Blade Care
 

I have a lot of fantasy and oriental daggers, swords and other miscellaneous blades.
It wasn't until I recently purchased my last 2 that the dealer stated I need to put oil on them about once every 3 weeks. I forgot to ask which type of oil to use.

Would machine oil be ok? (The type used for sewing machines and household appliances) If not what type do I need to get and where can it be purchased?

Thanks in advance.

For my blades I use WD40, it cleans and seals the metal, and the film it leaves doesn't migrate like a lot of oil. And you can get it freaking anywhere :)

Sewing machine oil is a very good multi-purpose oil because it is very fine... i use it for a lot of things in the workshop... though im not too sure if it preserves well. So in your case, wd40 should work for sure... though i seriously doubt you will have trouble w/ sewing machien oil.

Further, it depends a lot on whether your blades are real, or wall hangers- living in new orleans, you will have a terrible humidity problem, but if you are talking about wall hangers, done up out of stainless steel, then it hardly matters and wd-40 will do the trick- also, some manufacturers of functional blades are now sealing their blades with laquer- Museum replicas (windlass steelcrafts) now seals most of their blades- Some tips from a blade dealer (me) on dealing with the demon rust on real blades:

if you are going to store a western blade in a leather sheath, be prepared for some darkening, and clean it at least every three months- a little talcum powder poured into the sheath also helps stop the blade from popping rust from the humidity
Katanas from reputable manufacturers (Bugei trading and paul chen come to mind)
should have a good enough seal to prevent a lot of the humidity based problems

For blades displayed w/o sheaths, ie on a wall, look into reniassance wax, or another microcrystaline preservative wax- you only tend to have to coat once a year - also dust your blades as dust wicks mosture and moisture is evil....

Do not handle the blade of a good weapon with bare fingers. it leaves corosive oils on the blade and results in rust and finger prints that darken and become indellible

- mirror finishes rust first, but few real swords have them- for real blades that get rusty, a scotchbrite and wd-40 will give you a good satin finish

- there is a product called a rust eraser that I am a true believer in- it really works, but will kill a mirror pollish.

once again the point is mostly moot if you are dealing with looks only wall hanger blades.........

I seem to recall using a product that smelled heavily of mineral spirits from Sentry Solutions - Tuff Cloth. Seems to do the trick.

wd-40 is the easiest and the best

Thanks for the advice everyone. I've been using WD-40 for the past few months and it's working great so far.

Tuff-Cloth is the best!

WD-40 will get sticky.