BIC Metal Point and CDs warning

[Gilbert]

Tonight, I was telling my wife I was expecting the arrival of a package of 3 x50 Fuji CDs and telling her how good these were vs other brands. She asked if they were better than the silver Maxell her sister pays extra for? "Sure! No doubt about it!" I went to my computer and proceeded to use CDSpeed quality on her sister's CD. I had done a test the night before on a just burned Fuji TY CD that got 100%. I took the same CD and proceeded with the test but right off it seemed wrong. I opened the tray and reinserted the CD in my LiteOn LTR-52246S and the same thing seemed to be happening... Not wanting to look too foolish, I diverted her attention elsewhere successfully.

After her leaving for bed, I got back to inspect the CD and looked at the burned side to discover the had gone thru the reflective coating and the writing could be read on both sides! I had not exerted that much pressure on the pen but have now learned my lesson... I label my CDs only after having tested them.

Now on to check what other CDs have been damaged with the same pen I've been using for the past few months...

I hope relating my experience profits some other unsuspecting users!

--
Gilbert

[TheWizard]

Metal on plastic = no good. At the very least, you can expect the CD's to be scratched if you write on them with a metal-tipped pen. No need to tell you twice, but stick to felt-tipped pens/markers. Sharpies work great!

[Gilbert]

Metal on plastic = no good. At the very least, you can expect the CD's to be scratched if you write on them with a metal-tipped pen. No need to tell you twice, but stick to felt-tipped pens/markers. Sharpies work great!

The worst is that I had bought 2 special felt tipped CD pens about 2 months ago at Office Depot (Staples Canada): one a Staedler Lumocolor CD-R pen and the other an Allsop. I also tried another Staedler Lumocolor no 318 pen tonight and, except for the Staedler CD-R pen seem already dried even if barely used and always stored with the cap on. They were stored horizontally on my keyboard. They are not cheap. I just checked, they were 2.35$CA and 2.39$CA before tax. I did not like the fact the pen wrote about 1/16" wide... Those were the only 2 available in the store at that time.

--
Gilbert

[dodecahedron]

Not wanting to look too foolish, I diverted her attention elsewhere successfully.

nice going, man!

[Gilbert]

Not wanting to look too foolish, I diverted her attention elsewhere successfully.

nice going, man!

I don't know if you know the feeling when you're so sure of yourself and finding the results are completely opposite to what you expect...

To top it off I had a bunch of C2 errors! It was the first time I was witnessing those...

--
Gilbert

[dolphinius_rex]

Not wanting to look too foolish, I diverted her attention elsewhere successfully.

nice going, man!

I don't know if you know the feeling when you're so sure of yourself and finding the results are completely opposite to what you expect...

To top it off I had a bunch of C2 errors! It was the first time I was witnessing those...

--
Gilbert

I've experimented with what kind of markers will do what kind of damage to CD-Rs before, and I've found it pretty much impossible to write on a CD-R with any ball point pen so that it will not cause a lot of damage to the disc. Luckily, I don't let other people watch me while testing CDs

[burninfool]

Yeah I learned the hard way too,when I bought my first CD writer I used ballpoint pens. All of those discs had C2 errors and the audio CD's would skip when played.
I use Sharpies or hub labels now.

[Gilbert]

Metal on plastic = no good. At the very least, you can expect the CD's to be scratched if you write on them with a metal-tipped pen. No need to tell you twice, but stick to felt-tipped pens/markers. Sharpies work great!

The worst is that I had bought 2 special felt tipped CD pens about 2 months ago at Office Depot (Staples Canada): one a Staedler Lumocolor CD-R pen and the other an Allsop. I also tried another Staedler Lumocolor no 318 pen tonight and, except for the Staedler CD-R pen seem already dried even if barely used and always stored with the cap on. They were stored horizontally on my keyboard. They are not cheap. I just checked, they were 2.35$CA and 2.39$CA before tax. I did not like the fact the pen wrote about 1/16" wide... Those were the only 2 available in the store at that time.

--
Gilbert

Correction: the Allsop came with a package, bought at Costco, of a CD holding case filled with thin jewel cases and the bonus was the Allsop felt pen which wrote about 2 CDs before drying up. The other marker, bought at Office Depot, is called Sharpie and made by Sanford. It is still in its original package, unopened...

--
Gilbert

[TheWizard]

Dude! Open the Sharpie and use it! It won't dry up on you after 2 CD's.

[Gilbert]

Dude! Open the Sharpie and use it! It won't dry up on you after 2 CD's.

I've followed on your advice and find it writes better than my other choices. Even the fairly large felt writes thinner than all the others. If it lasts for a good while I'd not hesitate to recommend it over any other brand.

--
Gilbert

[dolphinius_rex]

Dude! Open the Sharpie and use it! It won't dry up on you after 2 CD's.

I've followed on your advice and find it writes better than my other choices. Even the fairly large felt writes thinner than all the others. If it lasts for a good while I'd not hesitate to recommend it over any other brand.

--
Gilbert

I also give sharpies the thumbs up. Although I'm still working on my sharpie test, so far I have not seen any damage to the disc from the sharpie marks I made on it.

[CDRecorder]

I've never seen damage from Sharpies, either. I use them to label CDs that I will use frequently, but I don't label CDs which I want to last for many years so that there is no possibility that the writing could damage the disc.