habaki rusted on.

[johnb]

I have recently moved to Indonesia and quickly found that, although the japaese were here in WW2 they didn't leave many swords behind after their departure.

However I did come across a very nice and rather rusty Kanmuri-otoshi (I think) Tanto. Whith some difficulty the fittings came off. However the very nice foiled habki is rusted on...and I mean on. Any ideas as how to get it off with the minimum damage would be good??

[dkirkpatrick]

I am sure different people have a variety of opinions on this but I will share my method I have used for doing this. I have a rubber jawed hobby vise but any vise will do. I wrap the nakago in thick cloth (like a long athletic sock or something). Its important to make it VERY thick as the pressure from the jaws can transmit through a lot of material and damage the nakago.

You have to make sure the jaws are tight as the blade will tend to rock with so much cloth in between. Before all of this I have dripped in oil around the habaki from underneath and above, anywhere you can get it to go. Don't be tempted to use WD40 or Liquid wrench as these may change the patina of the nakago. I then lightly tap the habaki on all sides but mostly from machi to machi with a small rubber mallet. Don't use anything hard like plastic or you will dent the foil.

OK, back to the vise mounted blade I then take a wood clothes pin apart and using one of the halves. The blade being mounted vertically of course I place the narrow flat edge against the top edge of the shinogi part of the habaki and give a few light taps on the end while holding the pin against the habaki blade junction. If you dont make sure its properly seated or try to hit too hard it will hop out and drag down the side of the habaki and probably strip off the foil. Just a couple of light taps and then move to the other side and repeat except this time tapping the ha part of the habaki as tapping it on any one side too long will cause it to tilt and wedge tighter than it already is. Just go very slow, just a few taps at a time and most important...check the blade frequently to make sure it is still firm in the vise as you don't want it coming out the bottom for the obvious reasons.

All of this of course presumes you are working on your average blade, if the piece has serious potential then I would of course recommend letting a professional polisher do this as they are the only ones truly qualified to do this. However this is what has worked for me after wrecking more than a few habaki over the years and if anybody has any other ideas I would be interested in hearing them too.