|
Ever lose an expensive piece of field equipment? |
Compass, rock hammer, and
hand lens customized with high-visibility markings. © 2002 Reuben Johnson |
|
High-visibility markings can mean the difference
between recovering your gear or having to replace it. Such markings are
cheap and easy to apply, and they WILL pay off sooner or later.
See the true stories below... |
|
Note that the idea is NOT to prevent theft, but instead, aid you in easy recovery
of
your gear after you set it down, drop it, or leave it behind -- all of which you are
SURE to do. It's remarkably easy to misplace
or forget your
camera, notebook, hammer, etc. and leave it miles away out in the field. If
you're lucky, fetching your gear won't be too inconvenient, but even if
you can return to the exact site where you lost it, you may have a surprisingly
difficult time spotting it. In that case, your gear might be found later by another person who
may be honest enough to return it if it's properly
labeled. By failing to recover any lost gear, you're effectively
polluting
the
environment. If this environment happens to be a delicate region
such as a cave, or the arctic, the consequences of your poor
outdoorsmanship are even more dire. |
|
The type of marking you should use depends on where
you will be working. |
|
For work in "low-light" environments such as
mines and/or caves, yellow retro-reflective stickers and tape are preferred.
Experience has shown that yellow is the color most visible in a variety
of conditions, including daylight. |
For regular outdoor field work, fluorescent orange paint
and/or vinyl tape is best. The vinyl tape is actually an automotive
product used for customizing cars. |
A package of yellow retro-reflective stickers sold for bike
helmets (left), and a roll of yellow retro-reflective tape (right). © 2002 Reuben Johnson |
Non-reflective fluorescent orange tape and paint. © 2002 Reuben Johnson |
|
Where to buy... |
-
Retro-reflective tapes and fluorescent paints are readily
available at virtually any hardware store and/or bike shop.
|
-
Fluorescent vinyl tape can be very difficult to find. It's
available at a few hardware stores and some auto parts stores, but you may
have to contact the manufacturer or distribution company directly. Try
the following three sources:
|
|
Click to enlarge. © 2002 Reuben Johnson |
1.
Trimbrite® Products
(This web site is the best place to look.)
2. Sharpline Converting, Inc.™, Wichita, KS.
3. Spartan International, 1845 S. Cedar St., Holt, MI. 48842, 1-800-968-5585
|
|
True Story:
On a field exercise, my $250.00 Brunton Compass (shown above) unexpectedly popped
off of a
Jacob staff and tumbled 500 feet down a rocky slope coming to
rest under a clump of sage brush. As you may know, Bruntons are
typically colored either sage green or desert tan
making them perfectly camouflaged and easy to lose in virtually any field
environment. However, my Brunton was outfitted with fluorescent
orange paint and retro-reflective tape and was easily spotted and quickly
recovered in spite of the great distance it traveled. |
|
True Story:
While I was a
student at summer field camp, I accidentally left my hammer on a rock outcrop and
then hiked nearly a mile over rough terrain before noticing it was no longer on
my
tool belt. Fortunately, the hammer had fluorescent orange tape on it,
and the class was scheduled to return to the same general region the following
day. A six-pack of beer was offered to the person who recovered the
hammer and with that, the hunt was on! The missing tool was easily spotted
from over 100 yards away, and returned to me before day's end.
Granted, a hammer doesn't have much monetary value, but to the true geologist,
losing one's hammer is a shameful fate. |
|
