How to Maintain an Antique Sword

If we look at lives of mankind in ancient times and new modern era, human traits are very similar. In each decade man has dominant feelings and wish to be victorious, that is why history cannot define invention of first weaponry tool.

In the bronze age, may this concept was emerged and people made axes, arrows etc. With the passage of time new technology came and tools were updated according to the needs. So period started from axes to swords and now in modern time guns are symbol of militants but still old tools are considered very valuable and that old antique is called our heritage. Japanese and Chinese swords have strong history that can never be removed, those ancient swords are very valuable and mostly people have those treasures and keep those very safely.

How to keep that antique sword safe? It requires a lot of care to make it clean and oil. How to remove rust, to resharpen the blades, take out nicks and check for cracks, how to tighten a grip wrap or a loose grip etc.

Antiques are special case.Don’t keep it locked always but don’t use it for cutting. As it is different from common sword so you can maintain its preservation. If you want restoration then you need an expert, in that case it requires disassembling and reassembling.

The best way to maintain the tool is care and precautions;

Things to avoid: don’t touch the blade, don’t heat it up because it may lose the temper, don’t use any cleaner, don’t cut with it and don’t try to sharpen it.

Things to do: always keep cotton gloves to touch it, use cotton cloth to clear mud or for oiling (white cotton cloth or old don’t leave color), Light and non acidic lubricated oiling;  there are different type of oil available in market like Choji is the best one with clove in it, Camellia, Magnolia etc.

Such other instructions are;

All functional swords are made of carbon steel, If you have carbon steel sword, then it is necessary to keep your sword’s blade out of contact with moisture or air.Oiling is important to prevent rust and don’t keep your sword covered in sheet without oiling because it left moisture that can damage it and then check your sheath time to time. If you find rust on blade, quickly clean it otherwise you will loose original polish.

Cast steel is used for non-functional swords. This steel is mostly used for decorative and theatrical swords.So this is not so sharpened and not flexible like carbon or stainless steel. Once you can bend its steel, if try again to keep it in original condition will break. This steel is not rusty but you must clean it and give it light coating of gun grease to make it secure.

Complete sword cleaning kits are available in market but don’t use these products without any suggestion from experts and you must be known about proper method and procedures and its negative effects as well.