# What Color Paint for Marking Trees



## ProMac1K (Jul 19, 2009)

What color paint do you all think works the best for marking trees in the woods or forest? I've tried some orange, but I think it seems flat, and there is probably a better color.


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## tlandrum (Jul 19, 2009)

blue is what is used for marking cut trees around here. i can see it from a mile


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## ProMac1K (Jul 19, 2009)

Great! 

Now is it a sky blue, sea blue, or New Holland blue?


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## Spotted Owl (Jul 19, 2009)

It's Rudd blue. push the tip and just the right shade comes out of the can. Being semi color blind blue is the best for me also, it just sticks out there like a beacon. 


Owl


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## ProMac1K (Jul 19, 2009)

OK, dang....a Dogpile search brings up nothing of the color at all. Is it a darker blue or brighter blue?


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## Gologit (Jul 19, 2009)

ProMac1K said:


> OK, dang....a Dogpile search brings up nothing of the color at all. Is it a darker blue or brighter blue?



Look in Bailey's catalog...page 118. If you don't have a Bailey's catalog you can request one...they're a sponsor here and they have their own thread.


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## ShoerFast (Jul 19, 2009)

'Baby Bonnet Blue' shows up real well. 

I crack myself up!


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## Gologit (Jul 19, 2009)

ShoerFast said:


> 'Baby Bonnet Blue' shows up real well.
> 
> I crack myself up!



Baby Bonnet Blue ???!!! Only if you sing the Monty Python Lumberjack song while you're marking trees. Slowp might get away with calling it that but us guys never will.


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## ProMac1K (Jul 19, 2009)

Beautiful!

I was on their site just this morning, following a link about the "Mingo Marker", but never ran a search for paint for some reason. I ran a search and sure enough, Rudd must be the brand. Now I see what color the Rudd blue is, kind of a "Blue Bonnet Blue", or Sky Blue, or Light Ford Blue. Thanks for the picture!

I tried some "Chevrolet Victory Red" that I had custom ordered several years back for my S10 pickup that I had. Figured might as well use it up. Honestly, it doesn't show too bad in lighted areas, but not as good in shaded areas. I'm rummaging around the yards to find some different colors to experiment with. Everything from Chevy Orange, to Hot Rod Yellow! And Almond to Gray!


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## M.R. (Jul 19, 2009)

Lets see if we can make it easier for you. 

http://www.baileysonline.com/search.asp?skw=paint&PageNo=1

Rudd Brand in Blue, won't go too much into my own color-blindness, but in another lifetime as a locomotive engineer I always had to take a field test telling which color the traffic lights were.


On edit: three posts as I was typing


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## ProMac1K (Jul 19, 2009)

Thanks!

That's exactly the page I had found, did a search for paint there.

I just ordered a catalog through them, don't know why I never did before. I also checked out Madsen's, but you have to call in to order one. Does anyone like Madsen's more so than Bailey's?


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## bullbuck (Jul 19, 2009)

i just got my 09 madsens catalog in,i would say that they are pretty much a catalog for timber fallers,although there is other stuff in there,and man they got some nice carrhardt stuff on clearance!cant wait till payday,also the woman i spoke with on the phone to order my catalog was very helpful.


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## 2dogs (Jul 19, 2009)

The Forest Circus used a bright blue for several years in the Sierras ( where I just got back from yesterday). I used orange to mark some hazard trees last year to distinguish my marks from the FS. When I went back late last year, and last week, the FS had switched to the same shade of orange I had used. Now I can never make a mistake and fall a leave tree.

BTW in area I had never been to an 18" rotten pine fell about 1:00 am and woke me up. Nobody screamed so I went back to sleep. I have another dozen pines to fall now.


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## ProMac1K (Jul 19, 2009)

"Ceramic Engine" Chevrolet Orange in the Dupli-Color brand worked the best out of everything I found today. Second best was Chevrolet Victory Red in a auto store brand. Third best was John Deere Yellow in the John Deere brand. I tried a deep blue that I had around, but the color was darker than it should be and it had a finer pattern than I would have liked. I think the spray pattern makes a difference, as I had plain orange and plain yellow in different brands, and since they put out more of a cover spray, they didn't do as well. For sure the Dupli-Color has a much more positive spray pattern, you can tell it in the way the nozzle feels and the way it sprays, much tighter pattern. I'd like to try something comparable to the Rudd Blue color from the Dupli-Color brand. I'm thinking Cadillac Blue is similar in color. Maybe GM Corporate Blue, but it might be too dark. Thought about those orange flag wraps that you sometimes see different operations use, but it wouldn't be economical for what i'm doing. Nor would the case of Rudd blue, it would just harden up and be a waste before I used it all.

