Pyrography Poker

Once on a mission, I'm impatient and impulsive, and though this poker is excellent for wood without any sort of grain & perhaps a novice. It's not ideal for the deep grooves I wanted to achieve. 

Antex Craft - Pyro Master

Another reason it wasn't the best buy for me is that I want to change tips constantly and the instructions say to leave it to cool down between changes. I think this is something to do with the thread on the tips that screw into the hot end of the poker. Maybe the copper tip & the steel end cool at different temperatures...I did find that the tip loosened as the gadget heated up so I was constantly having to use pliers to tighten it. Which kinda contradicts the instructions not to change tips while hot! 

I also have slightly bent my favourite tip!

So, i'm saving up for something like this, it has 2 pens and apparently there are ways to make your own tips.

Eleoption 220V 50W Gourd Wood Crafts Tool Kit Multifunction Laser Pyrography Machine

Hall Table

A friend gave me an old hall table, it had been living in a shed for about four years. Time to upcycle again.

Trying to remove the 'pretend' leather top was pretty grim. After much faffing about with knives, sanders and copious swearing. I Google'd for a solution,

A STEAM IRON

What a dream,,. it slid off the top with ease, the iron was a bit stained but cleaned up and was good for it's original purpose. 

If I had to do this again i'd put a damp cloth between 

the iron and the table top.

After drawing the design on the top with pencil, rulers and various sized plates. I burnt grooves into the patterns. The top of the table was originally stained dark so I had to paint a white-ish undercoat.

I then painted the patterns and motif with Acrylic paint, tidied up the burned grooves with my pyrography machine, then slapped some varnish on.

The wording on the top is "The good thing about tables is they turn" which, after i'd burnt the wording in I realised that this table could never turn....😏