I found a tidbit of information on the Northeastshooters site that I carried over to my Mausers. The site suggested that to refresh the markings on your
milsurp rifles was to use a white crayon; 
duh! I always thought
that Mausers I had seen with the markings in the white were really cool, but was too afraid to try paint or white out.
So swiping a couple of dusty old white crayons from my classroom, I spent an hour on my six Mausers and '03 Springfield this afternoon. It took a little experimenting; oily surface versus dry, sharp or blunt tip, cold and hard or warm and soft (microwave), and gentle or hard.
I found cold, hard, dry, and gentle worked best. Sharp or flat depended on areas I was trying to reach as I kept the actions in the stocks. A cotton rag worked well to buff the excess off and a compressed air can to blow the fluff away. The color is uneven as some markings were deep, or very shallow. You can see the darkest white on the '44 DOT were the markings were the deepest, and the lightest on '1940' on the 147 which is very faint. You can actually read the SSZA4 mark on the '43 bnz from a distance. Another plus is that is the eye is attracted to the contrast of colors, and the flaws in the metal and finish are less aparant than they were when all was in the blue. I'm not done yet, but am off to a pretty good start and I'm impressed with the result. As the crayon is unprotected, I assume frequent touch ups will be needed. The '39 Ishavek 91/30 that I'm picking up next week will get the same treatment.
MajSpud
