Marking your wood projects

Make Your Mark

As you cut the pieces for a project, you often lay them down around the workshop and sometimes don't return to them for a day or two. The result? You forget which pieces have been planed, which board you intended to become Part A, and so on. To avoid this problem, develop a sure-fire system for marking your pieces as you work. That way, you eliminate any confusion whatsoever.

Here's a selection of useful marking methods, the same ones we use when building projects in the WOOD® magazine shop. You can use a pencil on surfaces still to be sawn, planed, or jointed. Because chalk can be removed more easily, it ranks as a better choice for fully machined parts prior to final sanding.