Luminous tape

I happened across this stuff in an Army surplus store. It runs about 4 bucks for two strips. I decided to add a strip to every item I could in my survival kit in the event that the item would be dropped at night. Today at work while in the back compound I was fooling around with my blast match trying to light stuff just for the hell of it and for a bit of practice (yep, I skip off work every chance that I get). Of course a friend asks to see if he can try and I hand it over. First mistake, no sooner is my beloved blast match in his hands than it is somewhere on the ground in the tall grass/half foot of snow/leaves. I love the blast match and my jet scream whistle etc and think they are great survival items but I have never understood why the hell they come in BLACK of all colors. It landed on the ground where there was a lot of bushes etc mixed with the snow and despite all my cursing and looking I could not find it. Just as it was getting dark I went back in the hopes the glow strip would now be visible and sure enough, I found it under some bushes not far from where we had been looking earlier. I would have had a real hell of a time locating it if not for the faint green glow coming off the tape. This is not a new idea by any stretch and I am sure many of you do the same but I was so dammed happy and impressed by this that I had to share it with you fine folks. If not for the glowing tape I may not have found it at all. Not good if this had been a real survival situation…………..

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Glow tape is good stuff. $4 a foot is a bit pricey though. You might want to check out the long life glow tape here. Best stuff I've used so far.

http://www.identi-tape.com/phosphor.htm

It was expensive but this cat eye stuff is actually metallic on the back and quite thick, plus it has a peel off adhesive like a bandaid which is really sticky.
Thanks for the link. Looks like some cool stuff here as well. I may have to invest in one of those big rolls. Just what I need, an excuse to buy more stuff.(he,he,he!!)

Good idea with the tape Taurus. I've had occasions at night camp where a little piece of your luminous tape would have saved much heartache.
I have a question....what is the sharp looking thing at the bottom part of your second picture?

smitty

Another interesting glow-in-the-dark product are Glow-in-the Dark "O" Rings available in sizes 2.5mm to 25mm from:

http://www.cpfmarketplace.com/mp/showthread.php?t=164597&highlight=rings

You might also look for a 1/2" wide version of the glow-in-the-dark tape in your local hardware store. I found mine in the 'safety and childproofing' section. It was fairly inexpensive so I figured if it worked at all it would be worth it. I wrapped a single wrap around a couple of flashlights.

I was surprised to find that this cheap stuff was quite good. Exposed to a moderate amount of light they glowed quite strongly for a few hours and more dimly for most of a night.

The real benefit is that even slightly 'charged' by just incidental ambient light the single band of tape is more than good enough as a marker to find the flashlight dropped in pitch black while off.

I could see marking a few bits of vital gear that might be needed quickly, or dropped, in the dark.

Hi Taurus,

Reflective tape is very handy stuff, I use it on many of my easily lost items. I am lucky in that my sister used to be a chemical engineer with 3M and gave me a huge roll of the stuff for Christmas one year. It is orange so we put it on the kids Halloween costumes also.

A neat reflective item that I use each fall are glow-in-the dark tacks marketed for bowhunters (the white taped ones are the best). With just a few tacks you can mark a trail deep into the bush that is nearly invisible during the daytime but when hit with a small flashlight beam looks like a landing strip at night. A pack of 50 tacks costs about $4 at BassPro or WalMart and will mark about a kilometer of trail as long as the bush is not too think. Try it, you will be amazed.

Mike

I use a tape that both glows in the dark and is reflective. An example is in this link:

http://www.glowpaint.com.au/glow-reflective-tape.php

This is not the company that I bought from, as I cannot remember their name at the moment. But this does provide the best of both worlds.

I have never understood why items designed for emergency and/or survival uses are not made from glow in the dark plastic to begin with.

Smitty, it kinda looks like a TOPS Harpoon or a variant of it.... maybe????

Is this stuff just super reflective, or does it have to be charged?

I've got one reservation about luminescent markings that have to be exposed to light to work- the inside of my pack is probably pretty dark. I don't fit in it, so I can't be sure, but unless there is a gremlin with a flashlight I keep missing anything that needs light to glow isn't going to be glowing when I need it.

