Maintanencing a Katana

[Zemapeli]

A friend of mine has a Katana that I gave to him years ago. The blade does not have a hamon. I am planning on acid etching the blade after I take the nicks out. I think the blade is made from a spring steel of some sort. I have used it for tamashigiri before it was passed on to him, he has as well. The blade and scabbard (Saya) are beat to snot. He wants the blade re-ground, the Saya to be stripped of paint and refinished. (He wants the natural wood as opposed to the nicked up black coating that is on it) I am looking for some advice on this. I do not have pictures as the moment. I used to know a person who took nicks and dents out of katanas before from nicking PVC while cutting plastic bottles by using a diamond croc stick and a lot of elbow grease. I am pretty confident that I can fix the sword myself, but I want to keep the edge as true to the grind as I can (so the blade doesn't look like an overgrown knife with an overly prominent edge) Which is what I am most worried about.
So ~
The blade itself has about six nicks in the blade that are about 3 mm in depth each at most. What is the best way to take these nicks out of the blade? The only way I can figure is to take a cheap stone (sears?), clamp the blade in a vise with leather on each side as to not leave any marks, and run the stone down the katana (stone flat) until the edge is flush with all marks, then use a diamond and ceramic croc sticks to put an edge back on the blade. My belt sander (3in) has no guides, and no way to control the speed, so completely regrinding it is out of the question.

I figure I can take care of the Saya myself fairly easy. Wood stripper, then a stain (water based, not oil), then a poly coat or mineral oil. I do not know how to retie the Sageo to the Kurikata (saya knot used to attach the katana to the user with Sageo)

I am also inquisitive about how much it would cost to regrind the entire blade if I shipped it out to someone with more experience with Japanese cutlery than I do. Would this mean the blade would have to be re-tempered if it was ground, or could it be ground by hand or at slow speed as to preserve the temper of the steel? Could a real hamon be put on the katana - it is carbon steel, so if it was re-tempered could clay be added to the blade for a real hamon. About how much would this all cost? Ect. :thumbup:

Advice and information would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith]

First, From your questions, I doubt you have the skills to do what you are asking about.

Second - Moved to the sword forum.

 

[althesmith]

Seriously, you'd be almost better commissioning a new blade. If it was made out of a plain medium to high carbon steel, a smith might be able to put a half decent hamon on it- but if it's a spring steel alloy, not so well, spring steel doesn't take well to water quench and oil-hardening steels usually are too deep-hardening for a decent temper line anyhow. In any case the smith would have to do a lot of guesswork as to what he is dealing with and if he gets it wrong, you're out one blade and he's out his time. If it's a regular spring-tempered blade and he's got a good grinder, he should be able to take nicks out pretty quickly and get a decent geometry for cutting work, but don't expect a high-end polishing job- if the structures aren't in the steel to begin with he's not going to magically put them there.
And skip the acid treatment for a fake hamon. It just looks silly imho.