I like to surface hunt where ever I go and there's flint. However, a year or two later and I can't remember where I found this piece or that piece. Do you actually write on what you find, and if so, what do you use? I'd like to do something that wouldn't take away from the beauty of the artifact, and something that could be removed later. I was thinking clear nail polish then a write on that with a permanent pen or something. Let me know what you think. Thanks.

What I've done with mine was take pictures of each point, label them using Window paint and save them on a flash drive. Doesn't mess up the point and more information can be saved on a flash drive, like where, when, etc. on each point.

Well, I would say that what do along these lines depends greatly on the long term goals and objectives of the do***entation process, and will what you do now facilitate what you'd like to see say 20 years down the road. When I was a young collector, I would do***ent every artifact I found or dug up by placing an adhesive small tape with a number on each artifact. The number would correlate to a sheet(s) of paper containing everything possible about it.Ultimately, I racked up alot of time and effort in this. When I became a vendor of artifacts, I stopped doing it, at least to a lesser level, as I found out that alot of people(especially the younger crowd) dosen't seem to care much about it when buying points. Just thought I'd state my own experience with this if it should help with what you would like to do.

No matter what method you use, it will probably involve abreviations or "codes". Mike says plan
for 20 yrs down the road , I say for 5 years !

Yrs ago we were digging about 7 different areas, all producing loads of brokes and the occasional
complete. Being young and enthusiastic I wanted to keep the sites identity seperate.
All I did was assign a color to the site and put a little dot on the pieces' edge with magic marker.
Very discreet, works great.

DONT LOSE THE COLOR CODE, like I did.

When I find one I write a small number on 1 side of it with a fine tip sharpie and then log all the info on the point into a journal to track them all.
If you mess up and put the wrong number on it or whatever a Q-tip and a tiny bit of fingernail polish remover takes it off with no problems.
Just use whatever system suits you the best.