​Contact info on paddles and gear

[Guest]

Most of my gear is marked with name and phone # using a Sharpie or enamel paint pen. The paint pen enamel lasts longer, and I can use yellow enamel on black gear.

But my handwriting is fugly at best, and scrawled in inch tall block print on an otherwise nice paddle blade looks even fuglier. A paddler friend who golfs suggested using waterproof hi-tech golf club lables. These:

https://golflabels.com/

I’ve used metallic polyester lables for inventory of expensive lab equipment in a past life, and that stuff is dang tough.

I don’t golf, but I know that the cost of clubs makes paddling gear look cheap. Still, $10 for 20 lables? That’s a little ca-ching.

Hmmmm, but there are four lines of text available. My name/e-mail address/name/email address gets me 40 discrete lables for a Hamilton.

Worth a try.

 

[Bothwell Voyageur]

You could try a local sign maker. Or make a stencil and spray paint it on.

 

[Muskrat]

I don't really have a better solution for you. However, be wary of sharpies. They are not uv resistant and the ink doesn't take long to fade if left in the sun. I use fisher scientific marking pens. UV and chemical resistant. I would never pay $50 for ten markers. Luckily, my employer does.

 

[Guest]

. I use fisher scientific marking pens. UV and chemical resistant. I would never pay $50 for ten markers. Luckily, my employer does.

Ditto down to the employer. Those Fisher pens are much more durable than a Sharpie, which needs refreshing every few years. But it is still a blob of sloppy handwriting, and the labels, especially once cut in half for name/-mail, name/e-mail should be much more discrete.

I’ll probably lay a coat of varnish or poly overtop the labels for added scrape protection.

I currently have my name and phone number on most of my boats and gear, and sometimes a second hidden ID on the canoes. But when I started thinking about ordering the labels it occurred to me that my phone number is likelier to change than my Gmail account.

Plus I occasionally check my gmail when travelling, but I don’t check the phone messages until I have returned home. If I lose a paddle or piece of gear hundreds of miles from home the gmail contact might give me a chance to get it back while I am still in the area.

 

[Guest]

Time to try the golf club ID labels. I have a sheet to 20 waterproof labels, each with my name and e-mail printed them twice. Cut in half I have 40 small waterproof ID labels.

First a waterproofieness test. I put labels on two wood single blades and both sides of a take apart double. I didn’t subject my best paddles to this experiment, but those sticks see sufficient water time, and the double has plastic (nylon?) blades, which might present an additional adhesive challenge.

For experimental purposes I top coated one label each on a single and double half with clear enamel and left the other two blades with labels simply press and applied.

They are certainly discrete enough; each halved label measures 2 inches long by ¼ inch wide. At the least they look better than my inch tall block printed name and number in Sharpie or enamel paint pen.



Methinks I’m going to have a boat and gear labeling day soon. I do like the idea of having two ID’s on each boat, one plainly visible and one hidden. I may lay those in-boat ID’s under a coat of resin on the composite hulls.

 

[Will Derness]

For what it is worth, I placed my labels on the shaft at the point it turns into the blade. Still quite visible and less likely to get nicked as it might on the paddle face. Less water immersion as well.

 

[Guest]

For what it is worth, I placed my labels on the shaft at the point it turns into the blade. Still quite visible and less likely to get nicked as it might on the paddle face. Less water immersion as well.

I may try that location on some open canoe paddles. I thought on the blade would be an abusively liquid location for a test, and on the short-shafted single blades I use the decked canoes I sometimes have a hand nearly at the throat, or am prying there against the gunwale in a desperate attempt to bring a boat under sail back on line.

How have yours held up with regard to waterproof staying power and nick/scratch abuse? Did you top coat them with some protective layer or just press and apply?

 

[Will Derness]

How have yours held up with regard to waterproof staying power and nick/scratch abuse? Did you top coat them with some protective layer or just press and apply?

They have held up fine, no hint of lifting and look nearly as good when I put them on about 2-3 years ago. No extra work on the install - alcohol wipe, let dry, peel and apply. No extra coat on top.

 

[Guest]

Paddle labeling day

The golf label as paddle ID experiment results are in. There is no need to clear spray atop the labels, although it doesn’t hurt. They are quite tenacious and durable if not applied in a frequent wear/pry area.

