Date Marking Code?

[Allen Neighbors]

Does anyone have a date marking code for marking the date on the bottoms of turned pieces?
I've found that people see the date on a piece from a few years back, and it keeps them from purchasing the piece, even though they really ooh and aah over it.
I want to date pieces that I sell, so when I come across them later on, I can tell exactly when it was finished. But I'm not sure how to configure the date.
A friend suggested writing the Julian date, but that's just too many numbers for me.

[Gary Conklin]

ISO Dating.

http://personal.ecu.edu/mccartyr/isowdcal.html

[Dick Strauss]

Allen,
We used to mark the year with a single letter and week with 0-52 for production parts. So year 2000=A, 2001=B, 2010=J, etc. You could start with 2010=A if that suited your tastes better. Simple enough...and only you know the code unless you share it!

[Stephen Massman]

I stopped putting the date on mine and just number them. I keep a log of each number and when it was finished.

[Allen Neighbors]

Thanks for the suggestions! I appreciate them....

[Mark Hazelden]

I know of a woodturner who dates his pieces with the first digits being sequential thru the year and the last 2 digits the year.

For example, his 34th piece turned in 2010 would be dated 3410.

[Allen Neighbors]

I think I'm going to go with Gary's suggestion and use a part of the ISO configuration...
For example, the two bowls I finished today will be 0124 (the first one) and 0124-2 (the second one). (Sorry, no pics, they're still soaking in DO).
The 0 being for 2010, and 124 being the 124th day of the year.
-2 indicating the second piece finished on that date. No dash-number indicates the first one finished on that date. Some days, I'll finish 6 or 7 pieces; some days only one. Just depends on this old back, which I've aggravated much more than ever before this winter, cutting firewood.
At least, if I can keep it straight in my own mind, it might be easy for me to continue this dating system.

[charlie knighton]

i usually take a picture of it save on harddrive, no date on piece

[Jeff Nicol]

I did a show this last weekend and I sold pieces from 2004 that were marked as such and others from 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2010. I used to put the year only at first, then month and year ( 7-2009 ) But now I do the piece for the year and the last 2 digits (#15-10) and so on. If people look at things and if the date is older and it is as good a piece as one that has a new date on it, what is the difference? I guess I would rather have a 1960's era GT500 over a 2010 model. If your work is good and you continue to sell your works some day the ones with the old dates will be valuable.

Just stay true to yourself!

Jeff

[Wayne Hendrix]

I do the year then the month then the day and follow it with the number that was completed that day so it doesn't look like a date.

Example today would be 10050401 if I completed more pieces today they would be 10050402, 10050403 etc.

[Thom Sturgill]

If you want to keep it short - two or three digits for sequence number - restart monthly - followed by two letters first for month then year so 01EJ would be first piece May 2010. The year can count from any arbitrary starting point. If you need more than 26 years use numbers and special characters to extend it.
Personally, I just date, but I'm not selling commercially.

[Jim Sebring]

This year I'm just using a nice simple code - MMX :D

[Mike McAfee]

At this point I simply do a month/year (5/10) but I like the idea of maybe the ISO along with a log book!

I keep a basic notebook now with date, wood type and any other details that might be beneficial to a piece I'm currently working on!

The older I get the more notebooks I seem to need for ALL areas of my life! ;)

MMc

[Jack Riley]

While serving with the 9th Marines in Vietnam we used a series of "Shackle" codes to radio in anything where numbers could and would be intercepted by the enemy. These codes were named by colors and the colors changed daily. Any ten digit word(s) will work as long as no letters repeat. As an example the color "red" identifies the specific code for "MOVINGWEST". Tomorrow this same code could be "blue". Todays date as a mmddyy would be TNTGMT. We used many variations of this simple system to great effect. This is just an example of another code that only you will know OR some Jarhead you may sell your work to who was also in the 9th Marines.