Katana maintenance

R

Raymond1000

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Oct 8, 2006
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Years ago I saw a Kurosawa Samurai flick. One scene showed the local warlord discussing current politics. While he did that, he was working on his katana with a powder puff thing. Carefully batting the miniature pom-pom against the sword blade, from tsuba to point. This was clearly some sort of maintenance-polishing-sharpening thing.

My question is, what was the guy doing? Spreading abrasive powder to polish the blade? Giving the blade a dry lube to make drawing it easier? Keeping time to the music on his Walkman? What?

Any information would be appreciated.
 
It's called a uchiko. It's a mild abrasive that's also designed to absorb the old oil before applying a new coat
 
Thanks.

They didn’t clean the old stuff off before applying new oil? I would think they would have a thick layer of gunk on the blade before long. Maybe this was like a minor tune up, in between full scale cleaning and polishing.
 
as noted it is a mild abrasive, used to polish the blade, yes it was not left in place before applying new oil.
 
They would use Washi (mulberry paper to wipe or hold a blade for examination) They would then use the Uchiko to remove the residual oil and since it was a mild abrasive it would help to keep oxidation from humidity down etc.

There are some good articles on Uchiko technique on the web. Some diehards I have spoken to have gone so far as to use Uchiko to "polish" a cloudly blade over a long period of time to bring out the activity.

Also..be very careful where you get your Uchiko. Its powdered Uchigumori stone that is leftover from the polishing that a Togi does when a sword is new or is being polished. Some uncrupulous types will put talc in the ball. Fred Lohman owns Japanese-swords.com and can hook you up good.

BTW, the oil, a mineral and clove oil concoction is called Choji.
 
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Oh, and yes, the light mineral oil is all you really need, the clove is for scent.
 
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