Tricks for reading serial numbers on Stocks (grips)

[bullmack]

Whether pencil or stamped I have several pairs of spare stocks that are very hard to read. What works best for each method? Different lighting, photos, ?????

Sometimes the stamped numbers are very crisp but often at least some of the digits are real difficult if not impossible.

Lee - if you see this you seem to have an eye/technique for this.

 

[22hipower]

A good quality camera, the iPhone is one especially the more recent versions, will "see" things we can't. Unfortunately after taking pictures of what I thought were pristine revolvers I'm amazed at what I missed when checking with my eyes in natural light.

Those pencil numbers are very tricky. Best luck I've had is a bright light at an angle while moving the stock panel around and sometimes the lead will shine enough to reveal the numbers. . . . or not.

Jeff
SWCA #1457

 

[Truckman]

A good quality camera, the iPhone is one especially the more recent versions

Doesn't hurt a thing to clean the lens occasionally either......Ben

 

[Model52guy]

I’ve had pretty good luck on Pencil numbers using I pad camera and making photo adjustments. One prewar 22/32 HFT I could not even see there might have been a serial number. Camera and photo contrast adjustments it was clear.

 

[boykinlp]

I’ll have to try some of these tricks on some of my old grips to try and find penciled serial numbers.
Larry

 

[handejector]

Those pencil numbers are very tricky. Best luck I've had is a bright light at an angle while moving the stock panel around and sometimes the lead will shine enough to reveal the numbers. . . . or not.

Jeff
SWCA #1457

Direct sunlight will often make pencil numbers 'shine'.

Pics often show numbers you can't see as others said.

Try different forms of light and different angles.

Also- I'm amazed how many people who are collectors don't have any kind of magnifier. Get something! 3X or 5X is what you want.

 

[45Smashemflat]

Oblique lighting can really help with stamped numbers.

 

[Keith Brown]

Have had some luck with looking through different colors of plastic film. What I used came from Christmas wrapping paper scraps and some art project stuff from the kids.

 

[JH1951]

Good tips above! They work well on boxes, too.
Here is an example where I fiddled around with contrast and other settings. First is pretty much as the naked eye would see it; second is after fiddling with settings. Both done on an i-phone . The number is 101 with a 'J' above it. I have seen several others with the J too, but not too many.

 

[Gun Relics]

Here are my tips. This is a p38 magazine with a tiny WaA, hard to read:



Here it is zoomed with an i-phone. I touch the screen where the WaA stamp is to get the focus.



Here it is with photo software cropped and zoomed :



For hard to reach and photograph areas, I use my borescope, which is TESLONG attachment to my iPhone. Great for reading lug areas. Bear in mind this WaA is maybe 3/16th of an inch.



Comes in handy!