What do you use to mark your tools?

27/02/2018
support
About Us

Tool theft is a popular way for thieves to make a quick bit of cash. But it also ruins the lives of innocent tradespeople up and down the country. Whatever disappears from your van/garage will most probably be making its way towards a car boot sale to be sold at a fraction of the price it cost you to buy.

Police forces constantly recover hauls of tools and look to reunite them with their rightful owners. But one surefire way to make sure you never see your tools again is to not bother marking them. Those who do mark their kit have a much greater chance of being reunited with their trusty tools, especially if they use long-lasting and unique markings. At the very least, marking your tools will decrease their resale value. If they aren’t worth much this will reduce the size of the potential market for stolen tools.

Even if your tools are locked away safely every night where criminals cannot reach, there’s still the chance that they might go missing from your toolbox during the day when working on site. Tools have a habit of growing legs and going for a walk. It’s important to make sure yours are easily recognisable with a distinctive mark.

Electrical Tape

Some people elect to use electrical tape to mark their tools. This is a simple solution, but not very useful. Electrical tape can easily be peeled off by light-fingered work mates and career criminals alike. Over time the tape can move around and leave sticky residue on handles. This is by far the least effective method to use.

Sharpie/Permanent Marker Pen

The trusty permanent marker pen is a decent way to mark your tools, but not very unique. If all your workmates were to write their initials on their tools with a black marker pen, you wouldn’t be able to instantly spot your tools in someone else’s hands from across the yard. If you do use a marker pen, make sure you write on a recessed area. This ensures the pen will not easily rub off with use.

Spray Paint

It’s much more fun to give your tools an easily identifiable individual look. Why not try spray-painting them with a unique colour combination? The best time to paint your tools is when they’re brand new. This is so you don’t have to clean dirt off them to get the paint to stick. Make sure the spray paint you’re using is the right type for the tool’s surface. Also ensure you don’t paint over any serial numbers, identifying marks (e.g. measurements), working surfaces (like the teeth of a saw), moving parts, hinges etc.

Nail Polish

We’ve heard stories of a tradesman using his girlfriend’s nail polish to place a unique mark on his tools. If the nail polish is pink and glittery there are not many workmates who would quickly run off with your tools ‘accidentally’. Make sure you mark your tools in an obvious place, as well as a more inconspicuous place like under a battery cover.

Stamps

A lot of people opt to use a metal stamp to brandish their tools with their initials or company name. This is a long-lasting method, but may be difficult to spot without close inspection of the tools. This is useful if your tools are stolen by thieves to resell, but less useful if you’re trying to spot your spanner in your workmate’s hands.

Engraving

One of the most permanent solutions for tool marking is to engrave a unique number. Consider using your initials along with a couple of digits from the end of your postcode. Whatever you use make sure it’s unique and related to you so that in the event they are recovered by the police, there can be no doubt about who they belong to. Although we’re not quite sure how you’d go about engraving your engraver…

Our advice would be to use more than one method of marking your tools, such as engraving and spray painting. That way, you can ensure your tools are easily spotted when they get ‘borrowed’ on site, and can be easily identified as your tools by the police if they are stolen. Also, make sure you mark somewhere obvious as well as somewhere hidden and hard to get to in case the thief files off the more obvious markings.

And our final piece of advice would be to make sure your tools don’t get stolen in the first place! Invest in upgraded locks, a decent alarm and a security box for your van if you need to keep tools in it during the day and overnight. For more information about the vehicle security options we offer, visit our ‘Security’ page!

Beccy Little

2024-09-18

Fantastic service from start to finish. Initial Consultation was efficient, friendly and fast. The company went out of their way to suit, design and create, supplying a full Speed-liner coating onto our van and complete new caging system for carrying dogs. Would highly recommend. Thank you

Paul Randall

2024-03-14

First Class! Dave and the team are fantastic. The fit on our first Mobile Bike Service and Repair Van could not be any better. From the very beginning, through the design process, all the way to completion I cannot fault a single thing. As I write this, our second van is being fitted to exactly the same specification and the third van is on the way. Long may this partnership continue!

Tim Lees

2024-02-20

Very helpful and patient with an older guy who was a bit nervous ordering from a company I didn't know. The product I wanted wasn't on their website but I thought it worth asking and they had it at a good price. It came the next day and worked perfectly.

Richard Shepherd

2024-01-17

I highly recommend Lee, Dave and the Team at Vehicle Accessories after they did a fantastic job for a one off bespoke van fit for my business. I approached them with a rather radical high concept idea, Dave did a great job taking notes from my extensive brief. He made a great effort to listen and take notes along the way making sure he understood and made suggestions for materials which really led to a much better end product. A particular highlight was a suggestion for them to fabricate a wall mounted Steal Mesh cage system for my equipment which far exceeded my expectations of quality and engineering. During the planning stage and construction suggestions were made to change materials and systems for what they thought would work better for the project as it developed. The end product was perfect and done to a very high standard, it really turned out better than I ever hoped for. Communication throughout was excellent with regular updates, fast responses and easy dialogue when confirming details or discussing changes. Changes were managed quickly and efficiently throughout the build with a great deal of flexibility and professionalism. Even though I was just having just one bespoke build being done for myself I felt highly valued as a customer and treated with the same level of respect and attentiveness as someone ordering a fleet. The quality of work and customer service will certainly mean I’ll be coming back for my next van project.

Philip Taylor Ashby

2023-12-26

Lee and his helpful staff sorted my lock problem that made it easy to break in or steal and at there Christmas closing time🙏, friendly helpful and reasonable thank you all.

Mark Elliott

2023-05-23

Great choice of equipment to fit and all done efficiently. They have designed and fitted racking to 75 vehicle for us in the last year.

Ross Thomson

2023-05-20

I can’t recommend Lee and his team of wizards enough. They fitted the gas with all the safety requirements and modified / adapted several parts of the electrics. They went above and beyond my expectations - I won’t hesitate to use them again.

Andrew Young

2023-04-13

What can say.... the order process was simple, prices competitive and when it was realised that I had ordered 2 incompatible parts I got a call to check and recify the order. Collection was easy and the install team did a quick, neat job. Job done....until next time thank you

Annie Meadows

2023-02-28

Dave, Lee and the team at VA moved crates from my old van to a new one. Easy to communicate with, quick turn around, met all my requests, made good suggestions (such as putting in a waterproof floor) and did an excellent job. Highly recommend.