Boundary Line Paint ??

[g_man]

I want to repaint my boundary lines this spring.
What is a good paint to use?
I see that Nelson makes a special Boundary
Line Paint but I would have to send for it and
the shipping costs as much as the paint.
Is it worth it or is there a commonly available
paint that is useable? I have over a mile that
I want to paint.

[Magicman]

The right thing  to do is to use the right paint which would be what you are looking at.  A "survey grade" tree marking paint.  It is designed for that use and should last the longest.

That being said, personally, I don't always do the right thing.  I go to my local hardware/paint store and look through their mis-formulated  exterior house paints.  Especially if they happen to have a red, I just get them to squirt more red into it.  It generally cost about $5 per gallon.  I have very visible lines that were painted 15 years ago.

There is another thread going (Dressing up property lines) about painting property lines that has good information in it.

http://www.forestryforum.com/board/index.php/topic,42312.0.html

[Raider Bill]

Is there a code about what differnt marks mean?
I have X's, slashes, O's, and combinations of the such as a X with either one of 2 slashes under it. Mine was marked by Bowater so I'm not sure if that's their code or if there is a universal one.

[poor farmer/logger]

We just use the roles of ribbon to mark the outer edges of stands that we're going into to cut. Cheap and works fine. 10 and 15 years later the ribons are still there. Usually use a bright orange. When I'm on the skidder I can usually pick them out without much trouble.

Guess if your worried about someone taking off the ribons then it wouldn't work. We use a wood paint as well for makring species of trees at the mill. Think it's about 2.50 or 3.00 a can. if you buy it in case lots. it's made in canada though. Our local dealer has it here. Nelson tree and log paint it's called.

Just a thought for ya.

Ryan

[downeast]

We use tape also--blue works well though it is dark on cloudy days.
Paint---any oil based bright color to fill in blazes. Lobstermen use florescent colors ( sorry Canadians, "colours") on buoys. It lasts in saltwater a long time. I've used closeout paints at the local hardware store, cheap.

[Chuck White]

As MM said!  Go to the hardware store and look at paints that got screwed up when they were being mixed.
These can usually be had for $5.00 - $10.00 per gallon.
I would use enamel as opposed to latex!


edit:  you should be able to have them mix and make a bright color out of one of their mistakes.

[SwampDonkey]

I use fire red paint on my lines, Tremclad is the brand. It lasts a long time. I tried paint in a can from Nelson and it doesn't hold up and it's not very bright. I apply by brush on the old marks. You guys are lucky to get cheep reject paint, they charge the same for the mistakes as they do the other around here. I'm going to re apply this spring before thinning season gets going and before flies and leaves come out. The lines are still easy to see down, but I'm going to paint them just the same. My front and back lines never need marking, road and USA border.

[stonebroke]

Whats on the border? A fence?

Stonebroke

[SwampDonkey]

A 66 foot wide corridor they keep brushed out. No fences of any kind, never was. Has monuments every 1000 yards or so. They just went through last summer again cutting it out. If you've seen my snow sled videos, they show the cleared corridor.

[Ron Scott]

We always use Nelson's boundary line paint for marking permanent boundary lines, but their "econo-paint" for marking trees for cutting which has a shorter retention span (2-3 years) and is much cheaper than the more permanernt boundary marking paint. It depends upon how long that you want the paint to last on the trees as to the quality paint that you use.

[pappy19]

If you want it to last, then get the Nelson's Boundary paint. I like their pink or white. It lasts a very long time and it's made in the USA.

Pap

[woodtroll]

We have had good luck with Nelson's. You may think about blazing with an axe also. The scar can last long after the paint fades. There is no code that is universal. We happen to put 3 strips so it is visible from a ways of. Flagging is good for temporary. Deer and elk like it, people pull it down and so on.

Make sure the line is in with flagging, then follow up with paint (and axe if you want blazes).
It is forestry improvement keep track of the expense and use it for tax purpose. Lines are not the spot I would be cheep.

[indiaxman1]

I have found both flags and paint fade with time....orange or pink ribbons show up nice for several years, but fade white.....orange paint also fades with time....I mark 1/4 section...80 acres rough ground every two-three years...prefer flagging

[JimMartin9999]

I use an adze to blaze.  It is a lot more accurate and easier to use than an ax.  The edge is perpendicular to the swing rather than parallel as with the swing of an ax.  The blazes last as a scar forever.  Keep them at the same height, which is the easiest height to swing at.
   I ground out a roofing tool to form my own adze ; a lot cheaper than a true adze.  If you go back a couple of weeks later and apply paint  when the sap dries, you get the best of all worlds.

[chevytaHOE5674]

I use Nelson boundary paint. Lasts a good number of years and isn't that expensive.

[Ron Scott]

Nelson's is also a Michigan product and treats forester's well. Ribbon can also be easily removed by trespassers and more difficult in court cases when the judge asks if the boundary line was "permanently marked".

[SwampDonkey]

Funny, my Nelson paint says "Made In Canada at Sault Ste Marie, Ontario".



I've always bought it at the local Marketing Board office. This isn't boundary paint, just happens to be the only can I have. I used it for marking log ends when I scaled wood on sight inspections.

[chevytaHOE5674]

Nelson has like 4 plants across the country. But their corporate headquarters is in Kingsford MI, that's where I road trip when I need paint.

