Marking your own gear, how do you do it?

[spectrum]

Black paint pens on cylinders for my last name for no confusion at the dive shop and easy ID by anyone. I keep a record of all stampings if positive ID is ever needed. I also have my cylinders numbered in sequence 1,2,3..... just so I can reference them

Other gear gets initials in sharpie, mostly black but silver woks well on black stuff. Items possibly lost (like fins) get my phone number, the one thing that will let me be contacted directly if someone finds it.

All will fade so refresh as needed.

Most wear away soon enough or can be removed with solvent so resale isn't a concern.

Pete

 

[Nemrod]

I do not need to mark my gear, my Jets have shark teeth imbedded in them, my knife is three feet long, my mask is round and my regulator has two hoses. Unless Lloyd Bridges is on board, I think I am OK.

N

 

[skankpile]

I have a vinyl cutter I use for MOD/MIX labels, and the rest is paint pens, sharpies, sniff test

Other than that I have crazy stuff everybody knows is mine; force fins, homemade stage rigging, titanium backplate, my regs have my name under the clear enviro seal, my wetsuit smells like piss, and my drysuit likely has a used catheter, or a dripping pee valve...good times

 

[Bob DBF]

If you were to sell that gear later on, how easy would be to remove your markings?

Sell gear? I wear mine out.



Bob
------------------------------------
I may be old, but I’m not dead yet.

 

[Damselfish]

I mostly use black sharpie on light colors and silver sharpie on dark colors.

What you mark and how depends on where you dive and what you are trying to accomplish. Personally, all my diving anymore is at tropical resorts. My most likely need for marking is to help get something back I forgot on a boat or didn't fish out of the rinse tank, that sort of thing. Maybe occasionally to tell apart similar looking gear. I mostly use first name last initial, sometimes a whole name. Something like initials or numbers or patterns might not provide enough help to someone figuring out who that stray fin belongs to. If I were diving just at home, maybe I would do something different.

Since I am often hanging my suit on a common rack with others to dry, I like to replace the pull cords with something out of the ordinary. Makes it easier for me to spot, and hopefully someone who grabs the wrong black suit will notice. Lanyards from badges from trade shows and conferences can work well for this. A couple of our suits have cords with QUANTAS printed on them, which also seems to amuse Aussie DMs.

 

[John_B]

I mark all my gear "John B" but that might be confusing if we were ever to dive together, so just in case, you might want to use your own name instead.

 

[NightForce]

Puffy Paint from Wal-Mart or the local craft shop workswell. Multiple colors to choose from.

 

[stano]

I learned from my dog, I pee on everything.

Classic.

 

[tdtaylor]

Scuba Goop for neoprene and marker for everything else with my initials. Mixing with others is usually not an issue except for items like booties/wetsuits on a liveaboard. I often travel with a group from our LDS, and amazingly many of us have the same equipment (show it it is an excellent dive shop )

 

[socaljohn]

First digit of your last name and the last 4 of your SS. I etch what I can and use paint pens for the rest.

Sounds like what they made us do in AF Basic Training way back when. Not too sure about putting last 4 of SSN on it these days. My gear (bought used) is mostly so old nobody will think it is theirs. I have a shiny new HP 100 (well shiny to me) that the owner of my LDS asked me to put my name on as she often has quite a few of them in for a fill. I put my initials on it with a permanent magic marker though I imagine it will eventually need to be redone.