Surface plate marking compound

[Larry$]

It isn't left on for very long, so no problem.
I've used artist's oil paint by diluting it just a bit with thinner. It dries a little faster but is easy to come by & keeps well. Stefan G also has some good info on the subject.
I silver brazed a piece of carbide onto a steel bar & sharpen it on my tool grinder with a diamond wheel. Took several tries to get a decent scraping action. Not up to King's standard but worked.

 

[verbotenwhisky]

Thanks all,
Before receiving all your helpful advise, I ran to Amazon and got the Permatex blue. My mistake but, I'll try it and see what happens.

Richard King,
Thank you for the offering. You may just hear from me....
However, after watching several videos at YT about the subject, I found one that makes sense, is easy to understand and I bought most of the equipment needed to carry out the operations already, albeit some of that equipment I just needed for my shop and this adventure was the excuse I needed to let the moths out of my wallet.

Here's the link to that video:
Scraping cross slide

Thanks again,
Mike.

PS: if after watching the video, someone can tell me what the reddish-brown board-like instrument that looks like an overgrown emery board he uses after the scraping to flatten things out (I guess), please inform me. I've tried looking for a number of terms and cannot find anything that resembles it.

Another good video....

 

[flyfr8rs]

I wonder if others here use a home-brewed marking medium similar to that described in this video (starting at 4:25 )? It consists of pigment powder and oil. He claims it is used by many professionals, and in the video it appears to work well for him.