I will explain this to clear up any confusion about my situation. I literally mark upwards of 1000 of these components a day, 6 days a week. with how I do it, a component tests bad, I scratch it with the probe already in my hand, and test the next component.
if I were to use a sharpie, for example, I would have to put down both probes, pick up the sharpie, take off the lid, mark the component (make sure it's the right one becasuse now I had to take my eyes out of my microscope), put the cap back on, pick up my probes, go back to the scope and carry on.
if you could do that all in 3 seconds, it would add about 50 minutes to my average work day.
don't mistake laziness for efficiency.
anyhow, I'm going to try this tungstun bit approach, but if that doesn't work, making a probe out of a tungsten awl is an excellent back up plan