Ahhhh Ironraven. I really look forward to comments like these. They always do to make a person grin. I can’t fit inside my pack either, and even if I could it would be really hard to carry it that way. It would eliminate the need to carry shelter though.
If this tape is charged, it will glow very bright, even enough to read with if you get it close enough to the paper. During the day, it will collect ambient light and glow very well at night. If stored in a dark pack and taken out in the dark it still has an ever so faint glow. This is better than nothing in a bad situ, and if dropped it still makes stuff much easier to find.

Smitty.
A few years back a friend gave me an off the shelf PSK as a gift. The contents of the kit were pure crap, all but this thing. It is a spear head designed to be carried in a PSK. The holes are to fix it to a stick with nails and the back is a can opener/screwdriver. I fixed it to a broom handle last year and spent hours at the beach (in BC) in waist deep water spearing crabs and stuff. It worked so well that it has found a permanent home in my PSK. I have a friend (who is a metal worker) to make me more of them.

Taurus:

In my AO, Home Depot carries rolls of reflective tape and IIRC, the price point was good.

On many pieces of my outdoors eqipment and my bikes, I use Scotchlite stickers from MEC .

Or you could always go with some tiny tritium vials a lot of people over on CPF put on their flashlights.

Once in a while you can find free promotional items that are made of reflective tape.

I have a few strips from Tim Hortons Coffee Shop that I think were intended for Halloween costumes and CRIMESTOPPERS stickers are sometimes reflective.

Reflective tape is also sold at Canadian Tire in the trailer or vehicle trim section (but it is not cheap).

I posted about using reflective tacks as trail markers earlier and I remembered a couple other items for this purpose. One is like a white reflective garbage bag twist tie that you tie on branches, the other is a small bottle of liquid that you squirt on a tree, it looks like water but at night the wet area is reflective (this was not as good as the tape).

The reason I use this clandestine method of marking my hunting trail is that if you mark it with flagging tape other people follow the trail in and disturb the hunting area (or steal/damage my tree stand).

Mike

I know there's a gremlin in my pack messing with my flashlights. Why else would the batteries be dead when I need them?

-Blast

No Buckshot, we think you are a loser.

-Blast

Please find a different website for your comments. We appreciate humor, but not personal attacks. It's sad that you only took 8 posts before I decided to ignore you.

For SWAMPDONKEY, SHERPADOG and others who gave tips and references for other types of luminous tape, Thanks a lot folks. I picked up a roll of the tape and some tacks for night trail marking to put in my hunting kit today at lunch. Up until now I had been using lightsticks for the job. They work good too but I will save a bit of space with the tape. I will use the lightsticks to make the downed game and the tape/tacks for the trail.
Sharing and recieving tips and info like this is what made it a good choice to join this forum.

Let me guess, Buckshot made some low-quality, unimaginative insult, probably involving a body part, right? Kids are so cute when they try to act all grown up.

-Blast, who loves that "Ignore" button.

I've used those tacks as well for trailblazing and they work great. A variant of that idea (also available with the hunting supplies at Wal-Mart) are twist ties, like the ones that used to come on a loaf of bread, with a white side and a red side. Both sides are highly reflective. This variant allows you to easily put the marker on a bush or shrub branch that won't take a tack. Also the twisty tie can be made to be visible from many directions of view. They pack flat and are practically weightless.

I agree with you Glock-A-Roo, I have tried one pack of the reflective twist ties and they work well, they also pack flat and do not poke you in your pocket or rattle like tacks (I now keep my tacks in a film container with paper tissue).

It is true that if you get off the trail and are looking for a tack sideways they do not show up well, the twist ties prevent this problem but do not work well on large trees; perhaps a mixture of the 2 types would work best.

Mike

I'm with you there Taurus, I keep an entire roll of that stuff in my kit. All my rolling gear (you know the kit)usually has a strip on it, and whenever I'm headed out on the job, I'll try and roll out the kit for each tool to get a little charge-up...makes my assistants nuts come cleaning time! hehehehe!!!
I also put dummy cords on the serious stuff so I can hook those items off onto myself on a carabiner. Great practice man.
Amazing how ones job practices and ones survival gear practices cross over....

