Sword cleaning - mistakes to avoid

[John Hsiya]

Hello,

I thought it would be helpful (and perhaps a bit therapeutic) to speak of some of the mistakes which can happen during attempts at preservation. I feel many of our mistakes go unspoken, but talking about it and providing examples can help others in the future.

There are many wonderful resources and topics for cleaning procedures already, but they do not cover every mistake or always provide visual aids.

I will begin with a mistake I've recently made:

While cleaning surface rust (oil, autosol, paper towel, 0000 steel wool) I have taken off more of the oxidation than I would have liked. It's only visible from certain odd angles (last photo), which is how I made the mistake.

So when cleaning or polishing - make sure to view your work from multiple angles as you go.

It may seem obvious but is easily overlooked by novices such as myself. I have never seen anyone mention it before.

If anyone has similar "I wish I had known that sooner" experiences, please feel free to share.

Best regards,
John