Tool color

[Sawyerfortyish]

After working in the woods you soon learn that painting your tools like hammers and wedges and so on helps make it easier to find where you put or droped them. I have found for myself I paint my tools white for late spring to fall. Orange is ok until fall when some of the trees have orange leaves. then you can't find them. But then in winter I switch to orange color tools before it snows. Does anyone else paint there tools to make them easier to find if so what color?

[Jeff]

LogRite paints theirs Blue!  

[Tom]

I have used orange and yellow and red but find that Blue, especially a light bright one, is easiest to find.  I don't switch colors either. I just paint another spot on the tool.  Who cares if they are candy striped. :D

Lately I've been remiss and not painted anything. The colors have worn off and I still haven't lost anything.  Lucky I guess.

What I have the hardest keeping up with is chains.

[Frickman]

That is a pretty blue they use at logrite. I use flourescent yellow, pink, orange, or green, depending on the season and what color is lying around. Sometimes I even paint the chokers. It wears off them easy but there is usually some paint left down in the cracks. It sure makes it easier to find when it comes loose from the slide.

[Sawyerfortyish]

Haven't tryed blue on the tools. Can't think of any trees that turn blue in fall either  .That blue marking ink shows up good on trees.  Im fond of ford blue anyway maybe i'll try it.My sledge hammer is white red yellow and orange now so one more color. Hmmm maybe I should make them red white and blue ;)

[rebocardo]

My thing is losing shackle pins! You have gloves on and fumble one and spend forever looking for it.

I have never figured out yet why anyone would want one of those camo chain saws. Of all the tools I would not want to lose or drive over ...

[Pete J]

Our engineer and tool designer chose bright blue for our logging tools after reading a study on colors. He read that high visiblity blue is the least naturally occuring color in nature and is the easiest color to spot while working outdoors.
We also ran some safety orange colors for some state DEP guys. I didn't ask why except that it matches the color of the state trucks.
We also ran a batch of emergency yellow tools for some New Hampshire firefighters. I was talking to some firefighters at a trade show and said we could run them in firetruck red. They told me flat out that all tools on NH firetrucks are yellow. He said they had to contrast the red so they could find them in the dark or in the smoke.
Makes sense, red tools on a red truck = bad idea.
That's about all I know about the subject.

[Ron Scott]

Yes, I paint all my woods tools and even sometimes I tie a pink ribbon onto them should they fall in deep snow. Even with all that, I've lost or "rather left a few" in the woods.

A cutter and I were talking about that very thing today as I found one of his bars and chain that he left by a tree as he was offf cutting with another. Even when "you think you know were you put it", the area can look different after it has been cut over and things get hidden under tops etc.

I've found chain saws, numerous skidder cables, tire chains, wedges, axes, tire irons, etc. "misplaced" by the loggers.

  

[tawilson]

I've been painting my stuff fluorescent pink for years now. Makes it very easy to spot, and I've had job boxes broken into and my pink stuff was not touched while others had tools taken.

[Sawyerfortyish]

My biggest problem is losing tools in the fall folige. The orange yellow even pink all blend in to the ground cover. What makes things worse is when you fall a big tree and it hits the ground and skatters loose leaves all over. Like Ron Scott said you think you know where you put them last.
 Logrite Around here i've seen a lot of green fire trucks.
 Oh man just looked out the window and seen three black bears boy do they stick out it the woods with no leaves.

[Sawyerfortyish]

Hey just noticed my town and state under my name. I like it  8)now I don't have to click someones profile to see where there from.

[Slofr8]

One more vote for blue.  I've been cutting, splitting, and piling my fire wood on my wood lot at the stump with intention of hauling it in by snowmobile or four wheeler. (Don't even have the four wheeler yet!).  I paint the top 6 or 8 inches of my maul, ax, and peavey handles electric blue. Works great.  When I used to work in the woods I noticed that the township lines that were painted blue were more noticable than red, yellow, or orange.  
Dan.

[Mark M]

  PINK!

    8)

[Engineer]

I vote bright electric blue, or even a lighter shade of blue.  Really stands out well.  I also tend to give any given tool I have with me, shovel, hammer, you name it; a quick spray in the field with whatever fluorescent upside down paint I have in my hand at the time.  Usually pink, orange or green.  The fluorescent green even stands out well in the middle of a lawn.

[tawilson]

Yeah, pink. The beauty of it is, nobody else uses it. Course now that I've blabbed, everybody will. Forget it, I was kidding. What man in his right mind would use pink?

[Tom]

Me  

Oh!!  "in his right mind".    

Never mind.  :-/

[redpowerd]

no one wants to steal anything pink.
good color for lighters and pencils

[Shamus]

From "The Good Woodcutter's Guide", by Dave Johnson:

     "The Swedes did a study of color visibility, which found that electric blue shows up better in the woods than blaze orange. They did this by stationing observers in a wooded area and then having a group of people dressed in either orange or blue walk in a line toward them. The observers spotted the people dressed in blue sooner than they did the ones in orange."

I painted my mill blue, and I haven't lost it yet!



So I guess that settles it...
 ;)

[Sawyerfortyish]

So what your a saying is that a blue mill is better than an orange one :. Better not say that to loud some of these orange mill guys might take that as fighten words  ;D. Anyway my mill is green so im outta here.

[isawlogs]

Fire red handles and forest green for what ever is at the other end.... But now that I know that blue is scientificaly proven to be easyer to find I will paint all my tools  and maybe gain a couple of hours per day ,.... ;D ;D ;D ;)

[Danny_S]

There was a local old fella, couldnt read, and a bit slow,... but the nicest fella you could know...... anyways, a friend of mine wrote a song about him. He liked listening to his 8 track tapes. He liked the red ones, and didnt like the blue ones as much.

One of the lines went like this.....  OH, the red one's are the best, the red one's are the best, I just dont like those blue ones, they're just too sad I guess..........  

A friend of ours who looks like elvis and acts like elvis was 3 sheets to the wind one night and sang this song whilst playing his guitar..... it was one of the funniest things I have ever experienced......  :D  :D ;D  You just had to be there....

[Duane_Moore]

 :D :D :D redpower.   nobody wants to steal anything pink?.. well ya better think that one over. thats one color I love to steal.  used to even raid for them.  Duh---Duane

[redpowerd]

how often do you pull them out of your pocket and use them :D :D

[slowzuki]

I lost my safety glasses in the snow last winter  >:(  found them this spring walking the skid trail but I had run over them with the tractor.  

The DanG things never broke but they don't quite fit my head now :D ;D

I should have painted em PINKI guess!

[Stan]

Duane, I walked down the wrong aisle at Wally World last night on the way to the dog food. Pink was hardly in evidence. Tiger stripes, leopard spots, and some things that looked pretty much invisible. ;D