Was cleaning a couple Mosins today and the huge lasered import mark is just plain ugly. So while I was oiling everything to put back together I spotted my bottle of Brownells cold blue on the back of the bench. Hmmm....
So I squirted the area w/ solvent to get the oils out, then hit it w/ the propane torch for a couple seconds to warm it up. Dabbed a bit of cold blue on a cotton ball and rubbed it on. Hmm, looks a lot better. The lasering raised the edges some which still makes it catch the light a bit. So I went and dug out a small sharpening stone and rubbed the area gently along the direction of the text. No, Im not grinding off the serial number! But it knocks off the sharp raised edges a little. Re-cleaned,heated,wiped. Now looks much better. Still visible, but not nearly as fugly as before. About the only thing you could do further would be to rub a black crayon in it or something.
I tried to take pics, but its hard w/ the lights downstairs. They are less visible than they appear in the pics in 'normal' light. To get them to show up, I tilted them towards the desk lamp a bit.
So I squirted the area w/ solvent to get the oils out, then hit it w/ the propane torch for a couple seconds to warm it up. Dabbed a bit of cold blue on a cotton ball and rubbed it on. Hmm, looks a lot better. The lasering raised the edges some which still makes it catch the light a bit. So I went and dug out a small sharpening stone and rubbed the area gently along the direction of the text. No, Im not grinding off the serial number! But it knocks off the sharp raised edges a little. Re-cleaned,heated,wiped. Now looks much better. Still visible, but not nearly as fugly as before. About the only thing you could do further would be to rub a black crayon in it or something.
I tried to take pics, but its hard w/ the lights downstairs. They are less visible than they appear in the pics in 'normal' light. To get them to show up, I tilted them towards the desk lamp a bit.
