How to Make a Wood Plaque Without a Wood-Burning Pen

Use a pen-style soldering iron to create a plaque.

Wooden plaques can be works of art or rustic pieces that invoke old-fashioned charm. They can have routed or burned-in lettering. For western and rustic wooden plaques, burned letters look best. You don't have to be an expert at wood burning. In fact, you don't even need a wood-burning pen to make great looking plaques; an ordinary soldering iron works just fine. Soldering irons have a narrow blunt tip that burns wood easily, and they are easy to manipulate. For western-style wood burned plaques, you don't need stencils. Draw your words out freehand for a rustic western look.

Things You'll Need

• Wood blank
• Band saw
• Pen-style soldering iron
• Clamp

Instructions

1. Draw your plaque design out on a wood blank. Cut it out with a band saw.

2. Draw lettering on the plaque. Plug in the soldering iron and let it heat up.

3. Clamp the plaque to the edge of a worktable with a hand clamp. Holding the soldering iron like a pencil, place it on the outer perimeter of the plaque. As the wood begins to smoke and turn black, slowly pull the tip of the soldering iron around the perimeter until the outer edge of the plaque is burned.

4. Place the tip of the soldering iron on the first letter. As the wood begins to burn, trace the letter with the tip of the iron, moving slowly enough that the burned letter line is defined.

5. Trace around each letter with the soldering iron until the plaque is complete.

Tips & Warnings

• For a more detailed or complex style of plaque, run a router profile along the outside perimeter and then run the soldering iron around the router profile. To give the plaque a more western appearance, try adding random burn marks on the plaque.

• Soldering irons are capable of burning skin, so be careful.