Introduction: Woodburning a Cigar Box!

About: I'm 19, a musician, an eager to learn student, and a curious person. I love building stuff and learning how things work. I've built a few guitars and I aim to learn electronics as well as I can.
I had an old cigar box lying around and decided it was time to redecorate! 

Step 1: Preparing the Box

I didn't take pictures of this step because it varies per box and is generally straight forward. 

For mine i just sanded the whole box from 60 grit to 220 grit sand paper. You can go higher depending on your preference but i felt it was good at 220.

Once the box is prepared you can begin your design. 

Step 2: Selecting the Design

For this design i decided to base the top off of something called Rhombitrihexagonal Tiling (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhombitrihexagonal_tiling)

This design seemed really cool and it was a long name so i felt smarter every time i talked about it. 

So i kind of free sketched this on to the box and corrected some things with a ruler. 

Step 3: Begin the Burn!

Once drawn on the box you can begin woodburning. I got my stand ready (based off of this instructable here: https://www.instructables.com/id/Wood-Burning-And-Solder-Station/ Thanks for the great idea!)

From here it's just following the sketch with the burner. I also followed with some shading and some minor detail to make it a tad more ornate. 

Step 4:

For the sides of the box i just make the lines that ended seem to "fall off" and just carried the lines down. 

As for the shading, everyone has a different technique. I like to draw little circles constantly overlapping each other. Every wood burns different so you have to adapt and be more cautious with shading.

Always remember to start light because you can always make it darker not lighter!  

Step 5: Finished!

After all the main burning is done, all of your shading is done, and most importantly YOU are satisfied with it you are finished!

I haven't sealed mine yet and i am debating if i will or not. I tend to like the rugged feel and the smell of the burning so a lacquer over it would ruin those things for me. 

Now load it up with cigars or hobby items or anything you deem worthy to lie in this awesome looking creation.