Which meant it was paddle labeling day.



That was a lot of paddles, especially considering that we use the same 10 or 12 blades almost exclusively. Old Mohawks and shortie sticks from when my sons were little. Antique Kleppers, Clements, Kobers and the ilk. 220cm +/- kayak sticks. Loaners and beaters and fixer-uppers and DIYs.

Jeeze, we hadn’t taken some of those off the racks in years. Maybe decades. I really need to thin out the paddle herd. Donation soon to a Scout or Explorer Troop. Meanwhile I can reorganize the paddle racks.

I have a nearly full second sheet of labels left over (I wisely sprung for two sheets). Methinks I’ll label ID all of the barrels and buckets, Pelican boxes and other hard sided stuff. And secret one up inside the hull under the deck plates in each boat, in addition to the more visible paint pen contact info ugly block lettered under the stern inwale.

I might even experiment with one on a vinyl dry bag to see how it fares, maybe inside the top edge of the fold & roll where it would stay flat and unabused. Results of that experiment to follow in 6 months or so.

I can no longer find the original GolfLabels.com vendor. These appear to be identical in every way, down to the cost, color choices and accent lining.

https://www.mggolf.com/golf-club-labels/

Sheets of 20 labels, with 4 lines of text per label. I just doubled up my name and Gmail address on each label and cut them in half. 40 small (2 inch x ½ inch), discrete, non-fugly, durable, waterproof labels for under $10. Worth it.

My thanks to Willie for this ID solution. If only he had gotten his slacker arse in gear and ID’ed that nice carbon paddle that escaped unseen down the South River while we were muckled up on a sandy bank. Some Bubba in a johboat is probably using it today to club catfish on his trot line.

Another recent experiment was successful as well. I alcohol wiped the paddle ID label locations, same as I do when applying any label, sticker or reflective tape. Or when laying epoxy patches, skid plates or etc.

A few months ago I filled a (cleaned) empty 409 spray bottle with a pint of alcohol. The alcohol has not eaten the spray pump and it still has a pint of fluid in it with little or no evaporation. The spray bottle allowed for a much more judicious use of alcohol than my usual efforts at pouring out just a dribble of alcohol on a cloth and, oops dang it, saturating half the work bench.



(I got better with practice at getting the labels on straight, even as I became less so)

That alcohol in a spray bottle trick is a keeper too.

 

[Uncle_Skwid]

M.M.: Wow. That is one impressive stack of paddles. I'm thinking you could probably build a cabin of paddles. Two-stories. The not un-known or un-large dealer of all things river related here in Virginia does not carry that many paddles. I am happy if I can keep two or three in working order, out from under the tires of shuttle vehicles, away from the houses of friends and strangers, up from the tall grass at the takeout, etc.

 

[Jim Dodd]

Boy Mike, You are really into labeling things !

Just don't start labeling your socks or underwear !

 

[Guest]

Boy Mike, You are really into labeling things !

Just don't start labeling your socks or underwear !

Jim, my u-trou have not sported labels since I spent summers at Camp Nimrod. Not sure why, was I supposed to change clothes while I was there?

I may be running out of things to label. Note that the actual paddle labeling experiment began in July of 2015 and remained untouched and incomplete until March of this year. I am slow, but eventually thorough.

But now if my carbon paddle floats off unseen down the South River I stand a chance of getting it back.

The labeling tasks have already born strange fruit. I was forced to reorganize the paddle racks, and realize some of those never used sticks need to find new homes.

The tent, tarp and sleeping bag key-tag labeling had more immediately advantageous. Not just for the inevitable gear shelves reorganization (which is now a thing of beauty, everything shelf segregated, stored tag end out and easily identifiable).

Better still, a couple weeks of life in the tripping truck, with stuff sacks for three sleeping bags, clothes, winter clothes, dirty clothes (a bag of “summer clothes” would have been nice) and etc was far less organizationally awkward.

And No 2 son probably won’t grab a 20F sleeping bag from the closet next August.

 

[Guest]

M.M.: Wow. That is one impressive stack of paddles. I'm thinking you could probably build a cabin of paddles. Two-stories. The not un-known or un-large dealer of all things river related here in Virginia does not carry that many paddles

Skwid, Appomattox River Company? Always want to stop in, never have. I will throw out this lure to anyone passing near Harrisburg PA; Blue Mountain Outfitters has twice that many paddles in stock just in single blades. Times 4 if you count doubles.

