Marking Gear

Is it safe to mark your gear (biners and cams) with Shapie Marker or Bic Permanent Markers? Is it safe to mark points on your rope with these markers too?

It's safe to mark hardware with markers, but it does wear off rather quickly. Why not just use tape? Rope makers say NOT to use regular sharpies to mark the rope. You can buy markers that are safe to use though. I know gearexpress.com has ink for around $6.00

One reason not to use tape is because of the stick mess it becomes when it gets nicked or heated.

Yes, sharpies are safe for metal, but do wear off. Nail polish seems to be a pretty decent standard.

As for rope markings, amusingly enough, one of the only items that weakens rope strength was marking them with the rope pens (and cat pee). Will see if I can find that test from chris @ BD from a few years ago.

As for marking them, a water color paint should be just fine (crayola or such) but anything with acetate will cause problems (however minor). Rope markers and rope ink will suffice if you really want to mark it.

someone had a good idea for the rope, just take some floss and weave it in the sheath.

Blue water makes a rope marking pen. I think I paid like 5 dollars for it.

The rope marker from BD (Beal) is actually approved by a number of (but not all) rope manufacturers, as I contacted Beal and Edelweiss directly.

As to sharpies, I would not use them on soft goods -- poke around all the climbing sites and forums and you will see numerous discussions about the pros and cons of this.

Like Charles said, nail polish is a great option for marking metal gear. That is all I've ever done. Binners will need a new coat every 1-2 years (depending on use). The plus is no messy glue, easy to mark with multiple colors, cheap, and you can paint your nails funny colors with it. I'm guessing it probably is not a good idea to use on webbing or ropes.

I have a rope that I marked with florescent paint, about 3 months ago, it still works fine, plus I can find it in the dark.

Here's a supertopo thread with some info on marking ropes with felt tip pens and sharpies. They apparently tend to show reduced fall #'s after markings (at least in the labs).

supertopo.com/climbing/thre…

Informative link above. I've used said sharpie on slings for 20 years and have yet to experience a failure, including those with slings marked on cams. I've made it a habit to mark the date of purchase on the sewn slings or those with which material I've bought in bulk. With that said, I bear my newer slung cams with colored duct tape as an observance of what current opinion is. Probably prudent to bear on the side of caution.
As far as ropes, I've always spent the money on either bi-color ropes or ones that have factory marked center points. Biners and other aluminum products the mark of choice matters little as far as failure strength is concerned.

At my wife's suggestion, I used fingernail polish to mark my harware.
It comes in an assortment of colors and it lasts for years.

Jordan Ramey wrote:Here's a supertopo thread with some info on marking ropes with felt tip pens and sharpies. They apparently tend to show reduced fall #'s after markings (at least in the labs).

Only if the marked part of the rope is weighted over an edge during the fall. How often do you fall on the middle of your rope? ... Never? I see. So don't worry about the effects of a rope-marking pen.

For me, bi-pattern ropes are the best alternative. Mammut Duodess ropes are excellent.

I pushed a small piece of ribbon through the middle of an anchor cord I wanted to mark the middle of. Haven't tried it on climbing rope, usually get the bi-color/weave.
Tape around hardwear lasts quite a while (3-4 years), however, I bet you desert climbers get the glue heating up and sliding a bit more though.

Tom Hanson wrote:At my wife's suggestion, I used fingernail polish to mark my harware. It comes in an assortment of colors and it lasts for years.

Years?? You must be using a higher quality nail polish than I did! I got fed up with repainting my biners every few weeks. So now I'm using tape.

JL

saxfiend wrote: Years?? You must be using a higher quality nail polish than I did! I got fed up with repainting my biners every few weeks. So now I'm using tape. JL

I'm lazy, so I just use Trango RackTags. Faster than cutting up pieces of tape, but more expensive.

Ron Olsen wrote: I'm lazy, so I just use Trango RackTags. Faster than cutting up pieces of tape, but more expensive.

Actually, that's what I use too. Found them in a mark-down bin at REI for a fraction of full price -- woohoo! They seem pretty durable so far.

JL

Paz Ramirez wrote:the thought of paying for pre-cut tape (another great innovation by Trango, NOT) goes against rock climbing lifestyle ethics that I know of!

Funny stuff! Just when you think nothing anyone says will surprise you . . . I guess marking your gear is just the first deadly step on the ethical slippery slope that leads to chipping holds and gridbolting. The horror . . . the horror.

JL

Paz Ramirez wrote:As far as marking gear, I climb with people I trust and therefor do not mark my climbing gear.

Guess you've never been in a group situation where five or six people's gear gets used during the day, and has to get sorted out at the end...or climbed with a partner who has the same biners as you do, and also doesn't mark his gear...

Paz Ramirez wrote:Markers on rope, bad. Even the 'climbing-rope' specific one is bad, engineers have performed tests and found that it weakens the rope (search the web as the reports are out there). I still mark mine knowing that there is a super-duper slim chance that that could be the weakest link in my system (doubtful I think, but i'll roll the dice).... As far as getting gear mixed up with my partners' gear, impossible as we intimately know our gear (I know mine, and you're not taking it)....

PAZ-
- I doubt it's engineers doing all the tests
- The rope marker beal sells is the same marking compound they use on every one of their ropes you buy in the store and that they conduct their UIAA tests on
- If you can keep straight two partner's nuts and identical biners, when each partner has a brought handful of random, worn nuts and biners -- many the same size and make -- then you're amazing

One technique I've used to mark my "hard" gear, meaning metal, cams, tricams, etc is by using an engraver. I have a coded method that I use and place on any gear before it's used. As for carabiners an easy method for tape is to wrap a small portion around a golf tee or other small tubular object. Then you can unwind the tape onto the carabiner, and the smaller tape roll makes the job a little easier and neater.

no1nprtclr wrote:One technique I've used to mark my "hard" gear, meaning metal, cams, tricams, etc is by using an engraver.

no1nprtclr,

Generally speaking, I think it not a good idea to etch any climbing goods, as this:

a) weakens the material for both tensile and compressive stresses
b) provides a crack initiation/propagation site for fracture to occur in the material

While in reality etching a tri-cam or cam may have no effect on it's ultimate strength -- unless you have facilities and can do some destructive testing, you will not know for sure. I would definitely not do this on biners (I see you didn't). Though you may note some batch numbering already stamped on biners, stamping is cold-working that does not remove material (and is likely in a strategic location).

In short, there are probably a lot better alternatives to engraving your climbing gear that you may want to consider.