Katana Questions

[prings]

How often should you clean a stainless steel katana with the powder ball, if its a wall hanger piece? How often if you use it? When you hand a katana over to someone is there a traditional way to do so? Hand placement and what not.

[Manuka]

How often should you clean a stainless steel katana with the powder ball, if its a wall hanger piece? Never, the powder ball polishes off old oil, and in the case of a stainless the etched hamon.

How often if you use it? n/a

When you hand a katana over to someone is there a traditional way to do so? yes

Hand placement and what not.

Vertically, with the blade facing yourself, right hand holding the sword toward the end of the tsuka
allowing the receiver to take the sword with their hand just below the tsuba

[prings]

What about if the Katana is still in the scabbard? If your not suppost to use the powder on a steel blade then what kind do you use it on? My sensei told me never to use the powder on my aluminum Iaido blade.

[Neil Gendzwill]

If it's stainless you shouldn't need to do anything. It's just a decoration. Hopefully you aren't actually using it for anything more than that.

As far as presentation, Manuka described how to pass a sword that is not in the saya. If it is in the saya, usually it is passed horizontally. I expect tsuka to your left, edge towards yourself but that may be one of those things that varies with ryu and/or situation.

[Peter West]

The powder ball (uchiko) is a mild abrasive, it is for use on folded steel forged blades (usually referred to as "shinken" though this is ambiguous because some people call any sharpened blade a shinken, and some people call a forged blade an iaito if that's what it was made and purchased for)
Anyway, back to the story:
After practice the old oil should be cleaned off with a soft dry cloth or tissue. This removes a lot of the finger prints and dust and whatever has stuck to the oil. The blade should then be coated in a light powdering of uchiko and wiped in long light strokes with a cloth from the habaki to the kissaki. This powder gets into the "grain" of the folded steel and ensures that all of the old oil is completely removed. It can also be used locally on new rust spots that might appear, especially if it is not cleaned after a practice, or if the oil gets thin on a long day's training).

Once this has been done the blade should be re-oiled with clan oil, usually from a small piece of cloth that is kept wet in a sealed container for this purpose.

There are variations, but this, in essence, is the main procedure.

As has been stated above, Uchiko is abrasive and should not be used on coated alloy mogito or in unfolded stainless steel blades, neither of which will rust anyway.

[Michael Hodge]

How often should you clean a stainless steel katana with the powder ball, if its a wall hanger piece?

Corrosion isn't a factor for your stainless steel kazarito, so neither uchiko nor oil are necessary. Occasionally clean your sword with as pure a sample of isopropyl (rubbing) alchohol as you could find. It's not uncommon that you'd find 98 or even 99 percent concentrations at your local drug store.

Michael Hodge