Muzzle Wear on My New Inland

[Patrick Chadwick]

A lighting-fast guide to detecting many (not all) fake marks without having a clue about stamp styles:

Get a really good watchmakers eyeglass.

1. Wear over marking - could be OK (not guaranteed).
2. Marking over wear - fake, unless assured arsenal reworking.
3. Wear elsewhere, but not just around the marking - a remarkable coincidence, or - a fake. The surface has been reworked to disguise 2.

Wear inconsistency is one of the surest guides to detecting non-original artefacts with no particular expert knowledge, just a good glass and careful observation. Stamps and styles, are easier to fake than consistent wear.
Consistent does not mean the same everywhere, but consistent with that which would be shown by a genuine object - more on exposed or handled surfaces, less on sheltered surface, in corners etc. A sanded stock is the most obvious example that comes to mind of something that is not consistent with genuine wear.