UKH

Hello climbing community,

The other day I saw a climber's trad rack and they had these nifty self-adhesive labels wrapped around the gear. Upon the gear was the owner's name and contact details. 

As a man who has a tendency of losing climbing gear through the years I wander if some kind soul could direct me to who actually produces such?

Cheers 

In reply to Tall Oak:

I think they're called Tuff Tags. They seem pretty hard wearing

In reply to Tall Oak:

Tough Tags

https://www.toughtags.co.uk/climbing-tags/

In reply to Tall Oak:

 A right pain in the arse to remove when you come across a bit of swag, though.  Better to use green and yellow earth tape like everyone else. 

In reply to Tall Oak:

Tough Tags are great, but quite expensive for what they are.  I've had tags made up by one of the companies on eBay that specialise in kid's lunchbox labels, and they've lasted well for a fraction of the price.

In reply to Jamie Wakeham:

Weirdly enough I got some which I have not used at all for climbing gear - rather for kid's bottles/sports equipment etc.  I thought they were great value, but didn't check the alternatives! 

Nobody has ever phoned me up to let me know they've found Kid#1's tennis racket yet : (

I don't think I'll be putting them on my climbing gear though as these days I never seem to use it!  Green and yellow 'leccy tape for me.

In reply to Tall Oak:

I wouldn't use them. Don't want to advertise that I am the chump who got gear stuck and abandoned it 😁

In reply to ericinbristol:

Or simply look like an anal knob.

In reply to Robert Durran:

That is anatomically confusing 😁

In reply to ericinbristol:

Depends what he's into, each to their own.

In reply to Hard Hawk:

Is the 9cm option best for climbing equipment (as thr site suggests)? 9cm seems like it'd wrap around a wire a fair few times.

In reply to Robert Durran:

...or you want to label your gear with something that won't peel off, litter the crag and leave sticky shit everywhere like electrical tape does?

In reply to tehmarks:

Not sure why so few climbers have realised that duct tape is available in different colours, and doesn't fall off.

In reply to Tigger:

In this case, he would have both and can please himself!

In reply to Longsufferingropeholder:

...but still leaves sticky shit everywhere. A better alternative would be 'spike tape' - thin-width gaffer tape available in all sorts of lurid colours, used for marking-up ('spiking') stage floors and such things.

https://www.gaffatape.com/spike-tape-individual-rolls/

In reply to Tall Oak:

Don't be so selfish.  If everyone had these tags, we wouldn't have 100000 lost&found posts on the daily. 

In reply to Longsufferingropeholder:

Duct tape falls off. Everything falls off, gets scraped off, is destroyed incrementally by attrition.

In reply to ericinbristol:

Last time this happened... I took the tape off... 😆

In reply to Brown:

Lasts a lot longer than leccy tape. And when it does need retaping it comes off in one piece, rather than cracking into dried out shreds and yet still managing to leave gloop everywhere.

In reply to Longsufferingropeholder:

I recall that due to its larger thickness it created a profile which then infuriatingly snagged when trying to use my gear.

Then it was sticky.

The only fool proof method appears to be to count your gear as you pack it away. I know someone who does this and it seems effective due to the number of wires, quickdraws and carabineers he has detected in my bag.

In reply to Tall Oak:

A good way of identifying your own gear is to buy kit which is a little out of the ordinary. In my world, my climbing friends racks are mainly built up of "whatever needless sport or rack and ruin have on offer". Buying something different may cost marginally more but accrue savings on wandering gear. 

In reply to Longsufferingropeholder:

You tape people have it all wrong. Nail varnish is available in a range of 10000 (an estimate) different colours. Durability is not an issue, 10 years on a climbing rack is trivial in comparison to the wear and tear from a night out in Newcastle.

In reply to Presley Whippet:

Another argument — not that any is needed — for tricams?

In reply to Tall Oak:

I'm with Longsufferingropeholder on this.  All my gear is now labelled with Toughtags, having previously used insulating tape which, as others have said, isn't very robust and eventually degrades leaving messy residue.  Plus there are only a limited number of colours available, and it didn't take long before I ran in to someone who was using the same colour as me, meaning that we often ended up having an "is this yours or is it mine?" session at the end of a long day where our racks had become somewhat intermingled.  With Toughtags, even if you do have the same colour tape, it has your actual name (or other identifier of your choice) on it.

You can make Toughtags even more robust by applying the clear heat-shrink tape that they also supply (look for "Tougher Toughtags for extreme conditions" under "Toughtags for business" on their web site).

I have in the past been contacted by someone offering to return some gear that I had had to abandon after biting off more than I could chew on Beinn Udlaidh one winter.  In that particular circumstance I was happy to let them keep the gear as crag swag, but it shows that some people will actually take notice of the information that you can get printed on Toughtags.  (To get a bit legal for a moment: if you have clearly labelled something with your contact details, it makes it pretty obvious to anyone who finds it that it has been lost rather than deliberately discarded/thrown away.  See also "theft by finding".)

