Caring For your Katana: A brief guide to cleaning your blade

June 1st, 2008 | by admin |

Whether you’re a collector of swords, or a budo practitioner, proper maintenance of your swords is paramount to keeping them in good shape. It would be a shame to have that new katana, which cost you $1000, to become useless because of rust or a cracking handle. Fortunately proper sword care is not difficult, and it needn’t take hours of your time.

If you use your sword, you should clean the blade after every use. Every time you touch the blade of your samurai sword, your fingers leave behind salts and oils that can promote rust. If you are a collector, you should clean your katana ever 3 weeks, or anytime you handle the blade of the sword. Cleaning your blade will only take you a few minutes, but the time spent will add years to the life of your blade.

WHAT NOT TO DO
Before we talk about how to clean your blade, let’s talk about some things you shouldn’t do.

  1. Never attempt to sharpen your blade. The use of abrasive sharpeners or grinding wheels can utterly destroy your blade. It takes special tools and training to sharpen a samurai sword.
  2. Do not use abrasive cleaner or chemical cleaners on your blade. They will damage the blade. This includes metal cleaners, polishes, and chemical based cleaners. Really you should only use the tools provided in a proper maintenance kit.
  3. Do not directly handle the blade of your sword when cleaning (especially when reapplying the oil). Use a cloth to hold the blade instead. Care should be taken since this can make the blade slippery.

HOW TO CLEAN YOUR BLADE
To begin with you should purchase a sword maintenance kit. A traditional kit includes blade oil, rice papers, an oiling cloth, a powder ball, and a brass awl and hammer. For blade cleaning we will be using the oil, papers, cloth and powder ball.

With your maintenance kit in hand, it is time to get started:

  1. Remove the old oil from your blade with a sheet of rice paper.
  2. Tap the powder ball against the blade every two inches or so. This will lightly coat the blade with power. You may need to tap the ball a few times to get the powder flowing through the fabric.
  3. Use a clean piece of rice paper or a cotton cloth to rub over the powder. Repeat this until both sides of the blade are clean and polished.
  4. Apply a few drops of oil to each side of the blade. Use a clean rice paper or a cotton cloth to spread the oil evenly over the blade.

With your blade clean re-sheath your sword and rest assured that that beautiful katana will stay free of rust until the next time cleaning is required. Proper sword maintenance really is important to extend the life of your katana.

Pcitures will follow by end of the week..just give me a minute …or two :o

  1. 6 Responses to “Caring For your Katana: A brief guide to cleaning your blade”

  2. By alex on Jul 24, 2008 | Reply

    how often should it be cleaned
    i have an old sword definately more than 50 years old,
    it was prone to rust beneath the handle so how often should i do a full clean or even just the blade??
    any one please mail me
    alexjm @ gmail . com

  3. By alex on Jul 24, 2008 | Reply

    woops im silly didnt read it all properly
    but when cleaning the “tang” bit inside the handle how often should the mekugi “peg” be replaced for a new one? every time?

  4. By heresiarch on Aug 11, 2008 | Reply

    NEVER EVER EVER clean the tang of an old sword. Ever. Really. You shouldn’t even clean the tang of a new sword.

    The rust on the tang is one of the ways they date old swords, so cleaning it will reduce the value of an old sword tremendously.

  5. By admin on Aug 11, 2008 | Reply

    Right…stay of your tang :o

    As far as the mekugi peg, just check every now and than to be sure it’s still ok to practise with but usually they are very solid and they don’t need to be replaced very often.

    Dave

  6. By tinez on Aug 12, 2008 | Reply

    what oil do you use on the blade after its been polished?

  7. By SWAY on Aug 27, 2008 | Reply

    RECENTLY BOUGHT A SWORD. I KATANA SHOGUN IF THAT MEANS ANYTHING.. I UNDERSTAND ABOUT THE POWDER BALL, RICE PAPER AND OIL.. BUT I ALSO HAVE TWO TIMBER RODS ABOUT 3CM LONG AND A BRASS WHAT LOOKS LIKE A SMALL HAMMER. THE HANDLE SCREWS OFF AND THE OTHER END HAS A BLUNT SPIKE. ANY IDEAS?

Post a Comment