Water Erasable Marker

[Tree Reaper]

http://images.nitrosell.com/product_images/9/2035/large-72-108.jpg

I bought two of these from Springfield, can't get it to work.

Is there a secret to using these things?

The ink doesn't get to the tip.

Kevin

[Busterradar]

Sometimes I have to wet mine. Also make sure to store them tip down. They work great.

[Tree Reaper]

The ones I bought have a wooden stick in them plugging the hole preventing the fluid from coming out so I thought maybe you pull the stick out and scribe with it but that became a pain so I melted the tip out of a spent ball point pen, ground the ball off and it works now.

[Grandpa]

Are these the type of pens that require the tip to be depressed so the fluid will wet it? I've some older silver ones that require that to use. On mine you place the tip on a piece of paper and push down and the tip goes back into the body of the pen.

[Tree Reaper]

Yes, That's what they do but mine didn't work.

Does the fluid run down the outside of the stick or is it suppose to saturate it?

After pressing on the point a few times the stick broke on the one I bought.

I even replaced it with a wooden tooth pick and tried sanding it down to let the fluid run down the outside of it but it didn't work as well as just pulling the stick out and applying the fluid.

The tooth pick just didn't hold enough fluid but now my modified pen tip works like it should have in the first place.

[Grandpa]

Saturate - you must have gotten a bad one. Mine are much thicker tips so perhaps that's why mine work ok. With mine I press the tip down several times which goes back up into the body of the pen or press and hold for maybe 5 seconds max and the ink inside saturates the tip. I have them for both gold and silver, which I apply to the item I want to color ~after~ adding an undercoat of sheen and letting the sheen dry first. Sheen first lets the silver & gold stand out, otherwise the leather soaks up the gold and silver and no color shows. Then seal again with sheen.

For other colors I use Sharpie's, which for the last few projects worked perfectly w/o any undercoat of sheen. These are just regular Sharlpie pens, not the push the end to wet type like you have. I did roses, green leaves and brown branches and they came out great. I only use the sheen undercoat for the metallic color(s). Much easier than using a paint brush however both of mine were smaller projects so a Sharpie was a great fit. On a larger project a brush or whayever may be a better fit. I of course seal all that w/ sheen too.

If you've not tried Sharpies, do so, the results are awesome.

[Tree Reaper]

I would have thought the sharpies would bleed in untreated leather.

[Grandpa]

I would have thought the sharpies would bleed in untreated leather.

Not for me, and the projects I've used them on so far were not dyed or stained either. If you freehanded something they ~might~ but mine were within shapes I'd cut & tooled so they had concise borders & the colors stayed perfectly within those bounds. They also work great as a fill for stamped letters/names. No bleeding whatsoever. A lot of people in our local group use them and really like the end result on a variety of projects vs using a dye and brush method.

[Cyberthrasher]

Just stumbled on this while looking for something else.

I use sharpies a lot for touch ups on my edges, or when people want belt holes blackened in. I find it actually blends well with the black Pro Oil dye.

I was actually just looking to see if someone had used the gold or silver sharpies with success before since I got a request for gold on a guitar strap.