The Razertip Woodburning Pen

Pyrography, or woodburning images was a more popular art form in Canada for decades before it's popularity began to grow here in the United States. When I purchased my Razertip Pen about 5 years ago, I gave that serious consideration in that the added years of experience and feedback from pyrographers might have played a role in refining the technology behind the pens. For 5 years now I have used my pen regularly and have had no problems or failures with the pen.

Pro's to the Razertip Pen:

Unlike many woodburning pens, units come with either fixed tip pens or replaceable tips pens, etc. However with the Razertip Woodburning Pen you get your choice of fixed tip, replaceable tip, or binding post pens. The tips are what is referred to as wire tips.

Replaceable tip pens: In the replaceable tip pens, the tip actually slides in and out of two sleeves at the end of the pen. These work well for a while, but with time and wear you begin to get a loose connection between the sleeves and the wire tips and they require a slight bending to insure they make a strong contact. When the tips do not make solid contact, they will arc which creates additional heat in the pen itself and can actually permeate the insulated tip you are using.

Fixed Tip Pens: Fixed tips pens, the tips are actually fastened by some type of brazing or high temp solder like possibly silver solder. This insures the tips always make a good connection because it is as if they are solid metal through out the electrical connection. These are the most durable and longest lasting, but they also cost much more. The tips will wear out eventually from cleaning and from friction while moving on the material you are burning. I find burning on gourds does wear out the tips perhaps a little faster than some mediums because a gourd can have a very hard and course surface.

Binding Post Pen: The binding post pen is my favorite. With screws that clamp down on each end of the wire tip, you are sure to get a solid connection very similar to that of the fixed tip pen, but with the added convenience of buying the much cheaper wire tips.

There are two popular units of the Razertip Woodburning pen, the single pen unit and the dual pen unit. The razertip dual pen unitalso has an adjustment opening where with a small screw driver you can adjust the lowest temperature setting either up or down depending on your needs. This is really convenient for things like adjusting it to a lower temperature setting for wax sculpting, or setting it for the lightest burn on a gourd or specific type of wood, etc. By setting this, you can then simply turn the temperature adjustment to zero and you have your lowest predetermined tip temperature.

When I purchased my Razertip Woodburning Pen, I had to order from Canada, but today there are a few outlets where they can be purchased, perhaps the best prices are available from Amazon. If you visit the Gourd Reserve website, in the right column is an Amazon carousel you can rotate by clicking the up or down arrows at the bottom of the carousel, both wood burning units are on this carousel.