How to care about your edged weapons.

Care can be divided in two parts:

1. Preventive care
2. Refurbishing

Preventive care

The most important single basis is the environments in the area were you keep your edged weapons. The climate is not allowed to shift, but should be kept at a steady temperature around 20 °C and the humidity should not exceed 50%.

Place your edged weapons in a way not to be touched by others and use white gloves when you handle them.

The most common damage is corrosion or rust. To prevent rusting you preferably cover your edged weapons with oil of paraffin. This has been tried by the Swedish Army museum for more than ½ a century. Modern oils have been tested but they have not proved themselves better.

Avoid touching steel with your bare fingers because they remove the protecting surface of oil and beside they add humidity to the steel. The fingerprint will become darker by time and this is the beginning of the corrosion.

Refurbishing

Refurbishing should be done by experts, but if you want to try it yourself at your own risk use only your hands and no machines. Use fine emery cloth or steel wool (000) to eliminate all scratches. Work very carefully and slowly. Start solving the rust with paraffin oil. Work carefully afterwards. Be extra careful when you come a etchings. These should really be handled by experts!