Gekko_Vitatus

Here's a good article about the subject in Outside Online: http://outside.away.com/outside/gear/gearguy/200206/20020609.html and here's another: http://www.tradgirl.com/climbing_faq/safety_3.htm#markers Essentially any of these pens reduce the strength of the rope by about 50% if loaded right on the marked spot... And this is due to acidic properties of the paint... I guess nail polish may contain the same stuff. Oh, and urine reduces it by about 30% Dru.

Did some more research... Sharpie and other markers all contain the same or similar solvents as nail polish so I would think they'd be just as dangerous to use...assuming it's dangerous. Those solvents evaporate when exposed to air so I don't really know what kind of danger they would really pose...I don't know if they have any acidic properties. I'm not a chemist either...so since I'm not sure...I'd take the safer approach...and avoid what may be dangerous. As for running a needle and thread through the rope...don't particularly want sharp objects next to my rope... I guess I'll have to spend the extra dough on some rope with two patterns...

Might be a stupid question... Using nail polish to mark the center of a rope (in order to save money on buying the double pattern kind)...what are your thoughts? Stupid? Dangerous? Perfectly ok?