Advice on damaged katana blade?

webgrifter · Post by **webgrifter** » Mon May 30, 2005 2:20 am

Hi Everyone,
I am happy to have found this forum, being a blade-oholic. (bought my first excellent Italian stiletto about 40yrs ago for $10). Most recently I acquired a cheap katana through a fund raising raffle at a martial arts shin-dig.

It is cheap and wasn't very sharp, so when an acquaintance offered to sharpen it "like a razor", I just handed it to him. Well, he brought it back awhile ago and it is all scratched up. Looks like he ground on it with everything but the proper tools and it's utterly defaced. The guy has the blade a little sharper now, but it is so ugly from the 1000's of surface nicks and scratches. Whatever he was doing apparently "got away" from him and would nick the blade. This is just tons of superficial scrating into the highly polished area or the blade. No deep gouges.

Can it be taken to some sort of shop and be sand blasted or worked on with some kind of belt driven buffer to restore the lustre of the blade, or is that impossible now?

Thanks for reading and any advice!

Webgrifter

Vagrant · Post by **Vagrant** » Mon May 30, 2005 3:41 am

The Western "appetite" for Katanas has had one result. They are imported from everywhere. The main objective is to undersell "the other guy". Because of this there is not much effort spent making them good, just shiny. I have seen "Katanas" that were made of chrome plated aluminum or chrome plated stainless, that's best used for purposes not thought about. Attempts at sharpening these Katanas can reveal their weaknesses in both the hardness of the metal and the plating quality.
I saw one Katana that was stainess plated with copper that was then plated with chrome. The plating was done so poorly that you could peel it with your fingernail. Any attempt at buffing this device would have been a disaster. Attempts at sharpening would have failed since the steel was so soft that as sharpness increased the edge would fold over causing more sharpening, causing fold over, causing more sharpening, causing fold over, causing --- [you get the picture]

Without seeing the sword it's hard to tell how much of the problem was caused by really bad sharpening and how much was due to the quality [or lack of it] of the plating or steel. And you'd have to know that to decide "what's next"

The higher the quality of the steel used the more likely it can be [at least partially] salvaged.

webgrifter · Post by **webgrifter** » Mon May 30, 2005 3:56 am

Thanks for posting Vagrant. I do know what you mean. You have pretty well described most of the junk you can buy for $69+ from catalogs. This one may have been super cheap or moderately priced..not sure.

I am sitting here with the blade exposed. It seems to be a highly polished stainless as the sharpening efforts reveal no other layers, only duller from the sh**ty sharpening job. It's not soft by any means and is actually quite sharp and would easily lop off a limb with a moderate cut.

I'm pretty convinced that it's more than able to 1. take an even better edge 2. withstand any rehabilitation efforts. It's a shame that a pretty and sharp katana was ruined (in regard to showing off).

How about it? Anymore ideas? I don't care if it comes out with a matte like finish w/o a million little nicks on the blade.

Thanks!

Webgrifter

Vagrant · Post by **Vagrant** » Mon May 30, 2005 4:41 am

Progressively finer grades of sandpaper.
Progressively finer grades of scotchbrite.
Progressively finer grades of various buffing compounds.
Which ever you are most familiar with, if using buffing compounds use a different wheel on the buffer for each compound, and BE CAREFUL. A buffer will "cheerfully" try to hurt/kill you if you fail to give it your undivided attention

A buffer does not have any concept of mercy, regard it as being "out to get you" if it gets a chance. It can also easily overheat the blade and draw the temper

McGyver · Post by **McGyver** » Fri Jun 03, 2005 12:03 am

Good suggestions Vagrant, as always. Personally, I would stick with the sandpaper. Its the easiest to use, easiest to obtain, and less likely to mess things up. You can go to the hardware store and get it in very fine grits, like 1500 on up. I have found that 2000 grit produces an almost mirror like finish, but it takes alot of paper and a lot of work. Use a rubber sanding block to keep the paper at an even angle, and the rubber will conform to the blade. Aside from that, you could send it to me, and I could do it for ya.

Benkei · Post by **Benkei** » Fri Jun 03, 2005 10:20 am

Hi McGyver.
Really sorry to hear about your blade, I guess we have all met them, the neighbourhood expert, full of confidence, you *think* oh, they know more than me, yep, I'll let them have a go

Firstly if it's stainless steel then it's best kept as a wallhanger!! end of story.

For doing tameshigiri (cutting test) you want to get yourself a carbon steel bladed katana. If you do get a traditionally forged shinken, remeber, because the egde is differentially tempered, if you try sharpening the way some peeps sharpen regular knives your going to take chips out of the edge.
This is course does not solve your present problem. Depending on the depth of scratches, I would suggest a polishing paste, the one Ive used for over 30 years is Auto-sol, it's an automotive polish, made specifically for ss, and car trim, it's quite abrasive.
on your side of the pond I *think* the equivalent is never dull??, but Im not certain of that.

kind regards
Bill

Marvinsson · Post by **Marvinsson** » Sat Jun 04, 2005 12:15 am

I wouldn't worry about sharpening it until you find out what it is. Attempting to cut with a cheap katana can have a deadly outcome. The blade could break or come loose, and then you have a 2-3 foot projectile! There is a video going around of a QVC show in which a guy was demonstrating how tough a katana was when it broke and wound up sticking in his chest! His partner took over the show and he was taken to the ER.

Again, don't worry about how sharp it is until you know what it is! There are practice swords that are sold unsharpened for a reason. They are for practice, not for cutting. If you have one of those, it may not be meant to take an edge.

Do your homework here. A good place for info is Sword Forum International. The guys there know what they're talking about when it comes to swords.

Good luck!

Benkei · Post by **Benkei** » Sat Jun 04, 2005 11:00 am

Here's the now famous video that Marvinsson mentioned.

http://www.punchbaby.com/media/gitfakt/ ... /sword.wmv

As I said:

Firstly if it's stainless steel then it's best kept as a wallhanger!! end of story.

kind regards
Bill

Vagrant · Post by **Vagrant** » Sat Jun 04, 2005 11:14 pm

For the "hell of it", several times I have gone to the dump, found an old rusty piece of steel I liked, taken it home and forged it into a blade. After hardening and tempering it has cut in half stainless knives

Benkei · Post by **Benkei** » Sat Jun 04, 2005 11:20 pm

Vagrant wrote:For the "hell of it", several times I have gone to the dump, found an old rusty piece of steel I liked, taken it home and forged it into a blade. After hardening and tempering it has cut in half stainless knives

If you can find yourself a decent piece of straight spring steel, it will make one motha of a blade

kind regards
Bill