Wood burning with a soldering GUN?

I'm making a gift for my wife for our 5th wedding anniversary. It's the "wooden anniversary", so I'm taking some slices I made off of a log and making a sign with them. Part of it involves carving letters, and I wanted to burn them to color them. Can I do this with my trusty soldering gun, or do I need to get a regular soldering iron with specialty tips?

I tried that a couple years ago with my soldering iron. It didn't get hot enough to do anything.

Good luck, post a pic of the final result

SilverFleet wrote: I'm making a gift for my wife for our 5th wedding anniversary. It's the "wooden anniversary", so I'm taking some slices I made off of a log and making a sign with them. Part of it involves carving letters, and I wanted to burn them to color them. Can I do this with my trusty soldering gun, or do I need to get a regular soldering iron with specialty tips?

Try one of those fine tip blowtorches.

Have you considered Solar Pyrography?

Harbor Freight has a combination wood burner/soldering iron. I bought it but still haven't used it yet. It's mostly for wood burning with soldering as an after thought, might be with the 8 bucks to try out.

RevRico wrote: Harbor Freight has a combination wood burner/soldering iron. I bought it but still haven't used it yet. It's mostly for wood burning with soldering as an after thought, might be with the 8 bucks to try out.

I think I have the same kit. Have done a little bit of wood burning and mostly soldering. I've also used it for cutting and welding plastic.

A soldering gun should work but it will be awkward to control, plus you'll have to clean up and re-tin the tip when you're done.