Uchiko according to Kojima Hiroshi

[NewB]

After last night uchiko has been banned from my house. I am glad I felt that it was scratching so I stopped. It is an inch of surface scratch, nothing serious but yet it happened.

 

Done and done

 

 

John

[Ken-Hawaii]

Common sense says that if you have a blade with active (red) rust, you need to use something that will stop/slow its progression. Depending on condition, I've used Bob's uchiko to spot-treat an area, until I can afford to get the blade in for a polish. Other than that, just remember that uchiko is the exact same material that a togishi uses to polish your blade. I'm not a togishi, so I don't use uchiko, except as above.

 

Case in point. A fellow iaidoka saved up for five years to buy her first Nihonto, & since I had advised her, she set up a Zoom call, so I could see her reaction when she first saw her blade. It was a nice old Bizento, & I was walking her through the details, when I had to break away to take a call. What I didn't know was that the seller had sent her a "cleaning kit," thinking he was doing something good, I'm sure.

 

Anyway, by the time I got back, she was whapping away with the uchiko ball, & didn't stop when I told her to, because she had seen Samurai doing the same thing, before they used their sword.. She wasn't going to use it that way, & I finally got loud enough to get her to stop. It didn't take her very long to be able to see the damage SHE had done, & she was in tears. There wasn't a lot more that I could say or do.

 

"We have met the enemy, and he is us"

Pogo

[Dave R]

20 hours ago, DoTanuki yokai said:

As microfiber can be made from a variety of materials, which microfiber would be recommended ?

 

 Buy your microfiber from an optician or a lens supplier, oddly enough they are really hot on the good stuff.... 

[Jamie]

well it does state not to use it on hadori. I’d bet the majority of swords are polished in hadori. 
I think the current thinking of microfiber and that’s it is still most relevant. 
 

[Greg F]

Its my %100 belief that uchiko is %100 damaging blades in polish unless done by a fully trained togi and the older I get the more this becomes obvious.