doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion Classic & Custom Single Barreled Sporting Rifles @ doublegunshop.com Touch up blue on older steel weavers

I usually soak them in kerosene or diesel for a few days, then use a bronze brush and Flitz to get stubborn rust out.
You're correct on the early Weavers; they were nitrogen filled. I've never had trouble with them fogging if sealed properly, but I haven't used them in extremely cold or extremely wet situations.
Most hardware stores will have it, or another equal product called "Metalglow".

Vail, Do you mean they (were Not nitrogen filled)? Alot of old scope rings, you had to take the scope apart to slide the scope into the rings. The real older weavers I have unscrewed had no O rings , but some later old weaver scopes had a very thin O ring

Very old model Weaver scopes ever not gas filled and the crosshairs were not centered, but the later, El Paso made, scopes were gas filled.

Recoil Rob wrote: "I don't believe any US made Weavers were gas filled and sealed, on the older ones you can unscrew the eyepiece right of. They just have O Rings."

I have in hand, as I type this, a 1958 Weaver scope catalog and it states on page 4: "All K Model Scopes are nitrogen fill to prevent fogging".

When we're messing with these old scopes, IMO the problem is not the filling but rather the sealing. The older Weavers, in addition to having no internal lock rings preventing easy disassembly, also had parallax adjustment instructions involving loosening and moving the adjustment turret base and thus releasing any gas inside. In order to retain the nitrogen, first it's necessary to adjust the parallax if needed and reseal the turret base; then and only then can the scope be purged, filled and reassembled. The mainmost sealer with these older Weavers, as with all older scopes, is the grease applied to the threads and sealing surfaces prior to reassembly.
Regards, Joe

How is nitogen filled? Just blow some in and screw the end on as fast as possible?

And, whats a good thread sealer for these?

I don't know how the scope companies do it, but I can assure you that you can't do it at home!
You don't just spray some in and screw on the "lid"!
It very likely done in some sort of vacuum or they are assembled in a sealed "box" that is filled with nitrogen(over simplification).
Why don't you call Leupold and ask them how they do it?
Generally, "O" rings are used for the sealer

I've seen a fair number of early Weavers that I thought had some sort of sealer on the threads, or maybe just light grease that had turned hard and appeared to be a sealant.
I have always just sealed the threads with a very small amount of non hardening Loctite, as I have always been afraid that grease might migrate if it got too warm.

I have always understood that the nitrogen was used during scope assembly to evacuate any moisture that was resident at the time it was screwed together. I don't think there was any intent to maintain a pressurized nitrogen environment inside the scope, otherwise I don't think the eye piece would have been removable, or even adjustable. Having said that, I also understand that nitrogen molecules are three times as large as oxygen, possibly reducing the rate the nitrogen would migrate to the atmosphere. Terry H.

Terry, It's not pressurized, but if you remove the eye piece the nitrogen is lost and the moisture in the air that enters the scope can cause fogging if there is a temperature change.

I retired from what Bush called The Nucular Bidness a few years ago and I can tell you how the guys down at the plant did it. The scope's final assembly was accomplished inside a plastic bag filled with Nitrogen gas that had first been used to purge the air out of the bag. Grease on all the threads & fittings of course.

The Nitrogen gas? Used to store certain high-grade components in an inert environment and also to shrink-fit parts together. As the (pressurized) liquid Nitrogen is exposed to air, it turns to gas and the expansion super-cools whatever it touches.

You may recall certain gruesome high-school Biology class demonstrations....
Regards, Joe