That is 40 years accumulation of paddles, less a couple dozen I have given away to friends or, more often, to folks buying a used canoe from me. I always threw in some gear in after the deal was made on a used canoe. The buyer felt like they were getting a bargain, and I wasn’t sending them out to shop at Walmart or Dicks for crap paddles and PFDs.

My sons lent a hand in re-stocking the paddle racks, and they may be the biggest impediment to future paddle disbursement. They “helped” build or modify their first (and subsequent) kid sized paddles when they were little, and those are sticks with “too many memories”, including their names and designs hand painted on the blades.

Add, “No Dad, we need to keep the beaters for low water trips” (oft shallow and rocky homeriver). And, “I wouldn’t get rid of that one, didn’t your friend Dave (or Brian, or NT) build that for you?” Yeah, they did. Thanks son, big help.

They are not the only ones to blame.

I will never part with the last of my Dad’s old paddles, despite it being 4 inch too long and several lbs too heavy. Probably not with the solid cherry Nashwaalks I so lovingly built 20 years ago. Same for that early svelte-necked Camp bent shaft, resurrection repaired from a friend’s dumpster intentions. Or that classic and immaculate Clement 229T (got two with a used canoe, gave one to Jsaults, who had memories of using them in the 60’s).

How many vintage wood Kobers are there left in the US?

I don’t want to turn into a nascent paddle museum, but let’s see; I have 3 old crap/repaired Feather brands, and a couple of one piece 220cm kayak paddles I can part with. Yeah, that’ll help.

 

[JagDaddy]

We (read, my wife) mark our gear is various ways.

'Stuff' happens on long, big water trips, from crashed boats to simply leaving gear in the last camp.

 

[Guest]

Methinks I’ll label ID all of the barrels and buckets, Pelican boxes and other hard sided stuff.

I might even experiment with one on a vinyl dry bag to see how it fares, maybe inside the top edge of the fold & roll where it would stay flat and unabused. Results of that experiment to follow in 6 months or so.

It took me a couple months to get around to that hard side labeling experiment. Hey, I’m getting faster at following up with some ideas.

I opted to put the ID labels on the inside of the lids, where it is less likely to getting scraped off or marred unreadably. Some of the stickers and reflective tape on the outside of barrels and such are abuse scraped and edge peeled. (It does help to propane flame treat any plastic for sticker or label adhesion, and I can’t claim I always remembered to do that)



Just for funsies I test installed ID labels on the top flap of the most oft used dry bag, both inside and out, for experimental result purposes.



I feel confident that the labels inside the buckets and boxes will last long term unscraped and remain readable, and that anyone finding a floating objet d’yardsale would certainly open it up to have a look inside.

I will be curious if the label on the vinyl coated dry bag remains intact. If so I’m gonna need another sheet of golf club labels.

 

[ppine]

In he West, there is usually no one out there. If we lose something we go and look for it. Often we can find things by "eddy shopping. " After a wreck on the John Day River in OR we found stuff for two days afterwards.

 

[Glenn MacGrady]

I used to write "Glenn MacGrady, Woodstock, NY" on my whitewater paddles, but since I've moved four times since then, I'm not sure it's going to be very helpful.

No one in my club had ever labeled our canoes, except for the first time we ran the Cheat Canyon back in '84, for which there was then no guidebook except for Nealy. I and Herb, who was less skilled than me, had rafted the canyon the day before to scout it and take notes. I concluded it was over our heads, as we had two sexagenarians with us. Herb, astonishingly, concluded we should go for it. Little did we know, nor did he reveal, that he was planning on portaging the five hardest rapids.

We collectively decided that we would lose some canoes, if not die, so we all labeled our canoes inside the hulls with a felt tip pen.

No one died. No canoe was lost. We had a couple of short swims but otherwise did just fine. Herb portaged his Old Town Tripper. I still have my name and address scrawled upside down in my Millbrook ME, not too far from the signature of the designer and maker, the late John Berry -- who, legend has it, conducted the first open canoe descent of the Cheat Canyon.