r/woodburning

First time trying out wood burning! I’ve always drawn directly onto wood blocks like these, and thought I’d give wood burning a try! Left lil cat was my very first try seeing how the different tips work, right one was trying more fine line (& yes I did remake the cat 3 times).

I picked this up to work on a commission for a shop, open to any feedback about wood burning or tips and tricks you’ve picked up along the way (besides not burning yourself, which I may or may not have already done!).

Any ideas on what else to add to complete this are welcome! I’m trying to imagine and execute the look of sound coming from the speakers.

As someone who, like you, is concerned greatly about the air we breathe and especially aware and annoyed with how the winter's air quality has been getting worse lately.. We unfortunately now know that, in my opinion, one of the worst possible things you can breathe in (LEAD) is being released from wood burning!!

This new resurgence fad has been so detrimental and backwards. Gah! What next? Let's put lead back in fuel and they'll claim it's to counter rising gas prices lol.

EDIT - The reason lead is such a big concern, at least for me above all other pollutants, is because once inhaled it pretty much goes DIRECTLY to the brain. It's readily absorbed with ease and bypasses the liver, and once in your brain can and usually does cause irreversible brain damage. It's horrible and there's a reason statistics can point to more violent crime and other defects during times where more kids grew up breathing in leaded gasoline pollution. This is an atrocity and, since wood burning already hinders the air quality as is, awareness needs to exist.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/may/15/wood-burning-for-heat-reintroducing-lead-pollution-into-the-air-us-scientists-find

I think I found my next hobby addiction

Hope you guys like