Cheers, One more day and still alive!
Mike

Taurus,

I like the luminous tape idea as well. I tried using chem-lights/light sticks and the frustration was that once they died they were less than useless (trash that has weight). The tape is recharged by natural light and is for more functional.

Now if I only could stick some on my dog so that I wouldn't trip over him in the night...

Thanks for the initial suggestion.

A LOT of my training/ gear choices cross over. That gets me in trouble sometimes on this forum as it is hard to let go of one mindset and change to another. Army vs. civilian (LOL)

For my rolling gear I also carry the issued IR reflective tape for those NIGHT calls that are only supposed to be done during daylight. I didn’t mention it on the post because IR tape really doesn't have much civilian application. Makes the important stuff easy to find when only NVGs are allowed.

Glad to hear all is well. Take care Bro. I will send a PM later.

I hear you BrianTexas. I solved this problem with my dog by buying him a glow in the dark collar (avail at most pet stores)

Exactly right; that's what I do. I keep a mix of tacks & ties in a small container.

I have seen another variation of this idea that I forgot to mention earlier. Instead of a thumbtack shape, it is a small cube with reflective tape on all but 1 surface; that surface has a small tack-like spike on it. These units can be seen in a 180 degree hemisphere (or better) but still require a clear & solid section of wood for placement:


Holy moly, here is a page with all types of reflective trail markers, including some I hadn't seen before!

This thread got me poking around the web for a US source of tape which is both luminous and reflective. Instead, I found a bunch of interesting luminous ropes at:
www.glorope.com
which I could envision using as a safety-strap (loop) for gear, or even a D-I-Y dog collar. They also have high-glow safety sheeting, which is like a cuttable sheet of luminous sticker: 12"x12" is $3.25

Wow, that is a "bright" idea (sorry about that).

I have never tried the cube type trail tacks, they would proabaly work well, I did make some out of round push pins and but because of the circular post they did not reflect as well as normal thumb tacks (less flat reflective area).

It is important to use the tacks that have reflective tape on them, the cheap version that is just painted does not reflect well.

We have hunted in the same area for 11 years now and the problem is that there are many of our old tack trails that lead to areas we no longer go, this is a real problem when trails cross. My hunting partner spent an evening in my treestand this year and walked out by headlamp after dark; he managed to link-up with an old tack-line of mine from 5 years ago and went about 300m off course (although this is my buddy who could get lost in his own living room).

We would remove these old tack-lines but the tacks are very hard to find in the daylight, you really need to look for them after dark with a light.

The only luminous stuff I have worked with is small bottle of fishing jig-head paint that would glow if you charged it up with light. I also have a few firearm sights that glow-in-the-dark, works well on a bear defence shotgun.

Mike

Oh, I don't think we need to ban the young, just the immature. Plenty of people on this site are young but looking to learn and improve. I think Climberslacker is in middle school or junior high. No problems at all. Buckshot on the other hand... well, I think he probably feels pretty impotent and unimportant in real life and wants somewhere to vent his feelings. Very immature behavior, but something that could easily be coming from forty year old or a ten year old. Its just unfortunate that he chose this site to indulge in that sort of sad behavior.

Many of the better makes of luminous tape glow for a pretty long time and they charge quickly. I have a flashlight in my cross-bed box that has a band of luminous tape on it. It is always near the top. Working I open this box several times a day and the daylight makes the tape glow. Even after more than a day in the dark the luminous tape is slightly glowing. Not so much you wold notice in daylight but in pitch-black it shows up well.

Also I have noticed that even after a week in the dark. When the tape has no detectable glow left if I look into the box with another flashlight the tiny amount of light from the flashlight activates the tape. Moving the flashlight across the luminous tape charges it enough so that when the tape is not in the beam the glow shows up.

Of course a combination glow-in-dark and retro-reflective tape would be ideal.

I can think of three gremlins right off the bat.

DD1 and DD2, but MUCH more likely, their Dad.

oops

"Now if I only could stick some on my dog so that I wouldn't trip over him in the night..."

Just paint a 'skunk stripe' on him with phosphorescent paint!

Sue

Has anyone used these? http://www.firetacks.com/


3D Blaze - Night Shot


FireTacks in Action

Wow. These look cool. I think I feel my credit card calling out to me again..............