Damascus oil?

F

FlyingGriffin

Joined
May 30, 2006
Messages
16
So I've read the horror story about loosing the etch while polishing damascus.
I've been using mineral oil. What is not good on damascus? I'm thinking WD40 is not good, as it loosens rusted bolts. What about 3in1, Sentry tuf glide, other cleaning polishes?
D
 
Use mineral oil or a wax but don't use anything with an abrasive.
 
WD 40 is fine, but it is not thick enough for good rust protection.
Bill
 
You could try a bottle of nugui: http://www.namikawa-ltd.co.jp/cgi-bin/list_e.cgi or here http://www.shadowofleaves.com/nugui_materials.htm(premixed with clove or cammelia oil or powdered and make your own.) Basically it is red or black iron oxide (other materials are used as you'll notice in the stuff listed under the nugui heading) ground super fine and rubbed onto a sword so it will stick in the pores of the steel and give it a bit of color the steel. Different steels seem to absorb different materials better than others so it might be interesting to experiment on damascus with this stuff.

You could also try polishing it on a very fine natural awase stone as these darken some steels but not others... really brings out the swirls in a knife like this http://watanabeblade.com/english/special/sanadapeti.htm
 
I prefer wax to oil. Good protection and you don't get oil on what you cut. The nasty-smelling general-purpose paste wax works nicely if you use it right (not the stuff with citrus oils in it!). As mentioned above, gunstock wax is probably good too. Those Japanese-style products sound very interesting too. Hmmm.
 
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