Birchwood CaseyLong-Lasting Fast-Drying Super Black Touch-Up Pen for Deep Scratches and Worn Areas, GLOSS BLACK, 0.33 OUNCE

I feel the Birchwood Casey Super Black Touch-Up Pen in Gloss is great for what it's meant for. That is to help hide scratch marks or smaller wear marks or scapes. I bought both the Gloss and Matte. If you compare this gloss to the matte (or flat) black side by side, the gloss has a richer black whereas the matte will have a slight grayish tone to it (it's still black, and will match nicely to matte finished guns like AR's or many other newer guns). The matte works great when used on most newer guns where they purposely go for that flatter look to it dampens light and doesn't give it away as much. I used the gloss on some older guns like the CZ 82 that originally had a glossier black and it makes the marks blend in and not noticeable unless you look right at it in good lighting. I like my guns used as tools not show pieces, so these touch up pens are perfect for me and while they do help cosmetically, they also cover exposed metal protecting it from rusting.As long as you use some type of alcohol to clean any grease or oil and letting it dray before using the touch-up pen, it will stay on very well. After letting the paint dry, I could not rub it off with the alcohol cleaner or by normal wear, so that's a 5 star for me!

Did not encounter any of the flow problems noted in some reviews.

Attempted to use it 1.5 months later after purchase and it does not work. Acts like the paint dried up!!!

No gloss. Covers well.

needed to touch up a firearm finish and with this pen design and even flow the job was done quickly. recommend Birchwood products

Works good tip could be smaller

More than 10% of the reviewers could not make the pen work and assumed it was dry or empty. I thought exactly the same until I figured out what's going on: the tip of the pen is just a wick (that you can easily pull out if you want), the pen is a reservoir of paint with a metal ball inside to agitate the paint. When you press the wick into the pen it opens a valve behind it and the paint is supposed to be wicked out. The problem is the paint is very think and it takes a LONG time for the paint to start flowing into the wick and travel all the way to the tip. It might also be the case that the valve came partly blocked, I don't know. In any case here is what I did: First I tried their instructions several times with no effect -- the entire wick stayed immaculately white. Since the pen is not returnable, I decided to be a bit more forceful: I held the pen vertically with a loose fist and I let it fall on its tip on a piece of paper from 3-4 inches up maybe twenty times. At this point when I took the wick out it finally showed some black paint at its base. Woohoo! So then I just held the pen pressed down for couple more minutes until the wick was fully saturated all the way to the tip.I used it to restore an ancient (50+ years old) photo lens leather case. You can see in the before picture that it had a hinge held with some metallic rivets and the paint on the rivets was worn out. I just painted them over, without any surface cleaning. I didn't really wanted them to look new either so the result is perfect for me. If I wanted them to look newer and shinier I would probably clean the old paint to bare metal, but I am not sure how much better is possible. (In the "after" picture the leather was cleaned and waxed as well, but this has nothing to do with the BC pen.)

It is so easy to use and cover the scratches perfectly. Color match is spot on.