Stencil Ink or Black Sharpie

[Morpheus]

Is there anything special about stencil ink, or will a sharpie work just as well?

[Stuck]

Sharpie will take you ten times longer but the choice is yours. I know a guy who used to put the babolat double lines on with a sharpie and it would take him about 1/2 hours to do. I showed him with a bottle of stencil ink it would take literally 2 minutes at the most!

[bc-05]

hmm.. i used sharpie once and my string starts to have this hair like stuff coming out of the string then snapped...

[ffrpg]

I've used a Sharpie once to color in my strings. I wouldn't recommend doing it. The ink from the Sharpie comes off really easily.

[RoddickRulez]

id did sharpie for babolat takes 10min at longest if you really wnt to be perfect
i color both sides make it look normal in about 5 min
just use a sharpie dont waste money

[billybob013]

how do you apply the stencil ink? in pictures all i see is a bottle with a cap on it.

[Pushmaster]

Prefer neither. Ink seems to give strings less "bite" IMO.

[Pushmaster]

Made the mistake once by having the Head logo painted on a couple Ti. Rads I bought from a TW competitor, just about all the paint come off after 5 mins. of hitting. Black paint was all over the balls *Yuk*. Never again.

[OldSchooLTennis]

I use stencil ink on other peoples raquets that have synthetic gut in them and it works fine. Theres a bottle with ink and a little sponge thing that you just squeeze a little bit and ink comes out perfectly onto the strings.

But if your going to use stencil ink put news paper under it or else you'll have one heck of a mess on your hands.

[b.]

OldSchooL,

Can you tell by the smell - is stencil ink the same (or very similar) as in Sharpies?

I once had something painted with stancil ink, but can not remember if it lasted long or not.

Thanks

[pchoi04]

I emailed prince for a stencil and they gave me and stencil and the ink for free

[K!ck5w3rvE]

Made the mistake once by having the Head logo painted on a couple Ti. Rads I bought from a TW competitor, just about all the paint come off after 5 mins. of hitting. Black paint was all over the balls *Yuk*. Never again.

What'd you do.....play 5 mins after you put the ink on? If you give the ink about 24 hours before hitting with it, you'll hardly get anything on the balls.

[gmlasam]

Is there anything special about stencil ink, or will a sharpie work just as well?

According to the 2000 Stringer's Digest, you can use a marker as an alternative to stencil ink.
Another product we've found that effectively stencils racquet string without damaging them is the Pilot Super Color Marker
http://www.csun.edu/~aml45386/images/pilotmarker.jpg

[jajafofo]

why even bother?

[Morpheus]

Why bother? Because my nephew wants a stencil and I figured I'd help him out. And, yes, a sharpie works very well and doesn't really take much time.

[theace21]

Stencil ink is much faster - if you have the time use a sharpie...

[SMASHER]

I Use The Sharpie

[wtennis206]

i personally think that sharpie holds up better...but it can be VERY time consuming if you are trying to do something like the HEAD logo on your racquet. if he wants a babolat stencil...use sharpie...if it's anything else, use ink

[gmlasam]

i personally think that sharpie holds up better...but it can be VERY time consuming if you are trying to do something like the HEAD logo on your racquet. if he wants a babolat stencil...use sharpie...if it's anything else, use ink
It does hold up better and longer. It is permanent ink unlike the stencil inks that rubs off when the ball rubs or make contact with it.

The advantage of the stencil ink is that it seems to show better, color is much brighter. This is because the consistency of the stencil ink is much thicker and drys with a thicker coat leaving a brighter more profound stencil, but after hitting a few games, the stencil ink quickly fades away which the sharpie ink does not as much.

[fishuuuuu]

Sharpie markers in my experience don't tend to stick very well to rackets with coating or the shiny types...

Stencil ink should be much faster to apply and last longer unless you play with it still wet, which I don't know why you would...

[Dopke]

Sharpies come off rather quickly. But if you want a cheap way to do it, and you have some time to spare, sharpies work fine.

[roger2016]

Another downside to sharpies is that it gets all over your fingers when you're destringing a racquet.. It gets annoying..

[gmlasam]

Another downside to sharpies is that it gets all over your fingers when you're destringing a racquet.. It gets annoying..
Sharpies or regular magic markers? I haven't experienced sharpie ink getting all over my hands when I destring any racquets.

[Sixpointone]

For what it is worth, I have used both methods in the past.

Using Stencil Ink is much much quicker. However, at times I have used the Sharpie method, and have had no real issues with it. And in my opinon it does last longer, and I've not seen it come off on my hands.

There is a new Sharpie out called the Sharpie Professional. It is supposed to be more durable on hard to write surfaces. I've yet to try this version, but perhaps it is worth a shot.

Hope that helps,
John

[gmlasam]

For what it is worth, I have used both methods in the past.

Using Stencil Ink is much much quicker. However, at times I have used the Sharpie method, and have had no real issues with it. And in my opinon it does last longer, and I've not seen it come off on my hands.

There is a new Sharpie out called the Sharpie Professional. It is supposed to be more durable on hard to write surfaces. I've yet to try this version, but perhaps it is worth a shot.

Hope that helps,
John


Interesting. I'll go and check that out. Here is a link on the sharpie pro.
http://www.sharpie.com/sanford/consumer/sharpie/productcatalog/tipfamilydetail.jhtml?attributeId=5400002&currentType=SNTYPE004

I use the sharpie magnum which has the largest felt tip for faster application.
Look here
http://www.sharpie.com/sanford/consumer/sharpie/productcatalog/tipfamilydetail.jhtml?attributeId=SNATT_SUP_952003&currentType=SNTYPE004

[Ronaldo]

Has anyone used a bingo dabber? Looks like stencil ink but cheaper

[roger2016]

Sharpies or regular magic markers? I haven't experienced sharpie ink getting all over my hands when I destring any racquets.

It's not sharpie brand but it's permanent marker that's pretty much the same thing as a sharpie.

As for those links, I may have to try those sharpies.