Signmaking 101: Snap Lines

[Mike Jackson]

A handy tool in any sign kit is a snap line.

For Large Sized Jobs:
You can buy a carpenter's snap line tool at any lumber yard for around $6. They have a nifty reel type handle on the sides which winds the line upside the case, recharging the line each time is is reeled up and then pulled out. Blue chalk seems to be the norm. Red can stain the background. I like a snap line tool after it has been used for a year or so. The line eventually gets wound more tightly and the fuzz gets worn away, leaving a cleaner line. When new, we usually snap the line off the sign a couple fo times to remove excess chalk prior to the actual snapping. We get six or seven snaps from one charge of powder. New snap lines have a nice little clip on the ends which work fine for most jobs. Some billboard painters replace that clip with a u-shaped wire so it doesn't slip off the panel. For lots of snap lines on a single large panel, two people can speed the process up by a lot.


For Small Sized Jobs:
If you do much handlettering (or even vinyl jobs) on door lettering or tight work, consider using a thin piece of string instead of a carpenter's snap line. All old gold leaf kits had a small roll of kite string in them. Kite string can be "drug" through a piece of chalk, charging it with just enough chalk to make a sharp, fine line. Lumber yards used to carry small cones of chalk about 2" in diameter, and they were common in old sign kits. Now, you can buy a cheap box of sidewalk chalk or even blackboard chalk to do the same thing.

Snapping:
While there are clips on most commercial snap lines that allow you to hang it over the end of a panel, it is possible for one person to stretch the line out and snap the line by themselves. It's easy. Just pull the line out and hold one end with your pinky finger at one reference dot, then grab the line with your index finger and thumb to lift if off the surface. Once the string is pulled tight with the other hand, also lined up on a reference dot, just let go with the index finger and thumb. Presto. You can snap a line up to about 5' by yourself or down to less than a foot.

Mike Jackson
Jackson Hole, WY

[Brian the Brush UK]

Hi,
The guy who taught me to signwrite all those years ago could never get the hang of flicking the chalk line, instead he would knot a loop in the middle of the chalk line lengh and then when it was taut and on the marks at each end he would pull the loop with his teath........... worked a treat, but sometimes left chalk all over his mouth...........OH ! ... happy days! !

Brian.
www.brian-the-brush.co

[Mike Jackson]

Once I had a mouthful of chalk doing his technique, I'd have to figure out how to do it with just my finger tips. Besides the mouth full of chalk, you'd have knots all over the place since most jobs required snapping different length lines. It is way too easy.

[Lee Littlewood]

I never thought of kite string, cool! Our sing supply place used to get unsanforized button thread. i think that meant it didn't have a slick surface. The thread itself is very tough and thin, so it makes a nice line to follow. And a spool of thread fits in your pocket, but it stores a lot of line - I have snapped out a basketball court with a threadline. I carry blue and white pieces of chalk, and some charcoal (takes longer to rub on the thread, but reads best sometimes) too.

[Rick Sacks]

I also learned to drill a hole near each end of a yardstick and tie a knot in the string, pass it through the hole so the knot jammed, carve a small V groove at the end and wrap the string accross making a bow. This bow could be used for scribing an arc as well as for a snap line. We always had an 8 foot moulding for a bow to use on 4x8's.

For longet lines I learned to duct tape the hook end of the reel up lines in place.

I once worked with a guy named Hal Benedict in Corona Del Mar. Bennie had this inset stripe border he liked on signs where he'd make a stripe around 10 " long then did the half circle thing and then a straight line and on and on. One year for a Christmas present, I gave Bennie a jar with a screw on lid that was kinda black. Inside was charcoal powder and a length of string with a knot every 10" so he could snap the bumps on his borders without needing to measure.

[Dave Draper]

I hate the smell of chalk, I hate the taste.

We take BABY POWDER, and add a little blue chalk so it is light "baby blue" (get it?..."baby powder blue")

Thus, you can see your line and it doesn't stink, and you don't stink when a customer comes up.