Thanks for the opinions and suggestions. I welcome any more you would have. I think the general consensus is a lighter shade of blue, or a bright orange is the ticket. I sure hope nothing would simulate those colors out there!


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## 2dogs (Jul 19, 2009)

ProMac1K said:


> "Ceramic Engine" Chevrolet Orange in the Dupli-Color brand worked the best out of everything I found today. Second best was Chevrolet Victory Red in a auto store brand. Third best was John Deere Yellow in the John Deere brand. I tried a deep blue that I had around, but the color was darker than it should be and it had a finer pattern than I would have liked. I think the spray pattern makes a difference, as I had plain orange and plain yellow in different brands, and since they put out more of a cover spray, they didn't do as well. For sure the Dupli-Color has a much more positive spray pattern, you can tell it in the way the nozzle feels and the way it sprays, much tighter pattern. I'd like to try something comparable to the Rudd Blue color from the Dupli-Color brand. I'm thinking Cadillac Blue is similar in color. Maybe GM Corporate Blue, but it might be too dark. Thought about those orange flag wraps that you sometimes see different operations use, but it wouldn't be economical for what i'm doing. Nor would the case of Rudd blue, it would just harden up and be a waste before I used it all.
> 
> Thanks for the opinions and suggestions. I welcome any more you would have. I think the general consensus is a lighter shade of blue, or a bright orange is the ticket. I sure hope nothing would simulate those colors out there!



Why would you not use tree paint? The spray pattern is a stream with tree paint.


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## ProMac1K (Jul 19, 2009)

Looks like you have to buy the Rudd by the case, or pallet.


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## TreePointer (Jul 20, 2009)

Rural hardware stores around me have spraycans of blue marking paint (not so in my TSC or Walmart), so if "rural" is near where you live, see what you can find there.


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## ProMac1K (Jul 20, 2009)

About as rural as you can get, without being in the mountains or the desert. 

Wonder if Permatex Prussian Blue would work?  It's used on differentials for checking backlash, and is the only blue marking stuff i've used. :spam:

Marking paint, i'll have to give that a check next time I get into town. Which is once in a week or two if i'm lucky. Yes, i'm that rural. :taped:


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## bullbuck (Jul 20, 2009)

depends on how many trees you have to mark but a cheap way that i mark for myself on small jobs,(as to not have to think)is flourescent marking paint out of wal mart,it only lasts a couple months but if you are non commercial its a heluva lot cheaper than "royal blue"and there is no future in clearcoating trees,it hampers the rustic finish...lol


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## ProMac1K (Jul 20, 2009)

LOL

Yep, not commercial, just practicing my own conservation of a large grove with ash, cottonwood, maple, and mulberry (from what i've seen). It's the first main year it's going to see conservation maintenance, besides a couple seasons of cleanup that i've done, cleaning up tornado damage and what not. I'd like to mark anything that is dead before the leaves drop this fall, plus the mulberry's. And i've invited a neighbor over to get involved and cut and cleanup the boundary lines, so want to make sure stuff that I want removed is marked in case he gets the idea to cut without me.


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## slowp (Jul 20, 2009)

OK, enough! This is my area of expertise.  If you are seriously marking trees/timber, you need TREE MARKING PAINT. It has a different formulation and won't be sucked up into the bark so you'll use less. There are several colors available commercially. Blue is the most commonly used for cut tree designation. My preference? PINK. Our guy markers won't use it because, "I don't want pink paint on my clothes." However, the manly factor is high because those godlike creatures, the best of the best (quote from the Axemen show), the Helicopter Fallers were prancing around the woods painting cut trees with.......PINK tree paint. We all liked it, it stood out and was as cheery a color as blue. Don't forget to paint a stump mark, at ground level so you can see that the correct tree was cut.


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## 056 kid (Jul 20, 2009)

I see blue for timber to be cut. yellow for landing areas, orange to flag roads to be shoved. green, red, or orange x 3 to mark boundaries, and black for when they get the boundaries wrong.

I have herd that they use special paint that can be discriminated from other wood paint. so the loggers cant go out and do some timber crusing of there own haha...


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## Veteran (Jul 20, 2009)

Pink in San Fran area


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## bradstr (Jul 21, 2009)

I use different colors to classify different uses for the same tree species. For example, red pine (Norway) trees that are good enough for poles I mark with blue paint, but I mark it red if it's only good for logs. Makes is easy when you go in to cut.


