Tools of the Trade
Day Twenty-Six: Fire
A few years ago, I spent each day in January writing about a different tool I use in my maskmaking. As I am currently redesigning my entire website in the new year, I thought it might be nice to revisit this project. Each day in January 2021, I’ll share a different item that I use in my studio. I hope some of these can help other people who are interested in making wrestling masks.
When I started taking leathercraft courses and was learning about hand sewing, they taught us to burn our thread ends to seal the piece and make it look neat. I’ve started doing that with my mask making as well. Most of the time I use a disposable Bic lighter (preferably one with Sgt Slaughter on it!) When I need more precision, I use the Wildfire Cord Cutter or the plasma lighter. The Wildfire uses batteries to heat up a little loop of wire that you can use to melt thread in tight spaces.
The plasma lighter is rechargeable via usb, and shoots out crossing arcs of supercharged plasma. It looks really cool, and makes burning thread into an adventure.