There is a reason that graffiti has been done for 20, 30 years even, with solid paint sticks and
streakers. That is because they are among the most versatile graffiti markers you
can possibly be using, in terms of how many different surfaces you can crush with them!
And today, as someone who has immersed themselves heavily in the graffiti freight scene and been
using solid paint sticks and streakers for many years at this point, i am going to rank
all of the solid paint sticks and streakers that i have ever used from worst to best!
I'll also tell you what the best things about each of them are, what environment each of them is
suited to, and i'll also talk about some similar ones to each of these across different brands in
case you are trying to figure out which kind of solid paint sticks to try out for yourself. I'll
also try and link you to as many of the reviews of these that we have done here on the channel so you
can see each and every solid paint stick in action for yourself. And, if you want to pick them up
for yourself, i'll try and link as many as i can in the description below as well. Number seven:
I did say from worst to best and anyone who has seen my video on the worst graffiti supplies will
be able to deduce which one this is. It's of course the all too well known Krink k80.
And my beef with this one in particular is for two main reasons: A) the functionality of it, and B)
the practicality of it. I'll tell you what i mean here. I have never seen something that is so hard
right with so much stickiness! Like you really do have to like try and impale the surface you're
trying to write on with this just to leave a mark. It'll take you a whole minute just to leave a four
letter tag. I swear. And that goes even for if you're trying to write on steaming hot freight
metal in the middle of like an Arizona summer, or something like that. - I hope it's hot in Arizona;
i don't actually know. So, that speaks to the functionality aspect of it, but the practicality
aspect of it for me is the same grievance i have with every krink product, and it's why everyone
hates krink I think: it costs like 10 US dollars for one of these! And if you are a moniker artist
or even just a freight tagger, you go through way too many solid paint sticks to be dishing out
ten dollars for one of these. That's insane, especially when you can get like seven, eight of
some other solid paint sticks for the same price. Like you just can't do that you know? It's not
sustainable if you actually are using solid paint sticks on a regular basis. The only good thing i
will say about the krink k80 in fairness to it is, if the only thing you care about is permanence,
this thing i think is more permanent than a lot of the other solid paint sticks on the market. Just
the stickiness and the three-dimensionality it has to it allows it to really bind to a surface.
I don't know what it is about it but this this formula was obviously made with permanence in
mind. So if permanence is all you care about, maybe this is the option for you; i don't know.
The second lowest one on this list for me in the number six spot is on here just because i never
really found a real use for this. And that is the flame solid wax marker. And this one's a little
bit more unique. It is again like i said wax. The deal with wax and ink solid sticks are as follows.
They're a little bit more permanent most of the time when you use them on surfaces because the ink
in the wax allows them to stain the surface that they're on and it does bleed through some coats of
paint that try to cover it up, much in the same way that inks would if you're using them in a
normal graffiti mop or something like that. But one issue that happens because of the nature of
inks as well is that inks have never been known for their opacity. And to be honest with this kind
of thing, especially in a limited colour selection of flame, you do have to be writing on the exact
right colour surface for this to show up vibrantly and opaquely. And that totally takes out the
versatility aspect of solid paint sticks. So for me it's just like why, like why would I bother.
You know? Some good things about this though; i do have to say the twist up system is super
smooth. You can twist it up and down. There's no difference there. So, the marker itself is really
nice. The wax ones tend to be nice and smooth writing. There's no stickiness to them at all.
They're very beautiful to write with actually, i do have to say. I remember when these came out
originally they were super super expensive, at least where i am in Canada,
although since then i think the price has come down a bit and a few European graffiti writers
have told me that they're super cheap over there. So maybe, if you are in Europe and you do want
to try something a little bit different, you could get your hands on one of these.
The number five paint stick on this list is one that's no longer around. And it is
of course the Junobo scrawler. Rest in peace Junobo scrawler. And i want to be clear, i really
liked this marker. If you ask any graffiti artist who used these when they were out at the time,
the first thing they'd probably say is oh yeah that's a really hard solid paint stick,
and that about sums it up. I won't include too much information about this because it's sort
of a moot point since, you know, they're not being made anymore. Sad face. But basically,
they're very similar to the markal b paint sticks, just much much harder, a little bit cheaper in
most cases i think and their colours tended to be much more vibrant. Side note, yes the art
primo hobo marker is very similar to this but we are going to talk about that later, on this list.
My fourth top pick is still in the territory of ones that frankly i won't be
looking to buy, but it's not because this one just has no use,
it's because i just never really have a use for it. aAnd that is the Molotow scrawl stick. And
of course this one being a wax and ink one the formula is gonna have all the same problems as
the flame solid wax marker. That's because A) i believe molotow owns flame and B)
you can only make a wax and ink solid stick in so many different ways. Of course they're going to
have the same problems. I have actually used this one a fair bit and it's really not that bad. For
starters it bleeds through like nobody's business. The 30 mm broad tip is sort of a nice feature and
pretty much everyone manufacturing any kind of wax solid markers hasn't really explored ones this
big. So, that's sort of something that's going for it I guess. On the downside, it's just so thick
that it's a little bit annoying to write with and it's thick enough that it's hard to carry in a
pocket frankly as well. Being a molotow product though you know two things for sure about it:
A) it's gonna be overly expensive and B) the body of the marker is usually going to
be pretty dang well engineered. That is the case with this as well. I'll show you a good close-up
clip. This thing you can twist it up and down. It works very very well, functionally at least,
so this marker is a little strange but it does have a lot of value to it if you're a specific
kind of graffiti writer who's going to enjoy using it. It's up to you. Personal preference of course.
