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FUNDAMENTAL KNOWLEDGE - YOU MUST READ THIS IF YOU HAVE NOT YET





In this journal, we will have a look at how to care properly for your favourite weapon. Please note that most of this applies to other swords and daggers too.
First of all, you have to be careful when handling the katana in the first place. Even though most katanas today are made of stainless steel, it is a very bad idea to touch the blade with your fingers (or other parts of your skin). Even if the stainless steel does not visibly rust, human skin is acidic and affects the metal subtly. If you accidentally touch the blade and leave the fingerprints on it, they may react with the steel and it will be impossible to clean them later. From other steels, spring steels are quite popular for functional katanas and these, along with the material of authentic folded Japanese katanas (means grey iron/carbon steel), they rust. Rust can damage the structural integrity of the metal, but in earlier stages it can be cleaned easier than stains on "stainless" steel. So unless you have a katana from some exotic metal which is really highly resistant to corrosion (like titanium, or plastic ), you have to watch out and do not touch the blade, unless your life depends on it.
That said, if you accidentally (or unavoidably) touch the blade, just polishing it with a clean cloth is not enough, you have to do the whole cleaning procedure as described below.

First, we will have a look at the contents of the cleaning kit. There should be rice papers, clover blade oil, a ball with polishing powder and a brass hammer. The brass hammer is used to remove the bamboo pins from the handle so you can take it off, but I advise against doing this, unless you can get extra bamboo pins (by dismantling the handle, they are subject to wear and the grip would be loose).
For cleaning the blade, you have to remove the old oiling from it with a cotton cloth or a rice paper, then apply the polishing powder from the ball by lightly tapping it on the blade. Then you have to take a rice paper and carefully polish the blade, holding the sharp edge away from you to prevent injury (if the katana is sharp). When cleaning double-edged swords one must be very careful.
After the blade is polished and clean, apply a little bit of blade oil on a new clean rice paper (or already oiled rice paper). You should use different pieces of rice paper for oiling and polishing. Then carefully smear the oil over the blade, forming a thin film. You should apply a very thin oil coating to the tsuba as well.
After this procedure is complete, you can put the katana back into its saya and unless you touch the blade, you do not have to repeat this for 1-3 months, (depending on the atmospheric conditions and usage of the katana) for stainless steel possibly even longer.

I will put a picture of the cleaning kit into the journal a while later. I hope you liked reading this!



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