On 1/15/2013 3:36 PM, DerbyDad03 wrote:
On Jan 15, 12:33 pm, Tim Watts wrote:
On Tuesday 15 January 2013 14:06 Stormin Mormon wrote in alt.home.repair:

I've got a box of black Sharpie markers,
purchased several years ago. They have
dried out, so they don't write properly. Is
there something I can add, some solvent,
to make them write again? Drill a hole in
the barrel, and drip some solvent in?

Christopher A. Young
Learn more about Jesus
www.lds.org
.

Permanant or non permanant type?

If permanant, I suspect the solvent would cost more (as a sum of capital
cost and messing about time) than new pens!

If non permanant, a few drops of water may do the trick - it may be enough
to stand the nib end in a glass of water overnight, then remove and leave
for another day to sort itself out.
--

It's a nit, but I'm going to pick it anyway.

You asked: "Permanant or non permanant type?"

The question is:

Why doesn't Sharpie list any non-permanent markers on their website?
They specifically list "permanent markers" in numerous colors and they
specifically list "highlighters" and "whiteboard markers", but AFAICT
they never use the term "non-permanent" anywhere on their website. I
used their search engine and couldn't get a hit for non-permanent or
nonpermanent or even non permanent. Well, OK, I lied. Searching for
non permanent returned lots of hits for permanent.

So, is there really such a thing as a non-permanent Sharpie? Many
other companies market non-permanent markers, but apparently Sharpie
does not.


I am pretty sure all sharpie products have some degree of permanence
since they use various non water based solvents in their ink formula.

The "most permanent" line is the one with the white/red reverse
lettering "industrial" which I think use xylene.

As an aside some of the best markers I ever bought for storage life was
a Korean clone brand. I wanted a box of markers and they didn't have the
sharpies so I bought those for a similar price. Had to be 10 years ago
and I found the box the other day and there were a few left. They seem
to be just as good as new.