Official Luthiers Forum!

OK, this might seem a tiny bit idiotic, but..what do you guys use to mark your tonewoods with? Chalk? Grease pencil? I need to label my tonewood sets a little better, make sure the sides/backs stay together, and keep an eye on how long I've had the stuff/when it was cut. Pencil works for spruce and the like (although pretty much all my stuff is from Rivolta, and stamped), but it's the darker hardwoods I'm wondering about.

White pencils...you can usually find them at craft stores or artist's supply stores.

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"I want to know what kind of pickups Vince Gill uses in his Tele, because if I had those, as good of a player as I am, I'm sure I could make it sound like that.
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One thing that I learned about recently was gel roller pens. They come in a lot of different colors, including white and metallic, and work pretty well on smooth wood surfaces. I got some at a local fabric and craft store. THese are fine line pens, and, as I say, would not work well on rough sawn wood.

I like lumber crayons.. just big wax ones. they come in red, yellow, black and white ( probably more if you look around more ) mark well and clean off with minimul sanding

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I use grease pencils white in colour. Works well for me and easy to get off ,if needed to.

I the most recent New England Luthiers meeting we had a swap meet. I didn't have much to swap so I brought a box of the liquid gel roller pens that Alan mentioned above. I also had a small piece of IE rosewood so people could write on it and try them out. The first three guys to try them bought them all. (actually, I stuffed a few in my pocket because I realized that I only had one in the shop). For basic marking, they are OK, but for layout purposes they are excellent because the line is .5 mm just like a good pencil. It is important to get the roller kind and not the felt tip kind. The felt tip kind bleed and make a fuzzy line.

doesn't it soak into the fibers of the wood? Especially on spruces and cedars?

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Brock Poling
Columbus, Ohio
http://www.polingguitars.com

a cabinet maker friend of mine thought I was crazy using these things for the past year. But the ink does not penetrate the wood much at all and the line width is so consistent. it is ideal in my opinion

I only use the gel pens on dark woods like rosewood. On spruce and redwood I use a pencil.

Thanks guys for the good tip. Pun only sort of intended.

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From Nacogdoches...the oldest town in Texas.

http://www.stephenkinnaird.com

Thanks for all the tips guys! I went out and bought a packet of mixed gel pens (ooo...glitter!), so I'll try those out tomorrow. Might have to get a crayon and/or wax pencil for the couple of roughsawn sets I have, but this should cover most of it. The top materials I've got almost all have dates stamped on them by the supplier. Handy, that.