Sharpie Industrial Marker - Extra Fine,
after I attacked it with water and ethanol
Product: Sharpie Industrial Extra Fine (Super Permanent Ink)
Where to buy: Available at Amazon.com - $10.75 for 12 markers (I'm not sure where we bought it though)
General thoughts:
I don't like writing with Sharpies since my handwriting comes out looking really horrible (see Exhibit A - my writing sample above). I'm not sure how other people do it (maybe there's something wrong with the way I hold my pen? I don't tend to hold my pens slightly diagonal like most people do) but I just can't get my handwriting to look good with a Sharpie. There's also the fact that it bleeds through the paper like crazy - I like to be able to use the other side of the page! I'd much rather use Sharpies to draw than write.
However, pens can't write on plastic, so we're stuck using markers in the lab. We used to use normal Sharpie permanent markers, but they didn't do well with ethanol... The ink would run like crazy and we'd either end up with a really smudged label or one that we accidentally wiped off with the kim wipe. It got to be so annoying that one of the grad students bought (with lab money) a box of Sharpie Industrial markers made especially for laboratory use (and industrial and commercial, but who cares about those right?). Sharpie states that they "remain permanent under most chemical washes and extreme heat and steam."
Water/Ethanol tests: I only did these two since we spray stuff down with 70% ethanol all the time and water was pretty much a default test. Also, these two are pretty much all that matters - I mean, if you drop your 50mL tube into formaldehyde, I think you have more important stuff to worry about than the permanence of ink...
- Water (dH2O) - I soaked a kim wipe with dH2O and wiped it across the first paragraph. As you can see, the ink didn't run at all! Yay!
- 70% Ethanol - The marker didn't do as well with ethanol, but I admit that I did use a lot more ethanol (soaked a kim wipe in it) than I usually do in lab (I usually just spray the bottle). The ink spread out a bit, but it's still legible. On plastic, I can just use a dry kim wipe to gently wipe away the smudges so that only the original text remain.
Pros:
- Permanent! Waterproof! Kind of ethanol-proof!
- It's a Sharpie. Everyone loves Sharpies!
- Bad for ordinary writing... (Feathering, bleed-through, etc on Staples Copy Paper) But who really uses Sharpies for that? I like to draw with them!
Image courtesy of gabpauto.com
3 comments:
I wonder how time-permanent it is. I don't recall it being advertised as being acid-free. I know some writing I did with a Sharpie on car maintenance records from 4 years ago is starting to fade. I have one of these industrial markers, but I don't use it much.
@ThirdeYe
Hm... I believe all Sharpies have alcohol as a component, so I don't believe that they're acid free. For laboratory use, that doesn't really matter since usually stuff is only labeled after it has been opened or made and those things won't be able to keep for more than 1 year. It's somewhat worrisome for industry use where presumably, the ink should be of archival property for records.
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