What does everyone use...

[Minnesota Joe]

to "white" their serial numbers, heat lot numbers, etc., for ease of viewing. I thought it might be chaulk, but it clearly isn't because the chaulk I used brushed right off with minimal contact. So what's the trick?

[jjroth]

"white china marker", is a type of colored pencil that rubs into the characters.

I have used Testor's (TM) yellow paint to fill-in, use a toothpick, and fill the characters to level with surface. if overruns the void, let get tacky that use a lightly wet rag and move swiftly over surface to remove excess.
HTH.

[oney]

I use a china marker. It is more like a crayon type pencil, which you can pick up at any art store or Hobby Lobby. Degrease the area you plan to fill in using rubbing alchohol. Then rub the china marker back and forth across the area, and as it crosses the lettering/numbers it will fill in. Then use your finger to help fill in the numbers. The heat from your finger helps to fill in the numbers/letters. Then wipe off the excess on the surface, which will leave the white marker in the numbers/letters. Then... re-oil the surface.

"THIS WE'LL DEFEND!"

"LIFE HAS MANY CHOICES... ETERNITY ONLY HAS TWO!"

[U.S.G.I.]

Plus 1 for oney. China marker is the way to go.

[Steven Martin]

You'll think I'm nuts, but when I want a temporary whiteing of the letters for say putting on Gunbroker or whatever, I just rub an asperin over the area. When not needed later, it wipes right off. Steve

[Johnny Peppers]

Brownell's sells lacquer sticks for that purpose, but you can get them at most any paint or hardware store. Goes on easy and comes off with toothbrush and gun oil.

[Bill Hollinger]

White chalk

[P.W.Browning]

I used white Crayola crayon on a couple of M2 Tripods I restored. Cleaned the area up with some burlap after pushing crayon into the marks. Easy to use, almost any grocery or drug store carries crayons, they are cheap and hold up well. I have shot several thousand rounds off of this tripod and only needed to re-fill one or two marks.

-Patrick

[Dan In Indiana]

Finally found my China Markers at Ace Hardware. They didn't know what I was talking about until I finally found them in a back corner out of sight. When I got up to the counter one of the guys said, "you should have told me you were looking for GREASE PENCILS, duh, that what we called them back in elementary school. HTH

OFC

[RogerFoxDog]

+1 for Brownell's lacquer sticks.