Do NOT attempt to clean, polish or sharpen the Japanese swords, it
will ruin them and any value they may have. A light coating of non-acidic
machine oil is all that is needed. If they have rusted, etc, they need expert
professional restoration. Amateur cleaning / polishing will likely ruin them.
With most swords, unless you are a professional conservator, do nothing
but lightly oil the blades. The motto here is the same as in the medical field:
first, do no harm.
Rich S
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Richard Stein, PhD
alchemyst@yahoo.com
The Japanese Sword Index
http://www.geocities.com/alchemyst/nihonto.htm
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