Monday, September 7, 2009

Cleaning my Knives and other pointy stuff


They say that when you try one out at a shop and it cuts you, you have to buy it. "Naghahanap ng amo" kumbaga, meaning you have to tame it. These are the ones which have cut me at one point in time through the years.

I don't do this annually, I do this mostly on a whim. Mostly they're part of this collection, with a few stragglers out there given away (one balisong pambutas-piso given to Jo, one mini-balisong to Bambi and one throwing knife to Jon before he entered the US Armed Forces. How he got it past US customs I don't know).

Today I cleaned them. Metal polish to remove the grime and a coat of vaseline to prevent rusting. They're all still in good condition at the moment, save for a few rust and discoloration spots on some of the local balisong: the bone, the wood, the all-brass and the blue dragon. The three Rostfrei stainless steel balisong (butterfly knives) are still okay (I love those three).

The stainless steel samurai-style hunting knife, the cheap and slim stainless steel hunting knife, and the dual mini fantasy knives are still spotless. The wood and americana folding knives and the numerous shuriken are all okay. The lighter switchblade (from Cecil) has a few rust spots while the stainless steel black switchblade (from Bambi) is still okay. 

The ones that rusted the most were the old heavy WWII hunting knife (got it from my dad, probably belonged to my grandfather), my Dad's belt-buckle knife, the southern kris-type dagger and the northern itak / barong (?). Will probably sand them down over the weekend.

Haven't checked the katana and the ornate Indonesian sword yet.

I have a yoyo collection. Yoyo string-making is zen. I also have a weapons collection. Knife-cleaning is zen...

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