Or should I have already done it? Thanks!

 

[alamocdc]

Angela, I do mine before I get to 320 grit and MM, but that's just me.

 

[tipusnr]

I don't think this is a science. I have done mine at any time in the process that the idea hits me (but then I don't pre-plan the shape and design of my pens). I have even done it after finishing but that means more sanding and finishing afterwards.

My advice is to not overthink the problem!

 

[ctEaglesc]

I try to remember to burn my lines it prior to putting any type of sealer on the pen.
Occasionally the wire(or string in my case) will melt the sealer before it burns the line.
It will depend how deep you burn your lines or whether you "skew" them first.
Once the lines are burned in an you apply the sealer take care to clean out the "grooves" prior to applying a finish.
I have found doing it this way, when I do apply a sealer, the the color of the lines stays more distinct.

 

[Rifleman1776]

Before sanding or sealing. As you burn there will be some light burning outside the actual groove. Burn first then sand removes the extraneous darkening and gives a sharper line.

 

[Czarcastic]

I burn mine after 320 or 400 grit, depending on the wood.

 

[fritzmccorkle]

I burn before sanding with 400. i find that i often have areas on top and bottom of the burn that are better sanded off. as eagle mentioned i also make a small notch with my skew tip to make a track for the burning wire so it doesn't skip out. also i only accent woods that are plain. my feeling is that burls and very nicely grained woods have enough going on visually that they don't need the help.

 

[William Young]

Here is my wire burner.

It is the low E string from one of my used sets of guitar strings.

Here is the way it decorated the handles of a couple spurtles.

I havn't tried using it on pens yet. That size would probably be too thick but I have a choice of six sizes to a set of strings each one going down in thickness from the low E that I used. I will experiment on pens and see which thickness works best.
W.Y.

 

[lawry76]

Continuing this thread. My problem has been removing the build up of poly/Enduro etc. that seems to accumulate in the grooves I've cut. Do I simply re-burn it? And re-sand it with MM? A few weeks ago I was tempted to ask this question as well. Thanks

 

[cwhitmer]

Originally posted by lawry76
<br />Continuing this thread. My problem has been removing the build up of poly/Enduro etc. that seems to accumulate in the grooves I've cut. Do I simply re-burn it? And re-sand it with MM? A few weeks ago I was tempted to ask this question as well. Thanks

 

[Rifleman1776]

Originally posted by lawry76
<br />Continuing this thread. My problem has been removing the build up of poly/Enduro etc. that seems to accumulate in the grooves I've cut. Do I simply re-burn it? And re-sand it with MM? A few weeks ago I was tempted to ask this question as well. Thanks

Everyone has their own techniques. But, as stated above, I, and many other prefer to wire burn before applying any finish and before final sanding. That avoids the problems mentioned.

 

[angboy]

I worked on a pen last night, made with some pink ivory from Woodturningz, and I tried the wireburning before I started the sanding. I haven't finished the pen yet, I'm getting reay to MM but I do think it worked better this way. It looks like the lines are cleaner, don't have any of those edges that people referred to. SO I think I'll stick with that way of doing it. I think the reason I hadn't done it that way before was because I was thinking that doing the sanding after the wireburning might make the wireburned lines get sanded off, but that didn't happen.

 

[hobby_dale]

angboy, it depends on how deep the lines are cut/burned to start with. I had some that were too shallow and ended up sanding most of it out. The others were fine, but they were deeper to start with. So I went back and reburned them. Of course, I needed to re-etch them with a skew. Be careful when reburning, if you slip (like I did) then you get wire lines in the area around the burn line. Then you have to resand. After the several attempts I became real careful when reburning. So doing it before sanding is good, as long as you have them deep enough to not sand out. As always, YMMV. Good luck, Dale