Marking wood parts. Please offer methods.

[Gene Davis]

Pencil and tape work fine for marking parts, but when you get to finishing, you need something more.

I thought a set of punches A-Z and 1-0 might be handy for more than just woodworking. See the pic.

I can mark inset doors and drawerfronts that have been individually sized for their openings, and more. Just need to do it on a spot where it won't matter.

Before I spend the $23 or so for this set, I thought I would ask. What do you do instead?

[Kevin Jenness]

Steel stamps are good for pieces where you have a good sized area that won't be seen. I often use a sharpie in hinge mortises and on the back of drawer fronts, with blue tape over the mark when painting.

[Martin Wasner]

Sharpie or pen most of the time.

[Chris Fournier]

Cutlist Plus has a label printing function for complex jobs. I like it a lot.

[Bill Adamsen]

Pencil or sharpie works ok if you don't expect to sand off. I wish I had larger punches. I have to don my magnifying headpiece to mark things. Sometime I use the "l" to make a number of strikes (custom marks) such as a "Vee-arrow" showing the face, and repeated strikes to "number" the pieces. Like book or flitch matched doors/drawers. No need for a heavy strike ... light tap works.

I use cutlist but I don't use the labels ... will have to look into that (thanks Chris).

[Lee Schierer]

I use chalk. It leaves a readable mark, doesn't harm the wood and doesn't require sanding to remove it. When making drawer parts I write on the dovetails where it won't show the sequence number for assembly.

[Cary Falk]

If you want a set of punches like that buy them form Harbor Freight. Less then half the cost.

[keith wootton]

i have a set of 3/8" letter punches. and an old arrow punch that is at least 1/2". i can really see them. bigger is better if you have room on your part to keep them from being seen when your piece is finished. keith

[Tom Ewell]

Use the punches to mark most anything I think needs marking, started with job site tool ID
Quite often use for 'hidden' marking of cabinet parts, particularly after reworking old stuff for restoration.