Harbor Freight has launched a new jobsite marker that they say is clog-resistant and capable of holding up to the tough demands of construction sites.
It features a fine tip that Harbor Freight says write on dusty, wet, and oily surfaces without clogging.
The marker is said to be optimized for rough surfaces such as OSB, cinderblock, and concrete.
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Harbor Freight also says that the cap can be left off for up to 6 days without the marker drying out.
It also features an anti-roll body, pocket clip, and lanyard loop.
Price: $1.99 for a 2-pack
SKU: 70060
Was this designed to hold its own against Sharpie and Milwaukee Inkzall? At first glance, it certainly at least looks the part.
The price is also competitive enough where I’m sure Harbor Freight will sell plenty of them if placed near the checkout counters at stores.
It looks like the markers are only available in-store only.
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If you want a marker that’s delivered straight to your door, Home Depot has the Milwaukee Inkzall marker 2-pack for $2.09 with free shipping. Amazon has Sharpie markers for as low as ~$8 for 12, and RevMark markers at $16 for 8.
Steve
I’m sure they’ll sell plenty. Lord knows I have about 20 of them…
Eddie the Hook
I would buy a set of them the next time I stop in.
Adam
This screams HF coupon freebie
Munklepunk
My experience with harbor freight pencils says free might still be to expensive.
Bob+Hinden
Are these any better than Sharpies?
Paddy O'Tool
I’m thinking a step above Crayola but a few rungs down from Sharpie. Right in that sweet spot between Bic and Pilot
Jim Felt
Can pigs fly?
Scott Davis
Yes they can… once.
Nathan
None sense. Depending on the flight altitude and the mud patch. You can get 4 or more launches
Lol
I wonder who makes them
Erik
Piglets are made by a mommy pig and a daddy pig when they really love each other. This tends to happen most when the daddy pig has proven his Flying Ace credentials.
Koko The Talking Ape
I was going to say, “Well at least they’re cheap,” but the Milwaukees and Sharpies are about the same price, or cheaper. So…
Richard
> that they say is
Oh do “they” ? This is a cheap rhetorical device in the best of times and a simple laundering of PR terms in the worst. This sounds like a very famous someone who is famous for their inability to make a straight-forward statement.
I’m a prosumer so maybe not the most demanding but I don’t know I’ve had a marker fail due to clogging. So it’s somewhat like advertising a cereal to be arsenic free (all of them are).
> The marker is said
I totally get you are going off of a Press Release and not actual personal opinion, but the phrasing is just laundering someone else’s opinion. It might be a technically accurate statement, but the majority of readers here will not catch that subtlety and take it as an endorsement. Strong “people are saying” vibes.
Even the opinion section at the end, I love you list competitors, but you listed prices for different quantities for all of them. Which is more expensive? Which is cheaper? Hold on, let me grab a calculator.
I love your site and your writing. I trust you, you’re on my home page of sites to visit. I know you can do better.
Stuart
I saw the markers on Harbor Freight’s website and found them interesting. So, I posted about them.
I won’t soon have the time to make a 50 minute round trip to buy a $2 pack of markers from Harbor Freight.
They say the markers won’t clog, won’t dry out in 6 days, and are jobsite durable.
I can’t verify their claims, and I’ve had plenty of markers that work great on day one but falter every time I need them.
If I bought a pack tomorrow, it would still take me a while to form a hands-opinion.
So until I can get my hands on one, I’d prefer to make it clear their claims are not my own findings or opinions.
“HF says…” makes it clear where non-factual claims come from.
Facts need to be represented as facts, opinions need to be represented as opinions, and claims that cannot be verified as factual are given “the company says” treatment.
I’m sorry that you find this so offensive.
I’m also sorry that you’re having trouble with the math. I’ll break it down for you here, so that you can see which is more expensive and which is cheaper.
HF – 2 for $2
Inkzall – 2 for $2.09
Sharpie – 12 for ~$8
RevMark – 8 for $16
The Milwaukee Inkzall markers are slightly more expensive. The HF markers come out to $1 each, and the Inkzall a little more than that. The HF markers are thus just a little cheaper when comparing 2-packs.
The Sharpie pack I linked to is 12 for $8. An equivalent number of HF markers would be 12 for $12.
As $8 is less than $12, the Sharpies are cheaper and the HF markers more expensive.
If you want to look at it in a different way, Sharpies are 12 for ~$8, and the same money would buy you (4) Harbor Freight 2-packs for 8 total. 12 for $8 reflects a lower unit cost for Sharpie markers than 8 for $8 for Harbor Freight Markers. Since you get more Sharpie markers for the same money, they are less expensive than the HF markers.
