dogoodcraf - I had tried that for a couple of years, too. But then I started noticing them deteriorating rather rapidly after about a year, so I quickly replaced all those markers with the knives. The writing had also faded to the point that I just couldn't read many of them. I've been using the knives for over 2 years now and they look just like the day I originally made them. Maybe I had cheaper blinds or the weather here had a part in that, but the blind strips just didn't last but one, maybe 2 seasons before they started breaking into smaller pieces, and the marker (or even pencil) writing was challenging to read.
