Any ideas, fixing light engraving pen marks?

[mannyrock]

Dear Guys,
 
   I was at a gunshow last weekend, and saw a beautiful, near mint, BLR81, in .358 Winchester, for only $500.  Couldn't figure out why the price was so low.  I looked at it over and over, as the seller tried to distract me, until I noticed that on the left side of the barrel, right up next to the receiver, and partially hidden by the shadows of the scope  mounts, some old guy somewhere down the line had lightly engraved his social security number on it, with a hobby type engraving pen.   Wow, my heart sunk.
 
    The engravings were not deep at all, and were like thin gray-white scratches, but very clear in good light.
 
   I was thinking that maybe, just maybe, someone could take some #00000 steel wool and oil, and polish it throughly by hand, until all rust etc was removed from the engraving lines.  Then, after degreasing it, maybe a few swipes with a good dark cold blue solution, like 44/40, would match up pretty well with the dark blue of the rifle, and substantially blend or obliterate the markings.
 
  Yes, they would still be there, and yes you could probably still make them out in good light, but they wouldn't be so offensive, . . . so in your face.
 
  Anybody tried this type of thing?  Any other solutions?  Not attempting to dupe anyone, just wondering what might improve the piece.
 
   Thanks for all comments.
 
Mannyrock

[gunnut69]

on metal I'd use a smoothly polished very slightly domed face punch and with very light taps of a tiny hammer planish away the dents left by the engraving pen. These little rows of dents can be greatly faded, sometimes even almost erased in this manner. Work slowly and don't hit too hard moving the punch up and down over the mark. Burnish with steel wool and use OxphoBlue to touch up..  Good luck..