Wood Burned Middle Earth Map on Pallet Wood

Have you even been out for a peaceful stroll through the Shire but find yourself wandering lost through Mordor? Fear no more, with this wood burned map of Middle Earth you will know your way home.

Whether you're new to wood burning like me or you know what you're doing, this wood burned map of middle earth on pallet wood creates a unique wall feature and cool piece of home decor.

For this build you will need for following supplies:

Supplies

Materials:

• Pallet timber
• A couple of smaller pieces of wood
• Carbon paper (graphite transfe
• Screws
• Wood glue
• Wax
• Picture hangers

Tools:

• A wood burner - I used a cheap wood burning pen
• A screw driver
• A sander or planer

Step 1: Prepare the Backboard

The first step is to pull apart an old pallet to obtain the pallet timber planks.

Lay down about 4 or 5 planks and stagger them as seen in the first picture.

Using glue and some small screws, attach some smaller pieces of wood to the pallet planks in order to keep them all together.

Flip it over and either sand or plane the front face of the backboard.

Step 2: Prepare Your Template

Print out you map. You can find countless maps of middle earth on google. You could also use maps from skyrim, game of thrones, or other fantasy maps.

Lay down the carbon paper face down onto your backboard. Apply a little tape arounf the edges.

I only had enough to cover half so once i completed the tracing step, i moved it across and traced the other half.

Place down your printed map over the top of the carbon paper and hold in place with some tape.

Using a ball point pen, trace the outlines of your map.

When you remove the paper, the carbon should have transferred onto the wood. (see last photo attached)

Step 3: Start Burning

First trace the basic outlines of the map.

I found using a round burning tip the easiest as it would glide across the wood grain in any direction.

Press small dots into the wood for the tree/forest areas.

Use a fine point tip to draw the waves around the coast areas.

Use a more wider flat tip to apply some shading on the western side of all the mountains.

Take your time. Go slow. Be patient. You will get there.

If you make a mistake you can use some fine grit sandpaper to sand down a little and then re-burn.

Step 4: Apply Finish

Rub some wax or your favorite wood polish/finish onto the map.

As we are only using pine pallets, there shouldn't be too much grain detail that will pop out and hide the burned map detail.

Optional: For added effect use a small flame torch to burn around the outside edges of the map.

Step 5: Hang on the Wall and Display

Attach some picture hangers on the back and display you cool wood burned map of Middle Earth.

This is a pretty easy project but takes a bit of time. I think the results are worth it.

Next time i think i'll make the map area a little bigger just to fill the space i had to work with.

Thanks for reading my instructable!

Step 6: Wood Burned Middle Earth Map on Pallet Wood