Why compare against a 12-pack? Because smaller quantities of Sharpie markers can be extremely uneconomical to where I feel it can skew pricing comparisons.
If you want to see more price points, click the link – Amazon has a couple on the same page, as well as separate listings for boxed quantities. Other sellers and office supply stores look to have similar pricing.
For RevMark, 8 for $16 is around $2 each per marker, which is double the unit price of HF markers.
I am sorry that you had to grab a calculator, hopefully this helps you understand which are more expensive and which are cheaper.
As for the anti-clogging claim, I don’t quite get it either. But a lot of permanent markers with porous tips do have trouble writing on certain surfaces. Maybe “clogging” is how they choose to describe that effect. When writing on a surface or material impedes the flow of ink through a porous marker tip, what else can that be called? “Clogging” seems plenty fitting.
eddie sky
Your spellcheck is killing it! 😛
I have some Milwaukees and easy to spot (red/black) on bench or bag. Not with black/black markers …
Not found any that are permanent. Can still wipe off or acetone/alcohol hand gel removal.
I do want to try those pencils/markers made by PICA but they aren’t cheap and vary in materials to mark on (for wood, for metal, paper…).
Thoughts on PICA?
Maybe a next topic: What do you use to mark/draw/sketch on surfaces when doing woodworking, metalwork, projects?
Stuart
ha – I meant *look* not *looo*. For a comment written on my phone, one typo’s not bad, right? Or are there more?
Pica are high specialized markers for deep holes and similar. In my opinion, they shouldn’t be used for everyday markings or materials where standard markers can be used, unless it saves you a work-stopping trip to the store or similar. Pica pencil leads are easily sharpened or replaced. The same isn’t true about their markers.
Marking instruments can be a huge topic, with the answers varying wildly by industry. I’ll see what I can do – thanks!
ToolGuyDan
Yeah, a few others:
“markets” -> “markers”
“great in” -> “great on”
“are this just a little” -> “are thus just a little”
That said, given the—uh, shall we say “enthusiasm”?—with which your comment was written, I don’t think anyone’s going to fault you for the typos, because they didn’t distract from your point. In fact, after reading your comment, I feel entirely comfortable not finding out a calculator to check your work. (Though I do wish you’d taken into account the time-value of money in your consideration of the bulk-pack of Sharpies; I’m losing out on interest on the $6 difference by not using a JIT marker inventory system.)
ToolGuyDan
Dammit! “Not finding out” -> “not finding” in my own comment. Please fix and delete, even though the irony is admittedly quite rich?
Stuart
@ToolGuyDan,
Thanks!
With smartphones, it’s hard to say what’s a typo and what results from over-enthusiastic auto correction. The “thus” was definitely typed in as “thus” and not “this.”
At the time of the posting, Sharpies were 2 for ~$5, 5 for ~$8, and 12 for ~$8. Now apparently they’re 12 for $10, or 8 for $12.
Sharpies tend to grow legs and disappear – it’s good to have spares.
Taking your comment about interest on the difference in buying 2 vs 12 Sharpies at face value rather than tongue-in-cheek, any gains would be obliviated with your first reorder.
At todays’ prices, 5 for $8 or 12 for $10 will steer most people towards the 12-pack. If you need Sharpies same-day, that’s when higher prices make sense.
I finally found 2-packs at reasonable prices – $1.99 at Target.
I didn’t find a 2-pack on Staple’s website, but saw it for $4.69 at Amazon, which is why I went with the 12-pack for price comparison. https://www.amazon.com/Sharpie-Permanent-Markers-Fine-Pack/dp/B01N9ZIRZY/?tag=toolguyd-20
Munklepunk
I have a pica and a hultifor, worth it. Two different sizes. Easy to find, cheap lead, is about the same as if you buy wood pencils but don’t have to deal with them getting short. Fairly comfy to hold. They all come with a sharpener in the cover, the pica carpets has 36 grit sandpaper that’s replaceable and the hultafor, 2.8mm lead, has a sharpener. You can also purchase multiple different color lead.
Burdsal
Mic drop
Jack D
Keep up the great work, Stuart! Not that I’d need one, but I’d buy a calculator just to read your posts!
And I’ll pick up a couple markers next trip to the HF…
Rob H
“Richard.” Indeed.
Jp
??? Strange reaction I think.
Jp
Posted to wrong place
S
I generally only use the Milwaukee inkzall’s because of the ‘clogging’ or otherwise ‘stop-working-fast-ness’ of other brands.
One you didn’t mention is the Hart brand, which claims a lot of the same qualities.
