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Post by Adrian Jordan on May 14, 2011 5:59:44 GMT
Hey. I took out my Cheness Kaze the other day and I swear I see a very, very slight bend in the blade, less than a degree. It doesn't seem to originate anywhere that I can see, so I think that maybe it bent at about the habaki on a bad cut at some point. I checked the repair section and didn't find anything. I was going to send it to Nihonzashi, but there is a notice saying that no new repair projects are being taken at this time. I'm not sure if this is a necessary fix realistically, but it sure is to my relatively obsessive need to have everything as perfect as possible. What is the best way to get it straight again?
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Greg
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Post by Greg on May 14, 2011 6:21:14 GMT
As odd as it may sound... let it sunbathe for a day or two.
No joke, one of my blades took a VERY slight set a couple years back. I did some research and found that another guy had just left his out in the sun for a day and it was fixed. The thought behind this was that the metal, after heat treat, has a position that it wants to be in. When it take a bend after that, then there are parts of the metal that are under stress. Let the heat from the sun just warm up the blade and it SOMETIMES fixes a minor set.
Other then that, I'd tell you to just take it over a knee. That's how I've fixed every set I've ever put into a blade.
But I'd try the sun option first.
Edit: Oh, and you can usually see where it took the set by finding a known flat object, like a carpenters drywall square, and laying your blade along side it. The area where you start to see the gap will be where you'll need to throw your knee... or use one of these fancy jigs that someone will tell you about. Well... I might tell you about it, if I can find the original post on the old forum.
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Post by Adrian Jordan on May 14, 2011 6:46:33 GMT
That sunbathing thing is amazing. I found a piece of the poplar I bought to test out my tsuka making skills(terrible,) and used that to check the bend. It was about a centimeter or so, which is larger than I thought. I got impatient and laid it between two pieces of wood, which were padded by folded towels, and just put some weight on it. I got the bend almost completely out, but I will also use the sun bathing to see if I can get the rest out. Assuming I get any sun tomorrow, a big "if" here in N.California. Also, do you think a short stint in the oven may work?
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Greg
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Post by Greg on May 14, 2011 13:43:48 GMT
Eh, I'd avoid the oven.
I think the reason that sunbathing works is because it only brings the blade up to the LOW 100's. Think something like the hood of a car sitting out in the sun, what is that? 120 degrees? But what MIGHT make the trick work is that it is held at that temperature for a few hours. So a short shock of heat wouldn't help it as much as a long exposure.
But all of that is speculation as I have no metaurgical knowledge on the "whys and hows"
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Post by Adrian Jordan on May 14, 2011 20:49:39 GMT
Alright, nix the oven. What about Voodoo?
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Greg
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Post by Greg on May 15, 2011 6:36:55 GMT
Who do?
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Post by Adrian Jordan on May 15, 2011 6:41:20 GMT
That you do, of course.
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Greg
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Post by Greg on May 15, 2011 7:24:23 GMT
Do what? Ok, obviously you aren't gonna play along with my Labryinth game. So I'll go on without you Remind me of the babe! What babe? The babe with the power! What power? The power of Voodoo!
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Post by chrisperoni on May 15, 2011 7:47:03 GMT
Where along the blade did the bend end up being? I wonder if combining the sun method and your poplar jig would work better or if the wood/towels will end up absorbing too much of the heat?
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Post by Adrian Jordan on May 15, 2011 9:19:48 GMT
I don't know, I'd fathom a guess at about between the middle of the blade to about the top third. I can't see it exactly, but it's somewhere in there. Beginning of blade at habaki [--------------------------------( ----- Right about here-----)---------------D Tip of blade.
It's been pretty gloomy weathered around here. So what I did was set the bare blade between 2 blocks of poplar, cushioned by wrapped up towels. I then wrapped a towel around my hand and simply used my arms to post and bring down weight on the affected area. It seems to have worked almost completely. I bet if I put a little more OOMPH into it, I could straighten it, seeing as how I was terrified to breaking the blade doing this. So, yeah, the sun thing wont go around here. Too cold, not enough sun. I wonder if letting it sit in a bathtub full of super-hot water for a few hours would work?
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Greg
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Post by Greg on May 15, 2011 13:43:44 GMT
Eh, if you broke the blade by fixing a set, then the blade wasn't worth having in the first place.
Not sure about the hot water, I doubt that you could get the water hot enough and keep it there for that long... unless you had one of tho's crazy japanese hot tubs.
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Post by chrisperoni on May 15, 2011 15:12:17 GMT
water might give you more of a problem with rust than it's worth
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TomK
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Post by TomK on May 15, 2011 15:22:12 GMT
ok this is a Cheness Kaze we are talking about here. I had one of those and loved it for a long time and well I love things hard so my kaze took many sets in its time.
if we were talking about a sword with more of a spring temper I'd say throw it in the tub with the hottest water you can get in it out of the tap (that's usually about 120 or so but you can play with the setting on your hot water tank if you like) but since it is a Kaze don't do that. it wouldn't hurt it or anything it would just be a waste of your time. the Kaze has enough soft steel in it that it won't spring back. this is because it is DH and anything behind (as in towards the mune) the hamon is not springy. what I always did when I had a slight bend was to wrap a towel around the blade up by the tip so I could grip it there safely and then also grip it with my other hand on the nakago (tang) then place one flat side on my knee/thigh push the tip and tang down slightly and slide the blade back and forth across my leg to place a moderate force across the entire area I thought was bent.
just do me a favor and be VERY CAREFUL. it would be really easy to let it flip a little and start cutting your leg; don't do that. one thing that will help you not do that is not pushing real hard. the harder you push the more likely you are to lose control of it so take it easy and be gentle. you can always add a little more force if you need it. also if you give it too much you can over correct and end up with a bend in the other direction. I've done that.
as far as water giving you rust problems, I wouldn't worry about it. I wash my swords with water all the time. all you gotta do is give them a good wipe down after with WD-40 or rubbing alcohol before oiling and you'll be good to go. I prefer the alcohol because if you don't get all the WD-40 off it can cut your oil.
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Greg
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Post by Greg on May 17, 2011 8:32:10 GMT
Oh, and instead of using a knee, I've also had good results from placing a towel over the edge of a counter/deck railing/table/any hard surface and having a subsitute knee to work with.
However, I've found that I can feel the metal much better if I use my knee.
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Post by bas1620 on Jun 4, 2011 12:51:16 GMT
You could add semi-boiling water every 30 minutes or so as long its okay to raise the temp to 150ish.
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Post by Kim Taylor on Jun 5, 2011 17:26:11 GMT
As someone who's been around sword polishers (we used to run a school) I'll vouch for the over the knee advice here. I've also made wooden implements to take a twist out of a blade, there's a lot more bending and twisting and hitting with wooden mallets to fix bends in even expensive blades than folks might think.
And yes, polishers usually do have cuts and nicks all over their hands.
Kim.
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Post by Adrian Jordan on Jun 5, 2011 19:20:13 GMT
Thanks for the advice everyone. Hey kim, are you the "Kuramono ProSwords" Proswords?
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Post by Kim Taylor on Jun 5, 2011 19:51:46 GMT
I guess so.
Kim.
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Post by Adrian Jordan on Jun 5, 2011 22:01:09 GMT
Those are some nice swords, I hope to be able to afford one in the future.
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