[Otto Nobedder]

The McMaster-Carr catalog has scribes of all kinds, steel, carbide, and diamond, for not much money, but if I actually need to scribe something in steel or anything softer, a sharpened 1/8" tungsten (2% any-ated, not pure) kicks ass for a little bit of nothing, but, as kermdawg said, it takes a pretty deep scribe to be seen clearly with your hood down. In a situation that critical, you might not want to create a sharp gouge in your material.

Unless you're building satellites for JPL, it's probably not that critical. My rule is to use the easiest method that meets my goal. If you need a really tight line, a silver streak shows up while torching or tacking, and it's reflective enough to show up while welding. For a rough line, soapstone is just fine on carbon, but harder to spot on stainless. I've even used artists' colored pencils in a pinch.

Wow. I really rambled on that post.

Steve

[kermdawg]

3 things I always have for layout-carpenters pencil, sharpie, and a chaulk box. All three can be used to mark anything if so inclined, but the sharpie is almost impossible to see on steel. Carpenters pencil aint all that, but it does work.

Guess it wouldnt work if you had black chaulk in the chaulk box. Use red, and ignore the carpenters yellin at ya

[metlcre8or]

From Wikipedia: "Soapstone (also known as steatite or soaprock) is a metamorphic rock, a talc-schist. It is largely composed of the mineral talc and is thus rich in magnesium. It is produced by dynamothermal metamorphism and metasomatism, which occurs in the areas where tectonic plates are subducted, changing rocks by heat and pressure, with influx of fluids, but without melting. It has been a medium for carving for thousands of years."

Getting past all that scientific mumbo-jumbo, soapstone is a very soft rock used for a number of things, among which is marking on metal. The commercially available soapstone products found in most hardware and welding stores works very well for marking dark steel when sharpened. It comes in several shapes and holds up under heat (for welding or torch cutting), but is useless on oily, greasy or bright metal (aluminum, stainless, chrome, etc.).

Paint pens and grease pencils are okay but usually make a very wide mark. I have found the Markal Silver-Streak pen works great for most work and can be sharpened to a fine point.

For real fine work you will need a scribe. Be aware though, scribes work by scratching a line in the material. This is usually not good for sheet metal or marking work that will leave the layout revealed in the finish product.

--Bill the metal creator

[lazerbeam]

Things I have used to mark metal:
Soapstone- sharpened like a wedge
Silver artist pencil- have to sharpen often
Black sharpie- SS and Al
Silver sharpie- carbon steel
Silver streak- just started using it but I am liking it
Scribe- scratch awl. sharpened tungsten and carbide scribe
Scribe with center punch marks so it doesn't disappear while welding or cutting

In my welding jacket sleeve slots right now, silver streak in one and black sharpie in the other.

[Otto Nobedder]

Markal makes a "lead" for the silver-streak pencil (I've only seen it in the "flat" format, not the 3/32 round "pencil lead" style.) called Red Ryter that marks Al and SS beautifully, and shows up with your hood down.

Steve S

[Otto Nobedder]

Interestingly, it was a spam post that brought this topic back to the top.

Someone advising on fixing and maintaining soapstone countertops...

Steve S

[jwmacawful]

i been using soapstone to layout punch/cutting lines forever and carry a large file in my tool bucket to sharpen it. watching jody's video clips gave me the sharpie idea.

[Ranger]

Thanks for this thread because I never knew about the Silver pencils and this helped out alot ..

[GDweld]

I LIKE TO USE A COMBINATION OF BOTH SOAPSTONE & A CARBIDE TIPPED SCRIBE.
I USE THE SOAPSTONE TO MAKE TWO OR MORE DISTANCE LOCATIONS & THEN USE MY SCRIBE TO CONNECT THESE POINTS. THIS IS VERY ACCURATE AND FAST.
THE SOAPSTONE MAKES IT EASY TO SEE YOUR LOCATION MARKS AND THEN USE A STRAIGHTEDGE TO SCRIBE MARK TO MARK
BY USING THIS METHOD YOU DON'T HAVE TO KEEP SHARPENING YOUR SOAPSTONE AS YOU DRAW LONG STRAIGHT LINES,AND YOU CAN SEE YOUR SCRIBED LINES FAIRLY EASY.

[wingnut40]

I use the silverstreak markers for a lot of years,but I can't buy the red color (for aluminum) any more from my local suppliers.Can Anyone help?

[steve-l]

Soap stone marks are temporary and wipe off easily, as others have stated. Its advantage is that is does not disappear when hot. Its most common usage is doing layout lines for cutting with oxygen/acetylene. It is invaluable and very inexpensive.

[gkent]

For years I've been using silver pencils from an art supply store...at about 25 cents each