8 Creative Ways To Mark Your Tools For Identification And Theft Prevention

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Workshop and garage owners, pay attention. We know that you deal with hundreds of tools on a regular basis, and purchasing them can cost a fortune. Marking your tools is a task that cannot be sidelined or delayed because if you own them, you definitely have an idea about how pricey they can be. Therefore, losing them would be bad for you — it's frustrating, and it can end up costing a bunch of extra money, especially given that tool prices already increasing in the U.S. To avoid all this, we have a few creative ways to mark your tools for identification and theft prevention.

Each of these methods is beneficial in ensuring that anyone who grabs your tools or borrows them knows very clearly to whom they belong. Unique markings, shop name labels, and the owner's contact information are essentials that should be displayed on each tool in your inventory. But if you think these extra markings might look unnatural on the tools or ruin their sleek exterior look, we get it. But if doing something saves you from unnecessary monetary losses, then it is worth doing. 

Marking your tools is important for theft prevention, but it also serves other benefits. Maintaining and looking after a large tool shop is a tough task, especially with a small crew. And many tools are compact enough to fit into one's pocket or a small bag.

Let's say you are working on a big project for some company or client with many other coworkers who own the same set of tools. Now, when working together, obviously, each of you will keep your tools near at hand, so things might get mixed up in the flow. Like, say both you and your coworker have the same GearWrench pliers — having labels or identification markers separating your tools from others' will be absolutely crucial.

Before moving on to the methods, let us give you a little tip. Adam Savage's Tested highly warned his audience against using colored duct tapes for marking tools because they tend to leave an ugly residue on the tool's body that cannot be removed even with the highest quality of acetone and scrapers. Another cheaper method for marking is tying zipties around the handles of the tools; however, this is also not a good idea. Why? Because zipties are made of hard and rigid polymer, Nylon in a majority of the cases, which will hurt the skin when you hold the tool or exert pressure when using it for work.

Using metal stamps to mark tools is a pretty basic technique, though you will have to spend a few dollars getting one customized with your shop's name, an identity number, or a unique symbol (like your shop's distinctive logo). Another trick is to get a letter stamp toolkit with individual stamps for each of the 26 letters of the alphabet. The go-to store for this is Amazon. It has an extensive 36-piece Metal Stamping Tool Set consisting of 26 alphabets (A-Z), numbers (0-9) and a few symbols — all this for a low price of $12.49, making it an interesting Amazon tool under $25.

Stamp this in a spot where the marking is visible at a glance to anyone who picks up the tool. For effective marking, hold the stamp perfectly straight in a vertical position on top of the tool, ensuring the stamp is not tilted and your grip is not too tight. Just hold it firmly in place, then grab a flathead hammer and exert one forceful strike on top of the stamp head with your other hand. The strike should be exactly on top of the stamps, and again, not tilted at any angle, as it could hinder the print. Align all the letters one after another and repeat the process for each to get a clear and permanent engraving.

Dot peen marking is a step ahead of traditional metal stamps. It mechanically engraves letters, numbers, or symbols onto the tool's body, using a distinctive technique for the engraving process.

There are dedicated dot peen marking machines that generate rapid, high-frequency taps — one dot per tap — and the final result? Whatever letter or symbol you wanted engraved on your tool. The dots are so narrowly spaced that they appear as finished lines and curves for clear readability. Moreover, it is a very effective technique to mark tools with a tough external body. You don't even have to worry about the markings getting damaged or wiped away by any spill or stain.

Good-quality dot peen marking machines usually require you to make a large investment; for instance, the Portable Dot Peen Marking Machine costs $396 on Amazon and can be a good pick if you have a large array of tools in your inventory.

Brand names and logos are appealing to consumers, and that is a fact. Whenever we step into a shop, our attention automatically diverts to well-known brands and their products. The same goes for thieves. Higher-quality brand tools sell for higher prices, which means they are vulnerable to theft. Makita, Milwaukee, and DeWalt are just some of the major power tool brands on the market, and their excellent quality of tools and accessories garner a lot of demand.

