Woodburning Tools:
Safety Gear for Pyrography Artists
These woodburning tools and safety gear can help protect you from hurting yourself - or even long term damage.
Safety is a big deal.
Heat. Smoke. Toxic woods.
These are real hazards in the world of pyrography. Do not fall victim to them.
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Is the heat cooking your face?
You can lean to the side to avoid getting smoke in their eyes.
But when you burn for a long time, that can put a real crick in your neck.
That's where these options come in.
Adjustable Drawing Table
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When I use my tilt-able art table, the heat drifts up between me and my art work instead of wafting across my delicate eyeballs. I got myself an art table that fit right on my desktop. Then I could take it off when I have giant art pieces to work on. Bonus: it also keeps my fingers out of the direct line of heat. But my digits still needed more protection. Which leads me to... |
Protect yourself from Hot Fingers
Some people don't have this problem. They don't burn on the highest heat settings for very long.
Me? I like it hot.
But my fingers sure complain!
Leather Gloves
Not...
- Garden gloves = Not protective enough
- BBQ gloves or welding gloves = Way too bulky (can’t bend my fingers)
- Rubber mechanics gloves = Heat goes right through the ones I’ve tried
Leather.
Some can be thick though, which makes it hard to move your fingers.
My favorites are a pair of thinner leather gloves that molded themselves to my fingers the more I used them.
They don't protect as well from the heat as the thicker gloves do, but it's enough and I can still move my fingers enough to make beautiful art.
I combine these gloves with the rubber finger guards (below – keep reading) which works nicely.
Rubber Finger Guards
These relieved my fingers from those pesky blisters (yes, I work my pen that long and hot). But the parts of my fingers that were close to the heat yet left naked still got uncomfortably hot. In the end, I put one of these blue rubber finger guards inside of my thin leather glove on the middle finger (that's the one that gets the most blisters). That combo seemed to work best for heat protection. Where To Buy: |
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Finger Heat Shields
These are made for professional salon hair stylists who have to work with curling irons, wands, and blow driers every day. I like these a lot. They protect my fingers just as well (maybe better) than my leather gloves without the major bulk. However, they slowly slide their way off my fingers as I work. I cut a couple of them shorter, which helped. Where To Buy: |
Thick cork Heat Shields or GripsFoam grips are very comfortable to use on your woodburning tools. Until things get hot. Then cork is better. The thicker cork heat shields are amazing at keeping the heat away. Buuuuut they really fatten up that grip. Like holding one of those really bulky markers instead of a pen. If you don't mind the thicker grip on your woodburning tools, these are a nice fix. Where To Buy: |
 ⇡ regular cork heat shield on the left ⇡thick cork heat shield on the right |
Smoke. Smoke. Smoke.
You know it's bad when you have to stop burning because you're tearing up. Or your husband walks into your studio and immediately starts clearing his throat and opening windows.
Ventilation is *definitely* important.
Opening windows is a great idea. Until winter comes and the weather isn't getting above freezing today.
What do you use instead?
⇡ RZ Mask - M2 ⇡P95 Mask
No, your basic dust mask isn't going to cut it.
Burning puts debris, particles and pollutants in the air. These can leave a coating in your nose, throat, lungs, and lead to all kinds of nasty health problems.
Not an N95 mask. That only filters particulates in the air like dust.
The P95 mask filters out particulates AND pollutants like smoke.
Here's a good little article about masks if you feel like reading up about them.
Desk Fan
Place your fan on your desk facing away from your work but close to it. Then when the fan is on, it pulls the smoke and heat into the back of the fan and pushes it away from you.
Facing the fan toward your work will blow the smoke away too, but it also cools the nibs or points you are using.
That's annoying.
*Step it up a notch and get a fan with an activated charcoal filter that eliminates smoke instead of blowing it to a different part of the room.
Air Purifier
Smoke doesn’t play nicely with lungs.
An activated charcoal fan (mentioned above) eliminates a lot of smoke, but the air purifier helps clean out the rest as it drifts to other places around the room or the house.
That protects other people and pets in the house from smoke too.
Be Smart with Your woodburning Tools & Materials
You can have the best gear in the world, but if you are careless (or clueless) about your woodburning tools, you're in trouble.
- Ever singed off your own hair while making pyrography? [that smells good]
- Ever had your burner slide off the table? [yikes]
- Did you know there are toxic woods?? [say whaaaa?]
Please don’t hurt yourself.
Get your hands on these helpful guides to keep you safe.
Don't forget to snag your FREE safety download here!
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