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Where to Find Wood for Pyrography
Craft stores, thrift stores, online and around the house are just a few places to find wood for pyrography
Have you found yourself wondering about the options and where to find wood for your pyrography projects? Me too!
That’s why I thought you’d like to learn where to find wood for pyrography and see creative ways to embellish everyday items with wood burning, some of which you may already have in your home, and others you may not have thought of.
You can learn the basics of pyrography and other fun wood burning projects with one of my Burn Boxes, and online or in-person workshops
Learn to Burn
Much of the wood burning art you will see is done on rounds and planks because they make a natural canvas that is relatively easy to burn on.
My favorite wood sources are local, either found wood, donated wood from friends, or purchased from a local sawyer.
However, you can find plenty of great places online. Here are a few of my favorites:
Aspen Rustic Creations is where I get all of my aspen rounds. They are always high quality, and easy to burn.
Basswood is another wonderful wood to burn on and easily obtained from many online sources. You can find it at Wilson Evergreens or Walnut Holllow
My friends at It’s David and Renee have a Burnables Box with all kinds of amazing wood for you to try!
However, there are many other places where you can find wood surfaces that are not planks or rounds, and some are even free!
Wood handled bottle openers provide a nice easy DIY gift that can be totally customized with your own pyrography art. You can get them here.
Wooden push pins are fun tiny surfaces to burn on and make great gifts as well! I get mine here.
Cutting boards are a wood burning canvas as well! You can even use wooden ones you have in your home, or if you like, you can purchase these online as well. The one in the photo below was purchased here.
I’ve even found wood surfaces at my local thrift store, like this box in the photo below. Thrift stores are awesome places to find one-of-a-kind projects, just make sure the items are unfinished, without paint, or stain.
Wooden spoons can be found almost anywhere, including your own kitchen. Buy wooden spoons online here
The possibilities are (almost) endless
You can burn on many more surfaces like these:
Rolling pin
Wood Hammer handle, or any wood handle
Wooden picture frames
Cork, trivets and panels
Canvas bags and shoes – check out this canvas bag project by my friend Rachel over at Wood Burn Corner.
Leather belts and bracelets
Now go look around your house, or the local craft store or thrift store. You don’t really need an excuse, but if you like one, you can use any of the ideas above.
Be inspired, create, have fun!
I chose this pin because the title was “where to find wood.” No suggestions about that, just samples of woodburning.
Where can I get a link to your cutting board class?
Hi Susan,
Thanks for the comment. I will check out why the pin did not take you to the appropriate blog post that talks about where I find wood and other materials to burn on. The cutting board class is full, but will be offered again in May.
Hi and thank you for your helpful post. I’m just starting my journey into Pyrography. A friend got me a cheap Plaid wood burning kit and some of the popular round wooden discs. (Forget what they’re called.) I’m wondering if these are good enough wood to practice on? So far the burner is not performing well but I can’t figure out if it’s the actual tool or the cheap wood. The burner tips keep skipping when I’m trying to burn a straight line for a tree branch. If it’s the quality of the wood slices, could they possibly have been treated with something? Any thoughts? Thank you.
Hi! Thanks for the comment. There are a few things you can do to get a better burn. It’s quite possible that the wood is part of the problem. Some kinds of wood are better for beginners. If the wood has hard grain lines with soft wood between, it is much more difficult to burn smoothly. Many of the wooden disks out there are pine, and can be difficult to burn on. But if you have basswood, or Birch, it shouldn’t be too bad. My first advice would be to try decreasing you pressure, so burn lightly and move slowly across the wood is small short strokes (even when burning a straight line). It does take practice and your first projects will be more rough. The tool is probably fine, and likely behaving like a standard solid tip burner. If it seems to be burning too hot, you could try turning it down a little. Which tip are you trying to use?