But what if we tell you a way to deal with this smartly? First, find a way to hide the brand name, logos or anything that hints that a tool belongs to a particular famous brand. You can do this by spray painting over the tool or painting it with the same color as its body. Once hidden, engrave your own brand logo onto the tool's body using any of the various engraving tools, like an engraving pen or dot peen Marking machine. Consequently, all the tools in your workshop will have a uniform look, and the expensive ones will blend in with all the other products. 

You should have accurate records of every customer who purchases or rents tools from your workshop, along with the date of handover and the serial number of the tools they took. Ensure that every customer knows the deadline to return the tool or make sure you have a way to reach them in case they miss that deadline.

Inventory management can be a difficult job when you are dealing with hundreds of big and small tools on a daily basis. However, regardless of your collection's size, keeping a record of rented tools needs to be a regular practice if you want to prevent theft. Furthermore, you can also ask the customer to give you a copy of their identity card (or some sort of collateral, for expensive tools) before renting any tool and return their possession once the tool is back in your hands as a way to build mutual trust.

While barcodes are the traditional way for printing out product details, QR codes are the new cool. Every QR code is unique and can be scanned with the majority of the latest smartphone cameras, be it Android or iPhone, instead of dedicated barcode scanners. Just open your phone's camera, fit the QR code in the frame and it will automatically direct you toward the website displaying the relevant details.

Ideally, you should add the major tracking details, like the product's serial number and your contact details, as well as the shop's name and address, on this page. So, if anyone finds the tools misplaced or lost, they can immediately fetch the details via their smartphone and reach out to you to hand back the valuable.

QR codes are not only functional for finding lost tools but also for inventory management. You can have an easy way to keep a digital record of all the tools in your inventory by syncing all the tools in one single file, sorted into fine categories.

UV markers are unique marking tools you can very smartly use to put creative identifiers on the tools. The magic about these is that anything you write with UV markers will not be visible to the naked eye under normal light conditions.

You can only see the markings under ultraviolet light, which means that going with this method will require the additional purchase of a UV light. Amazon offers a portable UV flashlight for $12.99. A normal UV marker costs around $13.49 on Amazon and is suitable for use on any surface, even metals. Therefore, you can get both for about $30 to $40 and keep your tools safe from loss or theft.

While UV markers are not exactly the best pick for theft protection, they are more suitable for marking identification symbols, store names or relevant details on your tools to ensure you have the right ones in your inventory. Identifiers also come in handy when you want to verify that the customer has returned the correct tool and not a cheaper version while keeping the original for themselves.

Apple AirTags are undoubtedly expensive — you can get a single one for $29, while a pack of four costs $99 — which means for huge inventories, they may not be the best choice for theft prevention. Plus, an AirTag may not even fit onto the smaller and narrower tools like wrenches and pliers.

You should reserve AirTags for the very valuable, expensive tools that you cannot afford to lose. If a $29 AirTag saves you from losing hundreds of dollars, it won't seem like such a bad deal. Apart from this, AirTag your toolbox kit when you are working in a different location or outdoors so you can keep track of it through your iPhone. Unfortunately, having an iPhone, iPad, or Mac is required to use the Apple AirTag, since it is only compatible with the Apple ecosystem. 

If you're not in Apple's ecosystem, you can use other GPS trackers on the market that work with Bluetooth. The Milwaukee Tick Tool Tracker — available at Amazon for $16.99 — is something you can place onto any tool or equipment and pair it with your smartphone via Bluetooth. View the location of the tool or the last known location when it is out of reach so you can conveniently find it and bring the tool back to the inventory.

An electronic label maker is a fantastic tool for creating quick labels effortlessly, no matter where you are or when you want it. It is a portable electronic machine, similar to a big old cordless phone, that can print labels on the go. The machine is available on Amazon for $107.99 and doesn't require a genius to operate it.

Turn on the machine, wait for the loading message to go away and then type what you want to be printed on the label, like your name and contact and hit the Print button. It will give out a nice, clear label strip that you can stick onto any tool's body without actually ruining its design or exterior.

What's more is that you can also select between capital and small letters, font size, and whether the letters need to be bold or regular — plenty of customization options for the desired label. It is perfect for labeling and categorizing any kind of tools and accessories, no matter the size. Just one recurring cost is that you would need to refill the sticker cartridge in the device every now and then. Nonetheless, putting labels is a great way to organize your tools when you have a large collection.