I generally try to avoid Walmart for personal ethical reasons, but it’s hard to cut out trips there entirely, and sometimes it’s the only store near by. They’ve also significantly stepped up on the Hart brand, and much that falls under the name is about equal to harbor freight offerings.
I’ll definitely be trying these in the future, but doubt they’re on equal footing in a construction environment to the Milwaukee’s.
BigTimeTommy
I use inkzalls because they’re in the impulse purchase section of the hardware store and supply house. The tips might last a little longer than Sharpies, I’m not sure. If there was another brand there for $1 or less a marker I’d use that one. I’ve never in my life had a felt tip marker “clog” on me and I work in dirty environments every day, seems like marketing noise.
Stuart
You have never had a marker behave poorly on certain surfaces, refusing to lay down any ink?
Standard Sharpies tend to be extremely finnicky on anything other than clean smooth surfaces for me.
MM
I agree with Stuart here, I’ve had plenty of issues with common markers like Sharpies in the workshop. Dust of any sort–sawdust, grinding dust, etc, quickly clogs a tip and prevents it from writing, at least until you scrape the crud off and give time for more ink to flow back into the tip. If the surface is a little bit wet, whether that’s condensation, sweat, or whatever else, that also affects the marker. And of course if the surface is at all oily the marker doesn’t work either, though in that case it can usually be fixed by writing on a paper product and then going back to the workpiece. Rough surfaces are also hell on marker tips: rough cut lumber, rusty metal, masonry, etc. In fact I’m surprised that Harbor Freight says these are good on cinder block when the tips look just like a standard sharpie, which would quickly be mangled trying to write on block.
BigTimeTommy
No I guess I’ve been lucky with that. Maybe I’ve just been losing them or otherwise destroying them before that happens. The issue I have is markers quickly being frayed and ruined from writing on rough surfaces. Inkzall markers have held up the best for me. Sharpie markers get mashed and frayed easily, even Sharpie Industrial branded markers.
criketzchirping
Right I know where your coming from. I used to use Sharpies all the time but bought some Inkzall markers recently and were impressed with them. The Inkzall markers write effortlessly on surfaces the Sharpies would gum up on after half an inch. Then you end up “cleaning” the tip off on the nearest handy thing- like your hand or pants. Maybe I’ll have to pick up a pack of the Harbor Freight ones sometime to see how they do, but for now I’ll stick to my Inkzalls.
CoBlue
Standard sharpies are decent markers but are best kept away from damp and dirty environments. For outdoor use I’ve found that sharpie pros work much better, although the have a strong smell.
Joe G
Stuart, we get you. “I feel your pain.”
Jim
Don’t think I’ll give HF markers a try for almost the same price as the Inkzall markers.
I used to use Sharpies exclusively in my shop here in AZ. But, if I was to forget to replace the Sharpie cap even one time in the summer heat for a couple hours it might very well be toast or at least seriously degraded.
Granted by mid summer every thing in my garage will be about 103 to 105* all day and night with afternoon temps air temps in the shop of 110 to 115* so the heat is certainly extreme.
The inkzall definitely have a more positive “click” when you do reinstall the cap but they also will tolerate being left uncapped better in my experience.
That being said, a year ago while in Costco I grabbed a 20 pack of sharpies for <$12 and always have several scattered around the shop
Jon
The only kind I want are retractable. Fumbling around with a cap is nonsense.
Shane
“Optimized for rough surfaces” I’m curious how you quantify that claim?
Franco Calcagni
These might have been good, but just a few days ago, when Stuart has the Sharpie, Holder thingy, someone mentioned the retractable tip Sharpies, which I totally forgot existed, so I bought a box of 24 of those.
Plus I still have a bunch of the regular Sharpies and Inkzalls, and a couple of other oddball brands. I have always liked the Inkzall, the tip I find is a bit more fine, but not too fine, and also more resilient than the standard Sharpie.
BUT, I hate that the cap won’t stay on the back of the Inkzall, not well anyway. I can’t believe that there have not been enough complaints for Milwaukee to modify the cap or the back of the marker.
criketzchirping
I have the standard/pocket size Inkzall markers and I never had any problems with them going on the back of the marker. The cap pushes on as firm and tight as any Sharpie and I never had problems with them coming off. Perhaps you were talking about the bigger size? Or maybe you have a more violent writing style than I do and it knocks off the cap😀.
Franco Calcagni
Either I have older ones in which the cap would not fit on snugly, or I have a violent writing style, like you say, or, I am getting too weak to put the cap on the end properly.
Whichever the case, it probably has more to do with me, otherwise, many would have complained about this.