Does anyone here use Woodburning kits to mark your tama for tracking purposes or art? I have been toying around with the idea for my natty collection but I didn't know if it was worth it. If you do use a burning kit which one do you use and how does that work for you?
I bought a wood burning tool from Michael's for $12 and I use it from time to time for fun. Easy to use, tough to master. Talk to @Cobikaze for wood burning kits!
I have this pyrography kit, it works very well for what I need. Before that, I had a very cheap soldering iron / woodburning thing that sucked really bad, the upgrade to the Razertip was a huge step up in ease of use, and quality of the final product (easier to use means better results!). Kristin is really good with it, I'll see if I can find some pics of her work...
Some of Kristin's woodburning, sorry the images kinda suck, I just screengrabbed them off instagram. I should really get the higher res images together... Found this one too: it was burned my @masako_endrop on instagram
Now I'm kinda like, screw this. Anything I do will look like finger painting with fire compared to these masterpieces
I use one from Michael's, and it works fine. Probably not the best product out there, but it gets the job done. Woodburning takes a lot of patience, concentration, and a steady hand, all of which I cannot do for a long time haha. I would recommend testing on a tama/ken that you don't mind messing up on. The first time I tried to make a single stripe, I used a natty TK tama; it turned out bumpy just because I hadn't figured out a good way to get a straight line yet. Just takes practice I guess
I have this woodburning tool from JoAnn Fabrics that I use for burning tracking stripes on my tamas. Works good for what I'm currently using it for now but would like to get a pyrography kit like @htimSxelA and @Cobikaze The tama in the pic isnt my first wood burn but the first one after practicing over and over that I was really satisfied with. It's really a trial and error type of learned skill
So I just got this awesome new RWB Classic, Ash tama on hickory ken! I'm really happy with it, but I would like to add a burn line across the middle for tracking, since it might be the best upgrade you can get for a kendama. Now, my buddy has a simple wood burning tool I can use. My dad's a carpenter and has a workbench at his place. It probably wouldn't be too hard for me to figure out how to do a fairly good job with it, but I really just wanted to know if anyone had some tips on how to do this. I really don't wanna miss this up, especially since I have some insane grain on the tama. I basically want to do what GT did with the Stodd Mod tamas. Any tips, or should I just go for it?
@bonerkid I would recommend clamping the woodburner down so it can't move, at the right height above the table so that you can place the tama next to it and the woodburner will be at the right height to put the stripe where you want it if you touched the two. Then, just carefully spin the tama up against it. If you can rig up something like a drill to spin the tama very slowly and evenly for you, even better! That'll help keep the line straight, which is probably the toughest part. Be warned: ash is pretty tough to burn nicely, the open veins in the woodgrain will burn differently than the close grain areas. If you can get your hands on some ash to practice a bit, it might not be a bad idea. If nothing else: pay attention to how hot the tip is! If you leave it alone for a minute, it'll be WAY hotter than when you left off, and can cause a 'burn spot' sort of thing. Start at a low temp, move it up if need be. Going the other way doesn't work so well haha
So I recently got my fresh maple homegrown kendama wood burned. Has anyone else done stuff like this onto there dramas?
I have. I love doing it and am actually starting to think of offering some new ones for sale once I get a batch of tamas in. A lot of what I've done is on my insta @sablan.keegan