Sword Maintenance Kit

The maintenance kit comes in a wooden box containing powder, oil and paper to clean the blade. This maintenance kit is very useful when it comes to the obligatory sword cleaning. Should you not maintain your sword or maintain it in a improper way, finger prints and other stains will appear on the metal which will be very hard to remove.

	The Oil is used to prevent the sword from rusting. Your sword is going to rust when it is permanently exposed to humidity. Oil prevents your sword from rusting as it covers the blade and thus seals off the air. As oil dries up after some time it is advisory to apply new oil at least once a month.
	The powder ball (uchiko) has two functions: it removes the remaining oil on the blade and enhances the blade surface when used in combination with the nuguigami.
	The cleaning paper (nuguigami) is special, high-quality, thick, Japanese paper. It is used to remove remaining oil from the blade and (in combination with the uchiko) to polish the blade.
	The brass hammer (mekuginuki) is used to take out the mounting pegs (mekugi) in order to disassemble the sword. The hammer head can be screwed off.

Maintenance instructions:

Please clean and maintain your sword after each use. It doesn´t matter whether you used it for Iaido training or tameshigiri. Should you not maintain your sword it is going to rust sooner or later.

First of all, remove the old, remaining oil from the blade with the nuguigami thoroughly. Be careful to hold the edge away from you.

Secondly, use the uchiko and apply the powder to both sided of the blade. Next, wipe away the white powder with the nuguigami. This way you will clean your blade and remove any remaining oil. Repeat this step until the blade is thoroughly clean.

In the end, apply fresh oil to the blade with a cloth. Please make sure that both sides of the blade will be covered equally from tip to guard. There should be a thin oil film all over the blade.

You should disassemble your sword about every 3 or 4 month to maintain your tang. The blade maintenance guidelines apply for the tang as well.

The mekuginuki is not included in this cleaning set!