Pyro-Carpenter Bookmarks

Book marks come in various shapes sizes colors and materials. Me I always like a wood grain look to anything and decided, why not try and make a wooden bookmark that one can design themselves. (if they have the tools needed) I use many different woods(cedar,oak,poplar,pine,etc.) some in the picture are made from 200+ year old barn wood.

These bookmarks are not hard to make I recommend though just using a table saw to mill the bookmark instead of planing a board and cutting many from it that is a waste. I will list all materials and tools but some are optional.

Not only am I a carpenter I also damper in wood-burning as a pyrograpist. Wood Burners come in various shapes and sizes some that are smaller some that are bigger. I started off using a soldering iron with modified tips i made for it.(do not recommend) I then moved to what is called a "versa tool" Tool- witch doubled as a soldering iron and a wood-burning tool with a selection of tips. Now as it became more of a hobby and I wanted to become more detailed, I purchases a Nibsburner "Blue Ribbon" model, with detail master styluses. (http://www.nibsburner.com/) With these you have to get used to certain tips such as shading,drawing,curved,feather,scale,shading,writing, and etc. You can either purchase these tips or make your own but have to purchase a special nickle plated wire that is adaptable to your certain burner. There are many tutorials and books on pyrography, but i was self taught. Me myself recommend any Nibsburner wood-burners but be advised you will have to purchase different styluses.(Nibsburner's styluses are made out of a cheap plastic and melt under the heat)

Recommended Brands: Nibsburner, Detail-Master, Burn master, Raxor-Tip, Versa Tool (Hobby burner not expensive)

Materials and tools:

Wood(any choice of wood you would like)

Pencil/pen/marker

Ruler/tape measure

Planer/thickness planer(optional)

Table saw drill drill bits(preferred size)

Twine/string/rope

Sander(electric or by hand)

Wood burner(optional)

Wood stain/polyurethane(optional) "If you want to give it a finished look"

Find and locate the type of wood you wish to use. (I tend to go out to our pile of firewood and spit it into a board and throw it through the planer.

From this piece of wood cut out a block but that is not too thin. ( I used a poplar wood plank which I split. I made it a 2”x6” rectangle block of wood which was ¾” thick)

Take the straight edge on your saw and move it close to the blade of the saw. (for my bookmark I moved the straight edge less than ¼” of an inch roughly .125” away from blade.)

Rest the wooden block flush with the straight edge and begin to cut. (Watch your fingers)

Take this new cut piece of wood and sand it down.

Drill hole in the top to allow twine(or string of choice) to go through and tie a knot

(You can choose to stop here and just have a blank bookmark or continue and add a picture or design to your bookmark)

you can do one of three things.

1)Draw the pattern you wish to burn on the bookmark

2)Print out a stencil and trace

3)Print a image then use carbon paper to transfer the image for burning

(the image above shows a carbon paper trace of an image I found)

Heat the burner up(depending on price and model it may take longer)

Trace the outline of the design or scene. (with the wood burner using a drawing/writing tip)

Shade in the out image you just outlined and adjust your heating to get darker and lighter shades. (use a shading tip)

Add a coat of polyurethane to give it a different finished look(I found this effects the art and often darkens it too much)