Marking Walnut

[Baldhead]

I have to mark some curved lines on Walnut, ordinary pencil is no good (poor eyesight), I was thinking of using yellow chinagraph but it won't give me a fine line, is there anything I can use that will give me a pencil sharp line and not stain the wood?

Thanks
Stew

 

[Racers]

White pencil/crayon is the best thing I have found to mark wall nut apart from a knife.

Pete

 

[Alexam]

White charcoal pencils are available if you Google for them.

 

[PAC1]

I use white pencils. Axminster used to sell them by the box full, but alas no more, try Amazon.

 

[AndyT]

I was going to suggest the white marking pencils from Axminster - but they no longer sell them, and to be honest they don't give a fine line, as they are just a soft coloured pencil.
Derek Cohen has often shown us his technique with blue masking tape, where he uses a cut line in the tape and saws to the infinitely fine boundary which is the cut edge.

This might be tricky for a curved line. I think I would try sticking on some white paper, using water soluble glue or paste, then drawing on it with an ordinary pencil, cut the curve, and peel/scrape/scrub away the paper. Or possibly ordinary masking tape, then pencil?

 

[Normancb]

+1 for blue masking tape - works incredibly well for marking out e.g. dovetails - cut through with a marking knife, peel away the bits you don't want then cut to the line. You can do the same trick with brown parcel tape but don't leave it on too long as it can get a bit harder to remove. In my experience white wax crayon, chinagraph etc can get into the grain and be hard to remove.

 

[bugbear]

I use white pencils. Axminster used to sell them by the box full, but alas no more, try Amazon.

Old thread (I dimly remember it happening, and searched)

white-charcoal-pencils-t85841.html

BugBear

 

[Gerard Scanlan]

I use tailor's/dressmaker's chalk for marking walnut. It is usually a flat square or triangle and you can sharpen the edge to give you a very fine line. I have never had a probleem removing the marks afterwards.

 

[Baldhead]

Thanks everyone, blue tape and pencil line is probably the way I'll go.

Cheers
Stew

 

[custard]

If it's a curve do you really need the line to be all that fine?

Given that it's a curve it's most unlikely to be a jointing surface, and in any event how accurately can you saw on a curve?

If you're talking marquetry then obviously disregard all this, but for furniture work a sharpened white pencil, even though it's not as fine as a freshly sharpened lead pencil, is still probably fine enough. When I'm cutting curved templates for router/spindle work I work on the basis that I'm more aiming for the curve to be fair to the touch rather than accurate to the line.

Just my 2p's worth.

Good luck!

 

[rafezetter]

Just as another alternative to the tape and pencil route - you can buy very narrow stretchy masking tape used by custom paint sprayers for intricate designs and pinstriping - make sure it's the plastic rather than paper kind. It has a "soft" bond so it can be applied, pulled up and reapplied several times and will conform to very tight curves.

It also works extremely well on non flat surfaces.

 

[custard]

Another option on Black Walnut is a red biro, that works pretty well.

 

[bugbear]

Another option on Black Walnut is a red biro, that works pretty well.

Surprising, and interesting.

BugBear

 

[worn thumbs]

I have found ordinary masking tape and a normal pencil will work.I have also used a few dabs of Tipp-Ex and a pencil,but it does need a bit of cleaning up which isn't a huge penalty for the comparative security relative to the risk of tape detaching.