labelling wood in your ‘store’

[akirk]

How do you label wood so that you know what it is?
I have lots of hardwood give. to me by various people and a poor memory!
mainly wood which is rough sawn, some of it is PAR
options seem to be:
- sharpie (but does it soak in?)
- pencil (does it remain legible?)
- stickers (do they fall off / do they stck so well, you can’t get them off?) - which stickers?
- some other method?

 

[skelph]

Try chalk, it comes in many colours so you can pick a colour to show up on different hardwoods.

 

[kinverkid]

Chinagraph pencils. I have a black and a white one hanging on strings next to the wood store. Also have them dotted about the workshop. Good for scribbling the waste wood before cutting it out/off but too thick for accurate marking.

Gary

Edit:

Just seen the price of them. £2.75 for two. Didn't know they were that much. I got mine for free when we stopped using them at work. Stick to skelph's idea of chalk.

 

[grumpycorn]

I’ve used sharpie on ash, oak and Walnut with no issues, it planed off with one pass on rough sawn

 

[akirk]

will have to try chalk, (sharpie - concerned about it soaking in.)
worry is that it might not be fine enough

 

[macca]

I dont personally but you could staple labels onto the end grain, use any pen you like, they shouldn't fall off, minimal damage and you can read the species in the middle of the stack of boards

 

[Phill05]

How do you label wood so that you know what it is?
I have lots of hardwood give. to me by various people and a poor memory!
mainly wood which is rough sawn, some of it is PAR
options seem to be:
- sharpie (but does it soak in?)
- pencil (does it remain legible?)
- stickers (do they fall off / do they stck so well, you can’t get them off?) - which stickers?
- some other method?

The answer to all your questions is give all the timber away that way you don't have to worry about marking it and you will soon forget about it due to poor memory.

 

[loftyhermes]

I always write on the endgrain of my wood, (it usually gets cutoff anyway,) with either a pencil on light coulered woods or marker pen on dark wood.

 

[peterw3035]

How do you label wood so that you know what it is?
I have lots of hardwood give. to me by various people and a poor memory!
mainly wood which is rough sawn, some of it is PAR
options seem to be:
- sharpie (but does it soak in?)
- pencil (does it remain legible?)
- stickers (do they fall off / do they stck so well, you can’t get them off?) - which stickers?
- some other method?

Great question, it always seems to be troublesome to me also

 

[Nic Rhodes]

I have struggled with this also. Tried chalk but it comes off. Chinagraph good. I also use sharpie on tape and directly (with no issues). Pencil also used. In the end I mark by more than one method just in case. I like the idea of end grain however, not thought about that. I did ask by email a well known wood working supplier of hand tools what they recommend from the marking devices they sell and was ignored! You will need both dark and light markers however if your wood is like mine.

 

[akirk]

revisiting this…
I have quite a bit of veneer / thin box making wood where I don’t want to have to plane off or sand off the surface to remove writing and the ends are not thick enough to write on…

I am currently labelling the pieces by writing on 3m blue tape and sticking that to the wood - is that the best approach? any better tape / solution?

 

[Inspector]

File folders work if they are not bigger. Stack them, not hanging to keep them flat.

Pete

 

[macca]

masking tape isnt great when its left on too long, ost tapes are rated for a period of time (to be left on) Icertainly wouldn't put the tape in the centre of your sheets just incase there is an issue getting it off or any residue affecting finishes applied

 

[XTiffy]

I would staple a label (embossed dymo type not thermal tape as it fades) on the end grain. I have frequently had solid boards delivered that way.
I used to keep all of my veneer in a draughtmans drawer cabinet. Longer pieces that would not fit on shelves between boards to keep them flat.

 

[akirk]

will keep an eye on the tape - the wood is too thin to staple to the end, and writing on it means losing thickness when that is removed…

 

[Ttrees]

Chalk is used for acoustic guitar plates.

 

[stuckinthemud]

Bic biro works really well

 

[akirk]

thank you - the challenge in particular is for pieces such as veneer which are thin enough that I don't want to write on them in any form that needs sanding...

 

[XTiffy]

I have to admit this is something that I have never had to address! Your original point seemed to be labelling solid timber.
One suggestion I would have is the possibility of using different colured paints to colour the end grain.
I use the tiny humbrol type modeling paints to mark tools mainly spanner sizes, (so I can see the size, without a magnifying glass these days) and use the standard resistor colour code from 0-9 and a second or even a third band above that number if needed. This is due to my electronic background as I know those colours off by heart! So a 10mm spanner would be Brown/Black etc.
Zero is black,Brown1, Red2, Orange3, Yellow4, Green5, Blue6, Violet7, Grey8, White9.
In your case you could use either colour pencils or felt tip pens.
I have widely used paper veneer tape to hold splits in veneers and I have never had a problem removing the glue residue.