Laadli Fauj Posted January 25, 2010 Report Share Posted January 25, 2010 Polishing, Cleaning, Sharpening Puratan Shastar? how is any of this to be done, if at all? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maha Singh Posted January 25, 2010 Report Share Posted January 25, 2010 Depends on the state of the shastar before you start polishing, use emery paper and water for cleaning and a whetstone for sharpening. Sharpening is not easy and comes with allot of practise, to put a proper edge on a weapon should take you a few hours. If youve never put an edge on, start with a small kard to appreciate the best angles which generate the best burr for cutting. Not all metals hold good edges, so dont waste ur time on trying to sharpen a poor quality shastar to only find it loses its edge as soon as u put it in the miyan. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kaljug Posted January 25, 2010 Report Share Posted January 25, 2010 Polishing, Cleaning, Sharpening Puratan Shastar? how is any of this to be done, if at all? See here: http://www.sikhawareness.com//index.php?showtopic=12111 If it's historically valuable or you have invested a lot of money in it, I would get it professionally sharpened by someone who knows what they are doing. At the very least, you should practice for several months on more modern blades as veer Maha Singh has suggested to get the technique down. Invest in a few Japanese waterstones if you are going to take this seriously 400-600 grit for removing nicks and initial grinding, and 1000 and 6000 grit for sharpening and polishing. Don't use machines to do the sharpening or you risk damaging the temper of the blade. For cleaning, get some micromesh cloth. They come in everything between 1500-12000 grit, and the higher grades will ensure that you do not take away much of the metal at all. After that, clean and oil your shastar every week or so. K. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Laadli Fauj Posted January 25, 2010 Author Report Share Posted January 25, 2010 satt aa, thanks. i started doing a bit of work on my 3foot taksali tegha (new), but also have a few puratan shastar that i was wondering about as well. they're in pretty good condition though 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kaljug Posted January 25, 2010 Report Share Posted January 25, 2010 satt aa, thanks. i started doing a bit of work on my 3foot taksali tegha (new), but also have a few puratan shastar that i was wondering about as well. they're in pretty good condition though Beautiful shastar! Do they have an edge on them? How sharp are they currently? If they have an edge with no nicks so that you don't have to do any grinding, you can start with a 1000 grit japanese waterstone then move on to a 6000 grit waterstone using a nagura stone with the higher grit stone to create and maintain the slurry. It's almost impossible to muck up the edge with such fine stones, but I'd buy a few straight razors from ebay on which to practice first. Straight razors are the easiest thing to sharpen as they have no secondary bevel. K. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Laadli Fauj Posted January 25, 2010 Author Report Share Posted January 25, 2010 the khanjar and the kora have a bit of an edge, nothing toooo sharp tho, but its there. kard has no edge at all so using the stones wont mess the wootz pattern? im paranoid to do anything to my khanjar, shes toooo gorgeous 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kaljug Posted January 26, 2010 Report Share Posted January 26, 2010 the khanjar and the kora have a bit of an edge, nothing toooo sharp tho, but its there. kard has no edge at all so using the stones wont mess the wootz pattern? im paranoid to do anything to my khanjar, shes toooo gorgeous In that case, I'd get the khanjar sharpened by someone who specialises in maintaining antique edged weapons so that you don't damage the blade geometry. You can try looking in the phone book or just search online for someone who was trained on katanas in Japan in your area. There's not that many of them, and they can charge quite high prices, but it is worth all the money if they are skilled. Once that is done, all you would need to do is strop the blade regularly and maybe put it to a 6000+ grit stone now and again to maintain the edge. The wootz pattern is part of the steel, veer ji. It won't disappear until the whole blade disappears. Just don't try to grind down the whole surface. I think you should buy some cheapish knives of good steel and practice on them until you are confident enough in your technique to move on to your more prized blades. K. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matheen Posted January 26, 2010 Report Share Posted January 26, 2010 For regular cleaning and polishing, you can get Japanese Katana cleaning kits off ebay that are cheap and work well. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maha Singh Posted January 26, 2010 Report Share Posted January 26, 2010 If you clean or polish the blade, the woots pattern will dissapear so its not visible to the eye. The pattern will need to be etched out again with chemicals for it to become visible again. Use a clamp or a vice to set the blade secure to a bench so your edge will always have the same angle. Khanjars dont really need an edge because they are not cutting weapons, they are more peircing, the edge angle will be too high for it to get the cutting ability of say a kard or pesh kabz. The Jamdhars edge should be on the "Hathi Kan" (elephants ear) and near the top, again these do not really require much of an edge because it is more of a bludgening weapon than a cutting one. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kaljug Posted January 26, 2010 Report Share Posted January 26, 2010 If you clean or polish the blade, the woots pattern will dissapear so its not visible to the eye. The pattern will need to be etched out again with chemicals for it to become visible again. What is traditionally used for etching? Lemon juice? K. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest zulu Posted January 26, 2010 Report Share Posted January 26, 2010 Khanjars dont really need an edge because they are not cutting weapons, they are more peircing, the edge angle will be too high for it to get the cutting ability of say a kard or pesh kabz. The Jamdhars edge should be on the "Hathi Kan" (elephants ear) and near the top, again these do not really require much of an edge because it is more of a bludgening weapon than a cutting one. Nice reply 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maha Singh Posted January 26, 2010 Report Share Posted January 26, 2010 What is traditionally used for etching? Lemon juice? K. I dont really have much knowledge on etching as ive never experimented with it, but different types of chemicals ie nitrates and sulphates etc would be used depending on the type of steel and type of weapon. Different chemicals react differently with each steel. Im guessing the same forms of chemicals would have been used traditionally, but i doubt it would have been something as simple as just lemon juice. What the Chemicals do is change the top layer of the blades colour by reacting with the metal - so where you have pure iron the blade goes white and where you have different steels they will turn into a blackish or brownish colour. With the metals all twisted and intertwined it creates the pattern which you see on genuine wootz blades. When you clean the blade the top layer which has been etched loses its pattern because the chemicals which are used to react with the blade are "washed" away. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Laadli Fauj Posted January 26, 2010 Author Report Share Posted January 26, 2010 vinegar is supposed to be good for etching i think 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matheen Posted January 26, 2010 Report Share Posted January 26, 2010 If you clean or polish the blade, the woots pattern will dissapear so its not visible to the eye. Not if it's genuine Wootz or Damascus. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
savinderpalsingh Posted April 23, 2013 Report Share Posted April 23, 2013 can someone please make a tutorial video on this and upload on youtube? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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