What Tools Are Needed For Hat Burning?

Hat burning is a fun and creative activity for crafters. In this article, we discuss what tools are needed to burn hats.

The most important tool for hat burning is a variable-temperature soldering iron. Other helpful tools include tracing paper or carbon paper, parchment paper, a mini iron, a picking tool or tweezers, and heat-erase pens.

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A heat adjustable soldering iron

To burn hats you must have a soldering iron. A typical soldering iron can reach 900 degrees or more. That’s great for soldering wires, but it is too hot for hat burning unless the user has a lot of experience. A better solution is a variable heat soldering iron. We typically burn a hat with a temperature setting of 300 to 400 degrees. 

While you can spend $200 or more on a variable heat soldering iron, the one we use cost less than $30.

When shopping for a variable heat soldering iron, look for a model with an adjustable temperature range starting around 250 degrees. And make sure it has plenty of tips. At a minimum, you’ll want a heavy tip for outlining and filling shapes, and you’ll want a medium tip for shading or creating lightweight outlines. 

Tracing Paper/Carbon Paper

Whether you draw your own design or use one of our designs, you’ll want to transfer your design to a hat. There are a variety of methods of transferring the design. Our tutorial Transferring a Design Our Method is a good place to learn about design transfers. In the tutorial, we explain how we use parchment paper to transfer our designs to a hat and share several tips for achieving clean, accurate transfers.

A Small Iron

A mini iron is perfect for transferring designs into tight areas or touching up sections that did not transfer completely.

A Picking Tool

One method of hat burning is to burn the design directly through the printed design and onto the hat. With this method, fragments of the burned paper will often stick to the hat. Those will have to be removed from the hat. A picking tool or pair of tweezers is perfect for cleaning up these small paper fragments and keeping your design area neat.

Heat Erase Pens

When touching up a design, it’s often nice to be able to draw in areas or partial designs that didn’t transfer. Heat-erase pens for fabric are an excellent solution for making temporary marks and touch-ups.

Be sure to read the description and reviews. Some pens are reported to leave ghost marks or shadows if the area is reheated or exposed to heat like sunlight.

While a variable-temperature soldering iron is the only truly essential tool for hat burning, accessories like transfer paper, a mini iron, tweezers, and heat-erase pens can make the process much easier. Starting with the right tools will help you create cleaner burns, more accurate designs, and better-looking finished hats.

Ready for Your First Project?

Once you have your tools, the next step is choosing a design. Our beginner-friendly hat burning designs are specifically created for new burners and include layouts that are easy to transfer and burn.

Browse Beginner Hat Burning Designs