hey, recently started my own sword collection. always loved swords, already have several hanging on my walls now. been using linseed oil to take care of them, rust is starting to show on one of my blades though. any ideas? any officianados on sword collecting and caring for them? pleeeease??? much appreciative.
Well first off, don’t use Linseed oil!
Linseed oil is whats called a “drying oil”, pressed from flax seeds, it has some water content (which is bad news for metal) besides it oxidises and forms a plastic-y film (hence it’s use in oil paints). It’s more for use with wood or leather.
The idea is to prevent oxagen from getting to the metal to rust it in the first place. You need a barrior of petroleum based oil, WD-40 or 9-in-one are good (gun grease would be good too).
If theres any dried linseed oil film left on the blade, it can be dissolved with some clove or eucalyptus oil (available in any drug store).
Japanese Swords recommends, "Abura: A rust preventive oil called choji a chamomile-like flower oil much like clove oil. "
Extremely Sharp says, “Always oil the blade of the sword before resheathing it. This will insure no dust or dirt enters the sheath. Clove oil is by far the best oil in my opinion to use for such cleaning.”
Hey…that reminds me of my own sword problem…
I also have a sword hanging on my wall, a gift from my father, and the blade, which is etched, has these sort of black, I don’t know, almost tarnished-looking, areas on it, they look like finger prints, so I would assume it’s from people touching the blade. Would anyone know how to remove those and not ruin the etching? My father tells me to just take a scotch pad to it, which doesn’t sound like a good idea to me…any ideas?
When I got my sword, it came with a tube of metal polish, so that’s what I’ve been using. It seems to work pretty well. Also, I’ve heard that unless you’re wearing it, you shouldn’t keep it sheathed-- humidity collects in there. You can keep it wrapped in a loose cloth so it doesn’t get dusty; one leg of an old pair of nylons works for this (don’t laugh).
i have a fairly decent collection, but my real question is, does anybody out there know how i would go about learning how to make katana in the traditional japanese way? and i dont want to hear anybody say go to japan and become a apprentace, im 6 foot 4 white and i have red hair, someone would kick the crap outta me for sure, or at least i would ge made fun of laughed at and pointed at for the entire time i was there
thanx kindly all, i never expected so many replies so promptly. thank you. the japanese swords site was helpful, thanx. none of my swords have sheaths, excepte the kitanas and tantos. i would like to keep them in their sheaths, whether humidity exists there or not, i might as well just take lots of care of them i suppose. as for my broadsword, and spanish shortsword (conquistodor replica), they have those black spots too. my broadsword has little rust flakes forming on it. i plan on adding a few more swords this month, so i need to get out and buy this stuff. thanx again all.