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Rave About Your Rack Please do not post retail SPAM.

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Marking Gear - Nail Polish?


tnd

13-Apr-2011
2:40:22 PM

I hate how climbing scrapes off my nail polish.


kuu

13-Apr-2011
3:57:52 PM

On 13/04/2011 tnd wrote:
>I hate how climbing scrapes off my nail polish.

Then don't climb bare footed!


Climboholic

13-Apr-2011
7:34:25 PM

I don't see a need to mark gear. You usually only use one rack at a time anyway. Definately steer clear of electrical tape (especially yellow-green earth tape, everyone thinks is unique). When I got my rack I thought I'd copy a mate and mark it with tape. The tape has been gone for years but the stickiness remains.

I also don't see a need to mark the middle of the rope unless you regularly set up top ropes. The only time I've had a rope coiled or flaked and wanted to grab the middle is when tying 3 people into 1 rope. I assume most people usually feed it through a fixed anchor or around a boulder which negates the need to mark the middles as you flake it as you pull it through. Is there another way? Have I been wasting time all these years?

On 13/04/2011 wm wrote:
>Have tried nail polish and tape. Permanent marker is heaps better!
>
>1) you can write your name / initials / favourite doodle, so it's much
>more individual (there's only so many colours of nail polish and tape that
>people use)
>2) it lasts heaps longer (just write on the non-wearing surfaces - yes
>even carabiners and RPs have some). I get 5 years between refreshes on
>even the most heavily used gear...

Do you climb once a year? I used a marking pen (same thing?) to mark a belay device I dropped so I wouldn't use it and it rubbed off in my gear bag in a couple of months.


JamesMc

13-Apr-2011
8:04:54 PM

Just engrave your initials on a part that is not in signficant tension.

JamesMc

Jimi

13-Apr-2011
10:50:06 PM

On 13/04/2011 Climboholic wrote:
>I don't see a need to mark gear. You usually only use one rack at a time
>anyway.

So far (and I'm still very much the bumblie) there have been several occasions where individually marked gear has or would have been advantageous.

While my climbing partner has a pretty full trad rack, I'm still putting mine together so we sometimes share gear or we both have identical items. Depending on what/where we're climbing, there are some routes where he leads and may want to double up on specific nuts etc. or there's not enough beta to tailor a rack to the climb and wants to carry more just in case.

Also, after the MD & Rock Hardware sales of late, there's lots of my mates that have stocked up on the same or very similar gear.

I just want to be able to trace my gear, log it's history and be confident on what's happened to it and when it needs retiring.

Wendy

14-Apr-2011
1:05:32 PM

On 13/04/2011 Climboholic wrote:
>I don't see a need to mark gear. You usually only use one rack at a time
>anyway. Definately steer clear of electrical tape (especially yellow-green
>earth tape, everyone thinks is unique). When I got my rack I thought I'd
>copy a mate and mark it with tape. The tape has been gone for years but
>the stickiness remains.
>
The tape does suck. I find it either comes off, or comes loose and slides up and down the gear. But i definately mark my gear. It just inevitably ends up mixed up, whether it's because you have piled 5 racks worth of cams together for Indian creek or you've just taken your favourite bits to supplement your friend''s rack or vice versa, just emptied your pack next to each other at the crag or share a gear cupboard with your partner's almost as extensive collection thrown in it haphazardly.

>I also don't see a need to mark the middle of the rope unless you regularly
>set up top ropes. The only time I've had a rope coiled or flaked and wanted
>to grab the middle is when tying 3 people into 1 rope. I assume most people
>usually feed it through a fixed anchor or around a boulder which negates
>the need to mark the middles as you flake it as you pull it through. Is
>there another way? Have I been wasting time all these years?

I like middle markers. Easy to coil from. easy to be sure it's the middle on a rope stretching abseil. Helps to guestimate about how much rope is out. Not necessary for sure, but nice.
>
>On 13/04/2011 wm wrote:
>>Have tried nail polish and tape. Permanent marker is heaps better!

>Do you climb once a year? I used a marking pen (same thing?) to mark a
>belay device I dropped so I wouldn't use it and it rubbed off in my gear
>bag in a couple of months.
>
I marked Anthony's biners with permanent marker, just a line in the groove of the i beam construction. Lasting fine. It'd be impressive if something managed to scrape the whole thing off in that position. And i think will might climb slightly more than once a year.

dicky

14-Apr-2011
5:46:55 PM

try the scratch repair car paint, sold at all car spares stores, comes in a small tube with its own perfectly sized brush for gear marking and much more hard wearing than nail polish and cheaper than branded climbing stuff.
also a load of colours for you and all your friends

happy marking

Richard Delaney

15-Apr-2011
6:27:33 AM

On 13/04/2011 gfdonc wrote:
>On 13/04/2011 wm wrote:

>>5) gear freaks can benefit from the "huge" weight saving of not having
>tape
>
>Oooh. Excited now.
>
That's why I go the heavy handed engraving!
Richard

There are 28 messages in this topic.