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

Whats works to touch up older El Paso weaver steel scopes. I had read somwhere about something that works good. Cant remember.

Oxyblue?

The tubes on early Weavers are extremely hard, and I've not ound any cold blues that work even slightly on them. I've disassembled them and either hot blued or rust blued them.

Oh realy? Hard? With all the dented ones ive seen? I have unscrewed the ends and cleaned the outer lenses. Maybe if I ever get a junk weaver for free i will try and tread farther removeing the inards to see how "easy" it is. Im set up for rust blueing , but that seems abit extreme to touch up a couple minor wear spots

Hard, yes, but thin. Thats why they dent easily.

Yes, they are hard and as Don said thin, so easily dented. If dented badly enough they will crack because they are hard enough. I wish I could touch them up, but I have tried every cold bluing solution around from .44-40, Oxpho Blue, Birchwood Casey's, etc., and none of them would do anything near the dark black finish needed to match original Weaver steel tubes.
I've got a few on my work bench right now that were painted satin black by someone who gave up on trying to blue them. I'm getting ready to strip, polish and rust blue them soon.

It would be much easer and less expensive to just obtain other Weaver scopes that are not buggered up. Or use them as is.

Do you have a way to seal the gas in them so they won't fog up?

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 tried Oxpho on an old Kahles I have, did the whole heat and rub with 4x routine. Looked great when I was done. # months later it had faded and turned greenish.

Here's another question for Weaver restoration. I just picked up a Marksman 3x9 that has knurled steel turret caps. The knurling has rust in it and it won't brush out by hand. I'm reluctant to put it on a wheel, all the high spots will go silver.

I thought that boiling them would turn the rust black (isn't that part of rust bluing, boiling to turn the rust to a black oxide?) but it did nothing. Any ideas for taking rust out of small spaces?

ROB: Flitz polish is the way to go...fits in the knurling perfectly with a toothbrush and removes rust without effecting the bluing underneath. Works great!!! Good Luck Jerry

Thanks Jerry, I'll give it a try. Can I get Flitz at a Hardware store or automotive supply or is it pretty much something that must be ordered from Brownells or Midway?


Rob