Of
the wood commonly sold in craft stores, balsa wood and pine are the
most common and least expensive. I don’t mind working with pine, but I
have come to despise balsa. This is why.
In color, balsa is brownish, whitish, or yellowish—usually all of them at once—unevenly colored, with a grayish cast. It has a small, close-spaced, speckley grain. It’s almost weightless, extremely soft, and can be put together easily using only glue.
Balsa wood is great to decoupage, since it’s absorbent enough to work with almost any adhesive. It isn’t terrible to paint, either, though the paint does tend to soak up into the wood, pale out, and bleed. Burning it, however, is a nightmare.
The wood is so light and airy that the pen will gouge deeply with the slightest misapplication of pressure or heat. If the pen is hot enough to leave a strong black line, it will also be hot enough to dent the wood. Truthfully, it's very difficult to burn this wood without carving it.
It also doesn’t yield the rich array of browns and russets that other woods will give; it burns in shades of gray. Your finished burning usually ends up looking “sooty” and dull.
Finally, it’s a fairly ugly, cheap-looking wood, so whatever areas you don’t burn black will look crusty and sickly.
My advice? If you’re looking for a wood that you can carve into, yielding an interesting raised effect, then balsa might be a good choice. Just be prepared to struggle with it a little, and treat it very, very gingerly. If you’re looking for a wood that’s cost effective, though, don’t bother. It might be the least expensive wood out there, but no matter how budget-conscious you are, you’re always better off spending a few extra cents for pine.
In color, balsa is brownish, whitish, or yellowish—usually all of them at once—unevenly colored, with a grayish cast. It has a small, close-spaced, speckley grain. It’s almost weightless, extremely soft, and can be put together easily using only glue.
Balsa wood is great to decoupage, since it’s absorbent enough to work with almost any adhesive. It isn’t terrible to paint, either, though the paint does tend to soak up into the wood, pale out, and bleed. Burning it, however, is a nightmare.
The wood is so light and airy that the pen will gouge deeply with the slightest misapplication of pressure or heat. If the pen is hot enough to leave a strong black line, it will also be hot enough to dent the wood. Truthfully, it's very difficult to burn this wood without carving it.
It also doesn’t yield the rich array of browns and russets that other woods will give; it burns in shades of gray. Your finished burning usually ends up looking “sooty” and dull.
Finally, it’s a fairly ugly, cheap-looking wood, so whatever areas you don’t burn black will look crusty and sickly.
My advice? If you’re looking for a wood that you can carve into, yielding an interesting raised effect, then balsa might be a good choice. Just be prepared to struggle with it a little, and treat it very, very gingerly. If you’re looking for a wood that’s cost effective, though, don’t bother. It might be the least expensive wood out there, but no matter how budget-conscious you are, you’re always better off spending a few extra cents for pine.
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