condition of swords question.

[Bill Welch]

I just got a sharp, and after a few test cuts, against bottles and jugs, we started discussing the condition of battle field weapons of the RMA period. Most pictures of surviving weapons they appear to be clean and scratch free.

My question to those of you in the "know" is how sparkly clean did the Knights keep their weapons, and for that matter how clean do any of you keep you stuff. I would assume that it be kept oiled so as not to rust but do you spend a lot of time polishing out all the scatches, or do you feel as I do that they give character to the blades(Only if they are resonable and not awful deep scratches).

Since I am new to sharps I was just wondering. <img src="/forum/images/icons/grin.gif" alt="" />

[JeffGentry]

Hye Bill

I don't realy do much to mine beside's oil it, mine isn't realy expensive.

It is going to get scrathed up from use so i just don't worry about the polish on it, as long as it doesn't rust i'm happy.


Jeff

[Jaron Bernstein]

My sempach gets a lot of love and attention (lots of flourishing and cutting up of cardboard tubes so far, with dead animals to come). It has acquired scratches. That doesn't concern me. After each use I scrub any residual gunk off it with miniral spirits and the MRL's metalglo (good stuff for both polish and removing stuck on paper). Takes about 10 minutes. I am not worried about the scratches as it is a "working" blade, but I don't want rust on something that costly.

Think of how you would treat a good gun that you use for frequent hunting or target practice.

[Shane Smith]

A working tool is going to take scratches. If they get too bad, I use a scotch-brite pad to remove them along the length of the blade.This leaves a satin finish that is easily touched up in the future when the blade gets scratched again(and it will <img src="/forum/images/icons/wink.gif" alt="" /> ) I use Mil-Tec or CLP on my swords. Works fine. A few dings and scratches aren't flaws, they add "character".

[Bill Welch]

Thanks Guys, thats kind of what I thought, but didn't know for sure. <img src="/forum/images/icons/grin.gif" alt="" />