The Care and Feeding of Your Weapon

The weapons crafted for you by Arms & Armor have all the attributes of the original pieces they are fashioned after.

The care and maintenance of these items needs to be authentic as well. The steel blades should not be stored in their leather sheaths. Leather attracts moisture which may condense on the blade when a change in temperature occurs. Any steel weapon should be stored in a dry area after a thorough oiling with a medium viscosity oil, such as gun oil. If the piece is on display, it should be wiped down after any handling. Our skin oil is rather corrosive, and will leave rusty fingerprints within a few hours. Dust may allow oxygen to penetrate the oil to the steel and thereby corrode your weapon, so a periodic dusting and re-oil is a good idea. Please choose a wipe on oil, as many spray-on oils will evaporate quickly. As with any collection, regular maintenance will help to ensure that your weapon remains at its best.

If the item is to be displayed for long periods of time and not touched we would recommend a paste wax finish be applied to the steel components. Renaissance wax is a great product and most paste wax for cars will work as well. The key is to allow no oxygen to get to the elements to start corrosion.

The leather scabbards may be treated with neatsfoot, mink oil, or any good quality leather cleaner/preservative. The leather grips should be allowed to age naturally. The wire wrapped grips with a minimum of use should stay clean it is only when they are exposed to moisture and left to sit that they may develop rust.

Your weapon will be sharpened, if appropriate to that item, with the same type of grind on the cutting edge as the originals carried. This is based on examples of each type of weapon that have survived to today. The exception being pieces requested as rebated or stage edged. Swords, daggers, and especially heavy axes will have a thicker chisel like edge, as compared to a modern kitchen or hunting knife. This allowed the edges to take more abuse before chipping or breaking, while still having a sharp edge.

One should not use a sword against hard objects such as a tree or concrete. While this looks good in the movies, it will destroy any real sword no matter what it is made of or how it was made. These are tools designed by people over thousands of years with one basic purpose, and though gruesome, that purpose is to inflict harm on ones opponent. They were not designed to (or ever could for that matter) hack down a forest or cleave an anvil in half.

If you have any questions about your weapon please give us a call and we will try our best to answer all your needs. 612-331-6473

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