blade protection

[stuart a.]

hi
all
after much patience waiting for the right dagger at the right price i finally found a hj dagger im really happy with,are there any tips on how to protect it especially the blade to prevent it turning bad in yrs to come .
looked through the dagger preservation thread but all the products mentioned are from the us so was wondering are there any uk equivelants to these.
basically any tips would be gratefull appreciated
thanks all
stuart

[fugpaw]

I've collected blades for many years, most of them 100 to 300 years old - I have found that a very light smearing of lithium grease (of my own making) has protected them very well. You do need to check them regularly (personally I do this once a month). If the blades are in scabbards, then you must take into account what the scabbard is made of.

Mike

[stuart a.]

cheers mike
but is there any pproduct available to buy that does the job how do other members look after their edged items
stu

[evilmike]

Congrats again Stuart, get some pics up if you can! i give them a quick wipe over with some wd40 this lifts up so much dirt on the blade of hjs when i first get them, keep it away from the leather though! but if theres anything in the UK thats recommended iam all ears :P

[fugpaw]

Stuart and Mike, you should be able to get lithium grease from most engineering suppliers, you can also get it in a lot of bicycle shops and motoring suppliers (the evil Halfords might even supply it). Basically it's a grease that is generally used on bearings. The reason I use lithium grease is that it is non-corrosive and does not mark/stain the blade.

I tend to stay away from WD40 as it has various additives that I have seen to stain watered steel - not that this should be a problem on a TR blade as they definitely are not watered steel.

Mike

[evilmike]

thanks mike, to the garage then must be something in there if not to the evil halfrauds...

[Stahlhelm]

Just curious...What is watered-steel?

[fugpaw]

Stahlheim, watered steel is a process for used for manipulating steel it is sometimes referred to as Damascus steel. It is basically a process of "welding" and doubling several times (using Backsmithing techniches not mig ) hard and soft steel - the end effect being that the steel appears to have a water flowing look to it - a common exampe where you will see this is in Kris blades.

OK - I know the next question - what's a Kris blade - it is typically a Malayan knife.


Mike

[Stahlhelm]

Mike,

Thanks for the watered-steel definition.