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Any tricks? I've used up all my kids yellow colored pencils which don't really do the job anyway - too waxy. Pencil/scribed lines are too hard to see on the dark wood. Thanks.

Prisimacolor white --- Silver or Red Welder's marking pencils. The white works best but pretty soft and rather expensive. We have all three around the shop.

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Ken Cierp

http://www.kennethmichaelguitars.com/

I use some white pencils I got from the art store. They're not waxy though. Look to be similar to the Prismacolor that Ken referenced.

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Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

Scribe and fill with white chalk

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Jim Watts
http://jameswattsguitars.com

I usually just put a piece of blue tape in the area and mark with a regular pencil.

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Joe Beaver
Maker of Sawdust

General brand white or black charcoal pencils

I've used silver and gold gel pens, the silver is usually easier to see.

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A man hears what he wants to hear, and disreguards the rest. Paul Simon

prismacolor white from the local art store

For witness lines for sanding, I use peel-off China markers either white or yellow. Amazon carries many options.

For precision marking. I use yellow lead in a mechanical pencil:
https://www.amazon.com/Pilot-Mechanical-Pencil-Yellow-HRF7C-20-Y/dp/B006CQVJK6/ref=sr_1_13?s=office-products&ie=UTF8&qid=1475774144&sr=1-13&keywords=yellow+mechanical+pencil+lead

This color has worked great on rosewood, ebony, bubinga, walnut, and cocobolo.

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Once in a while you get shown the light in the strangest of places if you look at it right - Robert Hunter

Great suggestions all. Thanks!!

Pentel makes colored leads in the .5 thickness rather then the .7 of the Pilot

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Pentel-Ain-Stei ... affHTbVEFw

Never used them, so can't speak to quality

Ed

I've tried the Prismacolor and Pentel products mentioned here and they do work, sort of. However, the by-far-best pencil I've found for marking on dark wood is the white Lyra Rembrandt Polycolor. These seem to be readily available in art supply stores.

David Ingalls
onoukes.com

Soapstone marking pencils for fabric, at your local fabric store.

Pat

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formerly known around here as burbank
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http://www.patfosterguitars.com

I was just using mine - General brand charcoal white. Works great and isn't greasy.

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Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

Quilters pencils. Silver or white. Go lightly - point breaks easily.

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Waddy

Photobucket Build Album Library

Sound Clips of most of my guitars

I've used white pencils, felt tip markers, etc. but at the end of the day, beginning now too.... I favor just a simple .005" mechanical pencil line and very, very good, focused lighting. I can't see the pencil as well but my stinkin line is not three miles wide either.....

The guys who have been in our classes know that we even sharpen our .005" mechanical pencils.... Pretty anal I know...

White china marker for labeling...we avoid anything that has a metallic component to avoid any possibility that the pigment might show up down the road under a finish. For cut lines, we mark with knife or sharp awl and fill with chalk - very visible and avoids a thick, inaccurate trim line. For sanding, we use chalk and HB pencil lead where we need some durability.

A portable aluminum hooded clamp-style work light with a 150 watt equivalent flood flight bulb (we use the LED bulbs - they are much more rugged and available in 6000K) and a stable work stand (we usually just clamp to a well padded tripod-style mic stand or camera tripod) allows lighting to be adjusted so that pencil can be clearly seen. This usually means that, for band saw work for example, some supplemental lighting at a low incident angle is needed to see pencil markings.

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A constellation only takes shape when one maps the whole.
- Beth Brower

White gel markers are even better than the silver ones, as they show up from all angles. They make a narrower line than the white pencils I've tried. Gel pens do seem to need high 'surface energy' to mark well: a light scraping or sanding of the surface just before marking will enable them to work much better.

Hesh. can you just confirm that that isn't a misprint, and that you didn't actually mean .5mm ? I have never come across a mechanical pencil lead thinner than .3mm , and that would be roughly .013" ....005" lead seems incredibly thin ...like half the thickness of a heavy metal e string !

Good catch Murray, yes I should have posted .5mm. Now you know why I can't see the stinkin pencil line.....

Anymore I only use the white pencil for rough marking. On occasion I'll use a marking knife with chalk but mostly a .3mm lead pencil and a bright light set where I can see the reflection off of the line.

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Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"