There are various things that people use to clean swords, ranging from stainless steel replicas to real antiques. Care must be used in selecting the right care procedure for your sword, or else your sword will suffer damage due to unadvertised abbrasives within the cleaning agents, or metals in the oils.

Human stupidity, negligence, and finally pride have been the cause of the damage of many very precious historical relics. As a student of history, we must do everything we can to protect our swords so that future generations can enjoy them.

Now, some of the information herein is geared for real swords - those that are made from low-alloy high carbon steel. But there are some care tips too for stainless steel decorative swords.

WD40 - Stay away from any all-purpose lubricants, etc. WD40 may be great for many purposes, but not for real authentic swords. It contains kerosene and fish oil, which evaporates quickly and leaves your sword unprotected to rust!

Flitz - It's essentially a metal polish and polishes most metals to a gleam. But use it only once for those harder-to-remove stains on your stainless steel blade. Contrary to public opinion, Flitz contains a mild abbrasive, and thus should never be used on a real Japanese sword!

Flitz International Ltd. (Worldwide)
414-534-5898
Customer Service: 1-800-558-8611

Japanese Choji Clove Oil - This is by far the best. After all, the Japanese have used it for centuries. The clove oil's primary purpose is to prevent rusting, as low alloy plain carbon steel can rust from water, moisture, blood, etc. If there is rusting or damage to a traditional Japanese katana, you should find a Japanese polisher's opinion. See here for more information.

Windex - This is good for stainless steel to get those fingerprints off. But then again, why are those fingerprints on the blade in the first place? When I show friends my swords, they have a tendency to touch the blade and test their fingers on the edge to see if its sharp. This is an unprofessional way of determining the quality of a blade's edge, by the way. So I say, "please don't tough the blade when you hold it" and they're usually pretty good about it. Some people's skin oils are more acidic than others, and in the long run, can even stain a stainless steel blade! So in that case, maybe use some Flitz to get it off.

Gun Oil - Get some Remmington Gun Oil, since it's been around for a while. If you really want to go hi-tech, you could try a silicone-based oil, but stay away from anything that claims to be an all-purpose agent, e.g. WD-40 (see commentary above).