Handy Tools...Surveyor's Tape

Kray Gelder

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Feb 24, 2017
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Georgetown, SC
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Fisher F75
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Metal Detecting
I must have first discovered plastic surveyor's tape 25 years ago. Initially, I used it liberally while hunting the drizzley, gloomy, underbrush choked, forests of Western Washington, marking important waypoints ( pre- GPS ) so as to find my way back in the landmark-free forest. Apparently, others discovered this useful addition to the possibles bag. Shortly, the pristine rain forest was festooned with an amazing variety of surveyor tags, long colorful tendrils, every hue and design, two to three feet long, fluttering and twisting in the breeze. Some would be afraid they would miss their own tag, so would hang several from the same branch.

Some waypoints were common to many people's activities, so certain trees were completely adorned with markers up to about seven or eight feet above the ground. It was like some of those Buddhist mountain climbing shrines you see in National Geographic. Like this otherwise regal, strong-shouldered Douglas Fir would look good in a skirt.

Then, I found it useful for tagging my luggage for pickup at the airport. At first, my International Orange Florescent ribbons really jumped out. Then, see above.

I started marking my important tools about then. I don't have the anal pegboard with the felt pen- drawn outlines of each tool in my garage. I have several
folding tables around, all layered in an assortment of tools to sporting goods, bug spray, light bulbs, two or three empty coffee cups, loose nails, nuts and bolts, scrap lumber pieces, sawdust, grease, oil, and mystery things. All of my important tools, or those tools that I couldn't find but finally found, are tagged with surveyor tape. I now have progressed to color-code by category.

So now, when I need something, like today when I was scanning three table tops, searching for my "new" Phillips screwdriver ( tagged hot pink because all of my other Phillips screw drivers are rounded off at the tip, or bent from prying something, or poking it in a hole where it didn't belong ), lost in a sea of colorful beacons, beckoning me with their importance, I can't find it.

There's a pattern here. Thanks for looking in.
 

sawmill man

Hero Member
Jun 12, 2016
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KENTUCKY
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Relic Hunting
My father in law used to give guys permission to deer hunt, one day he walks in his woods and about had a heart attack ,surveyors tape everywhere, he started calling surveyors and even ran to the lawyers office before he realized it was just guys marking there trail .LoL
 

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