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## bullbuck (Jul 25, 2009)

madsens has some good deals on rudd tree paint


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## slowp (Jul 28, 2009)

bullbuck said:


> madsens has some good deals on rudd tree paint



That's where the heliloggers got the pink. 

There's also a few cans cached in the unit still. I don't know how good it is. It spent the winter there. Maybe I'll start packing it out, when bee season is over.


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## hammerlogging (Jul 29, 2009)

slowp said:


> Maybe I'll start packing it out, when bee season is over.



I just had to avoid three little hornets nests all within 100 yds of each other cutting out one big block. I flagged them for the hookers. I was cutting a shelterwood so I'd cut out around the nests first thing in the morning and then try and giove them some space for the day. 

Now, on my new block, a big scary (solitary?) japanese hornet came and buzzed me while face cutting a tree. Scary. Supposedly they were introduced by Bowater to take care of the southern pine beetle, which they did not do, but did move in and a re very scary.

Counting the days till bee season (and hot/humid) is over. This year I am going with karma. Be nice, get it in return. So far so good.


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## slowp (Jul 29, 2009)

It seems to be a good year to be a flying insect here. We're having very hot days for here, 103 at my house yesterday, which makes for good, healthy bugs.  And cranky people.


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## ProMac1K (Jul 29, 2009)

slowp said:


> It seems to be a good year to be a flying insect here. We're having very hot days for here, 103 at my house yesterday, which makes for good, healthy bugs.  And cranky people.



I agree there! Lots of bug habitats, and the D-N-R is worried about making more every day!!


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## purple82 (Jun 12, 2014)

ProMac1K said:


> What color paint do you all think works the best for marking trees in the woods or forest? I've tried some orange, but I think it seems flat, and there is probably a better color.



One place that has some marking paint is abatix.com. They have a variety of different colors and tend to run cheaper than some other brands out there. Here's a link to some of the different colored marking paint.


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## 2dogs (Jun 12, 2014)

First post a necropost to a product link? Hhmm...


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## 2dogs (Jun 12, 2014)

BTW I worked with the USFS tree marker dude, (I forget what his title is) a few days ago and lo and behold they had changed from blue to white. The paint still has a tracer in it but it is much harder to see. I asked why the change and the answer was he was told to use up the old white paint nobody likes. One stripe at breast height and a V from the stump down a few inches into the soil, both on the downslope side. The dude also said the can is worth more than $10k now, at least in the big stuff.


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## TheJollyLogger (Jun 13, 2014)

A little off-topic, but funny. We used to use bright red dots to mark removals, and a T at the base to mark a trim. I was climbing a dead oak removal when the busybody neighbor came out, and started peppering me with questions, worried about her fence, etc. She asked what killed the tree. I said, "Red dot disease, ma'am". 
She asked, "Does that kill oaks?" I said "Ma'am,II've never seen one survive it. Once it gets the red dot, it's only a matter of time."

I always had a picture of her going in and googling red dot disease.


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## KenJax Tree (Jun 13, 2014)

We were doing a bunch of removals on city side streets and they were marking them with a bright pink X, so one night some kids thought it would be funny to mark every tree in the subdivision with bright pink X. We only took down 3 that were supposed to stay before we found out what happened


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## 2dogs (Jun 14, 2014)

TheJollyLogger said:


> A little off-topic, but funny. We used to use bright red dots to mark removals, and a T at the base to mark a trim. I was climbing a dead oak removal when the busybody neighbor came out, and started peppering me with questions, worried about her fence, etc. She asked what killed the tree. I said, "Red dot disease, ma'am".
> She asked, "Does that kill oaks?" I said "Ma'am,II've never seen one survive it. Once it gets the red dot, it's only a matter of time."
> 
> I always had a picture of her going in and googling red dot disease.


The County marked take trees with a big white X. The arborist painted a big blue T on take trees.


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## OlympicYJ (Jun 17, 2014)

On all the private ive worked orange with pink flagging is cutline. Blue is roads or generally means nothing. Orange squares and Orange flagging is prop boundary for the current company. I still have orange paint on me from last Tuesday lol


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## Philip Wheelock (Jun 17, 2014)

Blue paint locally w/pink flagging at property lines.


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## deppjohn92 (Jun 26, 2014)

I think drak blue is a perfect choice


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## bnmc98 (Jun 26, 2014)

Last FS job I did the forester used pink for add in, If I didn't walk with him and see the trees he was marking I would miss a ton, doesn't show up very well in my eyes. I would still miss trees. never had a problem with blue or orange


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