Ahah!!!! Liar....

Dammit Ed, why must you remember?!? lol
Geez, i think you know my collection almost as well as I do! hahah

Sedhal - i'll GIVE you the Samurai 3000 Wakizashi, all you gotta do is come here!

(actually if I go there, I could just steal the Kami... and kill Jash. Or kill Jash then steal the Kami.. yeah that would probably make more sense)

[quote=""Jash""]Geez, i think you know my collection almost as well as I do! hahah[/quote]

Only the pieces I still need!

Jash, how (often) do you maintain your Chens? You e xp erienced any
problems so far? I mean, these blades are so incredibly sensitive.

I re-oil them all every three months. But my Snake got some rust spots
along the edge last year. I took them off, but they resurrected over time,
and now I can't take the traces that were left behind - not even with polish
paste that I used so much it started to blur the hamon. I don't need to say
that sword needs to be replaced now ($hit! - but the good thing is, it's the
cheapest of folded katanas). The wood of saya probably wasn't 100% dry
and it ruined the blade over time.

And it bugs me horribly I still have nowhere to display them all! I would need
to display them under glass and outside sayas, so I can inspect blades
whenever I desire.

Hey Ed. I'm not sure if you do any cutting with your swords, or just display them. But, I have been using a product for a couple of years that I have been very happy with. It is called Renaissance Wax, and is produced in England. It is a micro-crystaline wax, and is very widely used by many world renowned museums. I wax my blades as soon as I get them to seal out all elements. They also make a sister product called Pre-Lim. It is a gentle non-scratching abrasive paste. It's formulation is based on blended Neuburg silica chalks in a water/white spirit emulsion. I haven't tried the Pre-Lim, but am going to order some soon to try on a residual spot from rust on one of my blades. Just FYI, in case you've never heard of it.

He's tried it

I have some myself and it works great on my Albion. Why? Never sheathed. I gotta say, I know exactly what ed's talking about. All proper forms of maintenance for a Japanese blade do diddly-squat if there's even .01% chance of moisture getting in there... SFI might chew me out for that one, but when you know you're doing it right, it's gotta be some other factor. Same boat as ed - oiled, in saya, cleaned and re-oiled often, and generally in the same place on the same one each time. And ones I've treated worse and better show no signs of rust. Seems like there's no reason either which way. And no, we don't cut with them.

To quote a friend, these things are as touchy as a ****.

[quote=""Sedhal""]To quote a friend, these things are as touchy as a ****.[/quote]

Hm... I don't think "clitoris" is profanity, so I see no need to censor it.

And you hit the nail in your post as usual, friend.

Yep, Steel Servant, I never used ren wax for katanas because I keep them
sheathed. Hanwei sword oil is good enough for it, but no matter what you
do, some will gain moisture from wood (these are, after all, production
swords, even if they're high end in that field). I treat the other two 100%
the same, and there is absolutely no sign of any flaw. One day, when I
display them outside scabbards, they will be properly oiled again and my
fears will be gone. I use Balistol for Albion's Regent, and since it is kept in
plastic case with foam interior, it remained perfect since day one.

Bamboo Snake only, for whatever reason, keeps this mild rusting along the
edge, and even after I repair and re-oil it, months later they keep coming
back.

Point is, I'm pretty sure I know what I'm doing, not to mention I never
mistreat my blades, and always have time for maintenance. Obviously,
sometimes that's not enough.

And to answer your question, I only display my blades, but once I buy new
Bamboo Snake, the damaged one will be used for some basic practice (or
just for walks in the woods).

[quote=""ed209""]Jash, how (often) do you maintain your Chens? You e xp erienced any problems so far? I mean, these blades are so incredibly sensitive.[/quote]
I know what you mean, Ed. On my stand - i now have 6 carbon steel swords (4 Hanwei's)... Like you, i re-oil my blades at least twice a year, more often if handled, of course. I never had a problem with the Hanwei's, but i did with my Ryumon Shogun katana. For a while it constantly rusted on the edge after even a few weeks. Simple gun oil and a good scrub got rid of it...but only for a few weeks. All i did was took a blowdryer on med/hot setting for a few minutes to help dry out the inside of the saya. I'm sure there are better ways out there to do it, but it worked for me. Haven't had a problem since. I know you don't have your katanas on display, Ed, but how do you have them stored? Conditions? Even blade direction?

They are stored in their factory packages just like they came in. After
handling and re-oiling, I put the blades back in sayas, swords in bag, bag in
plastic, all of it in those four gray Sponge Bobs and back in cardboard
boxes. I don't know what you mean by "blade directions", but they are all
stored equally, one next to another. And the air here is surely dry enough.

Telling you, I'm gonna display them all outside and just above sayas, like
my country is in war. Although having them traditionally displayed definitely
has charm and mystery to it (one point), having them outside will show the
differences between all the wonderful blades (one point) and 24/7
maintenance inspection access (second point).

Will try my best to present them as nice as possible, count on it.

He means like... vertically, horizontally, edge up, edge down, or on a side. But I'd trust you're storing them right.

Oh! Sorry.

Vertically, edge up!

lol - i was just curious.... I know that you, Ed, know what you're doing. The rust on the edge...just happens. Kind of like a loose tsuba. It comes with the territory of the type of swords we collect. I wish you good luck in fixing it

That display with the blades out is really cool. At work, when we had Hanwei's, i changed the display such that i put the Kami katana edge up on the top of the 3 holder stand, with the engraving facing out. The saya was just below it. I thought it looked amazing! So did the customers....but apparently not amazing enough to purchase lol. Can't wait to see all your swords displayed!