What do you all use for marking unfinished veg tan?

[BlackDragon]

Just to be clear don't draw on the leather where a person will see the marks. Draw on paper, tracing velum would be best, then align the paper where you want it and use something; a stylus or pencil, to trace the image onto the leather

[AlZilla]

How about marking on the suede side instead of the finished side?

[chuck123wapati]

I use a small round awl quite often just to mark starting points for stitch lines or holes and such, just a tiny mark in places or edges that will be removed or hidden. Pencil for tracing on the hidden side of the piece.

[Yukonrookie]

18 hours ago, BlackDragon said:

Just to be clear don't draw on the leather where a person will see the marks. Draw on paper, tracing velum would be best, then align the paper where you want it and use something; a stylus or pencil, to trace the image onto the leather

Makes total sense now…… Duh….. Not sure why that didn’t dawn on me when I already have been using tracing paper, even tracing foil, for transferring carving patterns. Thank you. 

[fredk]

If you use a round point stylus on the paper over damped leather you'll get a better impression

[JDFred]

I’m pretty heavy handed when writing so I like a 12b pencil.

[Yukonrookie]

Ended up ordering a couple pencils 9b to 12b. Thanks for all the replies folks!