Cleaning kit...what's all this then! And other questions!

[satans.barber]

Hey,

So, my Paul Chen PPK and cleaning kit arrived, yay! Of course, being daft the first thing I did was rest the blade on my hand and test the sharpness with my thumb, oops! I guess that's not such a good idea with it not being stainless steel, nasty skin oils and wot-not?

So I opened up the cleaning kit that I bought thinking I'd give it a clean, but I'm not really sure what all the bits inside are! It's a 'Paul Chen Traditional Maintenence Kit'.

There's a little bottle of oil, some things that look like serviettes, a blastic box with a sort of tissue inside and some sort of a little mallet thing (a stick with a heavy round end made of cloth with something in it).

I could really do with a little guidance on how to use these things to give the blade a clean (looking through some old posts, I guess I should do this about once every month too?)

The site I got the sword from also sells Paul Chen Sword Oil in little squirty bottles (http://www.blades-uk.com/images/products/oil2_S.jpg), is this stuff any good? I guess the little bottle in this cleaning kit won't last all that long if I need to use it monthly. Also, I assume good old WD40 isn't up to the job?

There's also a brass hammer, I guess that's for removing the pins in the handle?

Thanks, and please excuse my ignorance - whilst I have a lot of MA experience I'm completely new to swords!

Ian.

 

[Blindside]

Try this link for instructions on how to clean a Kat. Look under Care and Handling.

Hope that helps,

Lamont

 

[satans.barber]

Ah, thankyou, that looks perfect.

I notice this sentence:

"All swords, whether encased in plain wooden scabbards and hilts(Shirasaya) or formal mountings(Koshirae), need to be kept in their swordbags."

...what's wrong with keeping a sword on a display stand when not in use, rather than its bag?

Thanks,

Ian.

 

[Blindside]

That site is discussing the maintenance of antique swords, where the mountings and fittings are at least as important as the blade itself. The bag protects the fittings from being degraded by dust, sun, etc.

Since the historical value of a PPK is about nil, feel free to display it.

Lamont