My Sword Maintenance Troubles

by Jaime Flor
(San Diego, California)

So back in '07, I bought my 1st real sword, a Kampilan; the infamous sword that Chief Lapu Lapu used to dispatch Spanish explorer Ferdinand Magellan. Unfortunately, the sword store that ordered it for me, they never mentioned anything about maintenance. So my friends, and I we did stupid things like play baseball w/ the sword as the bat, and our friends lemon's as baseball. We mostly used my aluminum Katana, but I couldn't help but try it with my Kampilan. Then my friend, he'd cut through the leaves of our friends tree. I think I also cut through several boxes in my closet. It was mostly with reverse side of the blade. Anyhow, a few years went by, and I didn't really notice anything, because I'm a musician, and I was busy playing music. Recently, after discovering TFW, I found a Bicolano sword called a Minasbad. Being 1/2 Bicolanao 1/2 Tagalog, I wanted to get 2 swords to represent my mother, and fathers family. This is when I learned about sword maintenance, and saw what had happened to my Kampilan. It's not rusty red, but I have a bunch of black spots on the front part of the blade. Ron from TFW told me to use Renaissance Wax Polish, and his website recommends using vegetable oil every month, but for some reason, on my Minasbad, I was getting some light surface rust. My sword seemed to not like the fact that I wasn't cleaning it thoroughly. So I used sponges, which was a bad idea but it worked, because the rust came off, but now I have some surface scratches. So instead, I am now using microfiber towels, and I'm going to give the Metal Glo a chance, to see it'll get rid of my scratches. Btw, the website Microfiber Wholesale seems to have good microfiber towels. As for Minasbad, aside from the scratches, and some very subtle dark spots in 1 small area, it's so shiny that it's blinding in the light. My Kampilan, I believe that it's rusted permanently, but I don't think it'll be getting worst. Here are some photos of the damaged spots on my Kampilan. Luckily, it still functions.