In reply to tehmarks:

Works fine if you just replace it when it starts getting tatty. Anyway, I don't know of anything stickier with which I can more or less replicate the original WC 1980's size colour coding.

In reply to Martin W:

Why? I don't see how it makes any difference. 

In reply to Tigger:

9cm is good for pretty much all gear except wires in my experience. I think it's easiest just to trim down the longer labels when putting them on wires.

The shorter labels are a good size for wires, but I got them with centred rather than left-aligned text, which doesn't really work because the text gets overlapped by the end of the label. The centred text works well for labels on guidebooks or similar.

In reply to Robert Durran:

Well, considering how much gear I've had returned over the years, it blatantly does make a difference.

In reply to ericinbristol:

Or the kind of thing that could happen if you fall from an autobelay onto a trapdoor.

In reply to Robert Durran:

Yes — but  when it gets tatty you're leaving little bits of plastic everywhere. Yes, it's minimal — but no, surely we can agree in principle that that isn't ideal?

The most common thing I pick up at the bottom of the crag is tape that's presumably fallen off gear. Probably closely followed by heatshrunk rope labels. I'd prefer to be able to stop picking up this avoidable detritus.

In reply to Martin W:

I've labelled my cams - if nothing else it makes it clear which gear is mine when out climbing with a group that largely uses the same brands (and there are only so many colours of tape).

I'm not anal enough to label my nuts*

*awaiting childish joke.

In reply to Alkis:

Obviously it will make it more likely that gear will be returned, but it can't possibly make it any clearer whether the gear has been lost or abandoned.

In reply to Tigger:

Yes, their site is correct.  The 9cm labels are just about right for wrapping around the swage (sp?) of a wire or round the backbar of a krab.

Just about to order a new set, as for tedious reasons half my gear has OH's tape combo on it and I need/want to claim ownership!

I would add that although they do eventually scrape and become partially-illegible, they do not peel off in the way that electrical tape does: so you don't get annoying scratty ends catching on anything, or leaving peeled off bits of tape around the countryside.

In reply to planetmarshall:

Doesn't everyone label them left and right?

In reply to Robert Durran:

Pilots and helmsmen prefer red and green, I hear.

In reply to Robert Durran:

I suspect there's a psychological difference between 'here is an unmarked piece of gear; it will be effort to find out who owns it so I'll just pocket it' and 'here is a price of gear with a name and an email address'. 

My tags have paid for themselves time and time again, but I do spend a lot of time working with beginners who are wont to leave kit all over the place!

In reply to ericinbristol:

Hah, I easily solved that by using a false name & address.

In reply to Tigger:

9cm is what I used

In reply to Alkis:

I have done exactly the same! 

In reply to flaneur:

I use 'Tulip Slick' thick acrylic t-shirt paint on the tape of cams/QDs etc. and wires by the swage and end loop by the nut.  Works really well as it flows into the threads / individual wires of the cables and never comes off - it's essentially liquid plastic.  https://www.tindalls.co.uk/fabric-paint/433-tulip-slick-3d-fabric-paint.htm...

In reply to Toerag:

What's the solvent on that? Is it actually safe on nylon and dyneema?

In reply to Tall Oak: I used to use lab Biohazard tape.  I think this would result in all sorts of agro these days.

Obviously Radioactive warning tape would work too.  But also lots of misunderstanding potential.

In reply to Tall Oak:

All my mates tape / mark their gear, so I don't.  Mine is the stuff with no markings or sticky residues )

In reply to freeheel47:

Ha me too. Borrowed a roll of it when I did my PhD

In reply to GrahamD:

Even better to use nowt and just count it all out, and count it all back in again. That way if you get it stuck you can’t be identified as a tit.

In reply to mrphilipoldham:

My rack, wires especially, is such a smorgasbord of new and salvaged stuff I honestly couldn't say what was on my rack now.  Rather than go for the people's favourite earth tape, though, I've gone for the cunning plan of using black, which hardly anyone else uses 😀

In reply to GrahamD:

Likewise, I’ve got 3 of some nuts and none of others!

In reply to mrphilipoldham:

Who cares if people think you're a tit, if you're getting a £60 cam back?

Who cares if people think you're a tit, at all?

In reply to Cobra_Head:

It was a joke.

Besides which, there's no guarantee you're getting it back, just because it's got your name on it.

Edit - Glad you found 'tit' to be the most offensive, rather than 'chump' or 'anal knob' as mentioned above.

In reply to mrphilipoldham:

yay

Of course there isn't but it could help people who would make the effort, to easily find you.

You're assuming I was offended?

In reply to Alkis:

Water, it's acrylic paint.