So, we're in the top three now. This is where i'll start to be able to tell you about a lot of
similar paint sticks to each other in different brands. Anyone who knows me is gonna know without
a doubt which solid paint stick i'm gonna put at number one. It's not gonna be a surprise.
In fact, if you think you know, throw it in the comments and if you're right i'll show the
comment some love. And the number three one here is one that i could see myself buying again if it
wasn't so damn expensive. And that is of course those premium hand mixed solid paint sticks.
I did a comprehensive review of these recently on the channel. It did really well actually,
so i guess a lot of people really liked it. But if you do want to see how these perform and know more
about them, feel free to look at that in the cards in the corner or the description. But i won't go
over everything there is to know about these, just that they are super soft. Obviously they've
got this whole multi-colour thing going on with them. And they do have the twist up system from
the bottom. But these things are expensive expensive, like even more expensive than
the krink one here. And the company they're made by seems to say a lot of really bad stuff and
tends to not really be able to answer questions about their products a lot of the time, and just
you know weird stuff. And i think here is a good time to mention that art primo actually makes very
similar multi-coloured split streaker paint sticks here like these, and they sell them for about five
US dollars less each than one of these hand mixed. So, i don't know, i would bet that most graffiti
writers would probably want to support artprimo if they were going to drop some cash on these to,
you know, try these out. But that's something you guys can let me know in the comments.
The second top solid paint stick that i've used on this list is the most similar to the hand mixed.
No, hand mixed does not buy sakura streakers and cut them up and repackage them. That's a
common misconception aided by the fact that the graff lounge did a review which got like 500 000
views and he said that in that. Anyway, that's not important. It was still a great video;
i'm not saying anything to the contrary. But that being said, the formulae between hand mixed and
sakura is almost identical. They write very similar, they feel identical to right with to my
hands at least. And to me it's that stickiness that i never am ever going to get used to with
the sakura streakers. You know, they write nice and buttery a lot of the time, but not
in all temperatures and that's the key thing here. Speaking of temperatures, we just did
a video on the sakura solid markers for low temperatures. If you want to see that video
in the cards or the description, check it out. I almost wanted to make these like a separate item
on this list because the formulae between the normal sakura and the sakura for low temperature
is so different. There is no stickiness with this or at least not quite as much. To be honest,
if we're just talking about the formula i actually like the low temperature ones better in almost all
weather that i've tried them out in so far. And this is probably where i should tell you that
as far as i know the sharpie mean streak and the markal version of the streakers, not the markal
b paint sticks, the markal streakers are most similar i would say to the sakura solid markers
for low temperatures specifically. Those are some options if you want to try some out. Sakura did
recently release these solid paint sticks for high temperatures specifically. If you
do want to see a review on those, stay tuned, consider subscribing to the channel I guess.
Number one. Okay, let's face it, you guys probably all guessed correct which is going to be my go-to
paint stick. The best paint stick i have ever used is of course, yes, it's the markal b paint
sticks here. It was never going to be anything different now was it guys. And i have used these
honestly since like sort of the beginning of my graffiti career. I remember like the first
shipment of paint i bought online 12-ish years ago at this point i guess actually had a markal b
paint stick in it that they included for free. And that was like the first one I used. So, i've been
using these at higher and higher frequencies for years and years at this point. And i will stand
by the fact - i will die on this hill to say that these paint sticks are the most buttery and smooth
paint sticks you can write with on hot, warmed up, nice freight metal specifically, especially
if you're going to use the metallic colours. I personally most of the time nowadays use of
course the white ones, the metallic ones, as well and the black ones. The other colours not so much,
specifically because they are dull. Although they are dull i should probably mention there's a ton
of different colours you can get the markal paint sticks in. These things are just the epitome of
versatility. They are all weather. They are all temperature. They're cheap. And they're a total
classic in my book. I know some people are like, "they're too hard! amy me um" but to me that's
just not a legitimate complaint. The markal b1s here are obviously thicker, if you do have a
use for that. And don't you dare think that these are just for freight graffiti either! If you need
proof, that great video with the legend himself Craver from sdk, he used a lot of these markal Bs
in his, 'a day with Craver sdk' video. That was - that was a nice one. And i think it proves that
they can be for street tags as well or anything else, you know. The only downside with these i
do have to say is that they're pretty messy. If you do put them in your pocket, especially if you
didn't use like the first little bit up and the cardboard's not gonna cover it, that's a little
bit annoying. Art primo hobo sticks are obviously supposed to be very very similar to these, and a
lot of people swear by them. I know they're silver hobo marker is specifically supposed to outdo all
other uh brand silvers. I don't know if that's true. I haven't actually used it, but it might
be a nice one to try out. But in general any kind of solid paint stick is a great option for the
freight graffiti scene and the street graffiti scene as well because of just how versatile they
are in terms of the number of surfaces you can crush with them. Like I said, if you do want to
see full reviews and tagging tests of any of these solid paint sticks like the markal Bs, the hand
mixed, the sakura ones, the regular sakuras, any of these, you can check the cards in the corner or
links in the description will be there as well. And you know what i can even link a couple value
packs down there that will save you some cash if you do want to buy one of them. I hope to
see in the review on screen. We put a lot of these solid paint sticks head to head, directly compare
them and you can see them in action, if that's something you're interested in. Until then, peace!