[Ron Scott]

http://www.nelsonpaint.com/history.html

Charlie Nelson, the founder was very active in forestry matters here in Michigan until his passing. He and his sales personnel always listened to us foresters in matters and ways to improve their products. They invented the paintball and initiated the paintball into a sport. Paintballs are now one of their main sales product.

I still have a calculater with the Nelson's Paint Company name on it which Charlie Nelson gave me years ago. He and most of his sale personnel that I knew well have since passed on.

[SwampDonkey]

Ah, now I see says the blind man. 

[Magicman]

We ran out of paint Saturday while refreshing property lines.  I went by my Ace Hardware store this afternoon, and look what he had.  A gallon of exterior paint and just the right color colour......    I have found that latex paints work well for me.  If there is moisture on the tree, it doesn't matter.
 


Can't beat the price.....$5.00

[Ron Scott]

Looks good! Do you apply it with a brush or paint gun?

[Magicman]

Brush.  I even get a little on the tree.....

[240b]

highway marking paint, with lead if you can find it.. lasts 30+ years.

[SwampDonkey]

Yeah, but trees grow and shed bark. My last paint on my lines was in 2000 or 2001. They aren't faded but them little trees out grow the paint and if you put it off you soon loose sight of the lines.   I'll probably trim out some brush first with my brush saw. It's pretty well cleaned out but suckers come back, got just the tool, no bending.

[chain]

I have a debarker tool that I use to scrape bark off before applying paint. They don't make paint like they use to, I guess because the old paint was leaded. I still find paint marks from over 40yrs. ago that our Dad blazed and painted. They used a 'moline tractor' yellow enamel, a very rich color; when I find those old marks I preserve them making new blazes and applying an orange latex that hardly ever lasts more than four or five years.

[grassfed]

If I recall correctly you are not supposed to cut blaze marks on boundary trees unless you are a state approved surveyor. You can paint over old marks and paint on trees when the wire fence is the boundary and it is grown into the fence. The best thing you can do as a land owner is to paint and flag markers that were created or mentioned on a previous official survey. This is for Vermont other states might be different. I use Nelson boundry line paint with a brush and do a a mile or two every mudseason. It works good untill you trip and spill. 

[Magicman]

   It works good untill you trip and spill.   

Like I did last year.  A root grabbed me and down the embankment I went with a bucket of paint and two Grandsons watching.  I didn't get it on me anywhere but everywhere 

[chain]

If I recall correctly you are not supposed to cut blaze marks on boundary trees unless you are a state approved surveyor. You can paint over old marks and paint on trees when the wire fence is the boundary and it is grown into the fence. The best thing you can do as a land owner is to paint and flag markers that were created or mentioned on a previous official survey. This is for Vermont other states might be different. I use Nelson boundry line paint with a brush and do a a mile or two every mudseason. It works good untill you trip and spill. 

As I stated I  do preserve our boundary trees, first for legalities, the other for posterity. We've had a number of incidents that removed a great many of the orginal boundary trees. Tornados, ice storms, diseases, and illegal cutting. Some of these old trees have survived since the survey in 1952. Dad came along in the early sixties and repainted.

Today, here in Missouri, we have the realtively new "Purple Paint Law" to keep trespassers aware of private property. This paint must be applied every hundred feet [more or less] so, you can imagine the painting going on. I use a purple areosol spot paint just near gates and other crossings.

[SwampDonkey]

Here on farms we have 3 paint colors.

red is no trespassing
yellow is get permission first
blue is farming and cultivation, stay off.

[JimMartin9999]

I have never heard  that landwners canīt blaze trees. I find that hard to believe, but  with fifty states almost anything is possible.
I am very suspicious of wire on boundary lines.  The old farmers in my part of upstate NY used to zigzag wire back and forth across the "real" line so you canīt rely on it at any one point.

The general direction is usually ok.

[SwampDonkey]

A bunch of us from woodlot owner organizations had a meeting with the NB land surveyors and they didn't want anyone blazing trees unless old blazes where left as evidence on the trees. They made it quite clear that if they found evidence of tampering with lines they would bring it before the courts. They really didn't want us to brush and paint either, but we talked a little sense into them over that. You see this type of work on maintaining lines cuts into their line of business. There is always the potential of some guy going out there and making his own line down through the woods and creating a mess with the neighbors. I've seen it many times where a neighbor will not recognize a line his neighbor marked and often moved it. Sometimes I see two parallel lines marked. You might see where someone went with a compass , marked with an axe as he went. Got tired and quit before he was done.  Came back at a later date and did the same thing coming from the other end and the lines don't touch. Out in the middle the ends are off by 100 feet. Then left for the next guy to deal with.

[pappy19]

When I worked for the US Forest Service in Island Park, Idaho, the USFS property was adjacent to the Yellowstone Nat'l Park, so the boundary lines were very important. The Ranger decided to use writable aluminum squares about 5X5 in size and then use aluminum tacks to attach to the tree to identify boundary trees in addition to the Nelspot boundary paint. 20 years later, the aluminum squares were still there and looked brand new.

[Woolywolf]

Here's a link to an extension publication that tells what all the symbols mean, one line versus two lines, etc.

http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/nreos/forest/pdf/WON/won35.pdf

[Raider Bill]

Thanks that makes sense. Now if I can figure out the X's and O's

[SwampDonkey]

Join the like symbols with a line through'm diagonal, across or down.