I have an old samurai sword my grandfather gave me a few years ago and I really want to try and clean it up and make it look nice again, I got alot of rust out with sandpaper which I read on the internet would work, I have some more to get off with sand paper but I don't want to scratch up the blade too bad, so can somone let me know what I can do to clean it off?
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Samurai sword cleaning.
- Thread starter zach2556
- Start date
you're kidding..right???
leave it alone ! NEVER sand the tang
Take it apart and if there's a "mei" ir signatire/writing under the handle lightly dust it with baby powder and tke pics. Thre are many people on the net who can read them. Who knows, you may find you have a sword worth several thousand dollars. Continue sanding and you could ruin the blade
leave it alone ! NEVER sand the tang
Take it apart and if there's a "mei" ir signatire/writing under the handle lightly dust it with baby powder and tke pics. Thre are many people on the net who can read them. Who knows, you may find you have a sword worth several thousand dollars. Continue sanding and you could ruin the blade
Oy Ve! Not sandpaper!
Triton
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This is starting to take on shades of the guy that supposedly cut down the M1 Garand.
Turns out he was just some guy here that was trying to get a rise out of the membership. I'm still not clear why he wasn't banned for trolling. Hopefully that's not the case this time, and we have someone who genuinely doesn't know what they are doing.
Look, it's your sword you can do anything you want with it, but I repeat if you don't know what it is that you are messing with you shoudn't mess with it until you do know. If for no other reason then self interest. If you remove the rust on the nakago (tang) you are destroying a very important part of how a blade is dated. If you sand away enough you can ruin the blade or at the very least cost yourself thousands of dollars to get it fixed if it turns out to be something valuable.
Making an antique "pretty" has probably destroyed more antiques then anything except for time.
As I previously mentioned if you KNOW that it is a factory made or other production type blade then none of the above applies.
Turns out he was just some guy here that was trying to get a rise out of the membership. I'm still not clear why he wasn't banned for trolling. Hopefully that's not the case this time, and we have someone who genuinely doesn't know what they are doing.Look, it's your sword you can do anything you want with it, but I repeat if you don't know what it is that you are messing with you shoudn't mess with it until you do know. If for no other reason then self interest. If you remove the rust on the nakago (tang) you are destroying a very important part of how a blade is dated. If you sand away enough you can ruin the blade or at the very least cost yourself thousands of dollars to get it fixed if it turns out to be something valuable.
Making an antique "pretty" has probably destroyed more antiques then anything except for time.
As I previously mentioned if you KNOW that it is a factory made or other production type blade then none of the above applies.
Well everyone is flipping out cuz of this, It worked really great, there is still a little rust but its alot better. And it doesnt matter to me how much its worth cuz im never selling it
thats not the point......................
I detect a troll:grumpy:
Triton
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He's right that's not the point. If it is a valuable antique blade then regardless of whether you sell it or not you are merely a care taker of a piece of history. Damaging that history is a pretty rotten thing to do.
Chances are good that this is not a valuable blade. If Grandpa gave it to you it's probably either a gunto of some description or even more likely a tourist piece. It's the "what ifs" that give me the heebie jeebies when someone who doesn't really know anything about swords breaks out the sandpaper to "clean it up and make it pretty."
In short, let's see some pictures and then someone can probably tell you whether you have "cleaned" something with little value or if you've damaged an antique.
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Triton
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"Damaging it" does not necessarily mean scratches, part of a blades provenance that shows it's authenticity is the patina on it especially in the area of the nakago. Removing that patina damages the blade, you have in essence destroyed provenance... even if you left no scratches. That aside if in your industrious sandpapering if you have managed to blur any of the lines of the blades geometry you have again damaged the blade...even if you have left no scratches.
Think of it in terms of antique furniture, you made that old shabby looking side table "pretty" when you had it refinished... and by removing the patina and original finish you have cut the value in half.
At this point there's not much more to say about it. You've done what you've done either the blade has no intrinsic value in which case you've done nothing or the blade had some intrinsic value which you have probably harmed. Without pictures (and maybe with them) it's impossible to tell.
Triton
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What people have been saying is: Nothing. Do not remove any more rust until you know what you are dealing with. I take it you have no intent to post pictures?
As others have already said sandpaper in no good on an old sword.
Normally a sword polisher (togishi ) will polish a window to determine if the blade is worth restoring. This is done with water and various grades of very expensive stones.
Depending on the togishi you are looking at around $100 - $200 per inch of blade polished. THis is a highly skilled craft and something that you just cant do yourself.
If your sanding had removed too much harder outer layers of steel then the sword will be ruined.
Sorry to bear the bearer of bad tidings.
Cheers
Jason
Normally a sword polisher (togishi ) will polish a window to determine if the blade is worth restoring. This is done with water and various grades of very expensive stones.
Depending on the togishi you are looking at around $100 - $200 per inch of blade polished. THis is a highly skilled craft and something that you just cant do yourself.
If your sanding had removed too much harder outer layers of steel then the sword will be ruined.
Sorry to bear the bearer of bad tidings.
Cheers
Jason
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