Thread: Japanese Sword Oil and Paper

Originally Posted by D.Sweet

I wish i could locate some factual information regarding this but i am coming up a bit short.
I would imagine that there is not much difference between them. Highly refined baby oil, what i believe is called cosmetic grade mineral oil, is a light oil and extremely pure. The only other factor would be what chemical they use as a fragrance and how it reacts with metal. But i have never witnessed any adverse effects.

The only real question when oiling carbon steel is if, and how, the oil reacts with the metal. For example, pure choji oil actually promotes oxidization and can turn steel purplish but then again this is more of an essential oil and not really ment for this purpose. Mineral oil is the safest bet and the higher the grade the better.

As others have pointed out choji oil is actually mineral oil with a small amount of clove oil added. Applying pure clove oil to any blade would be a very bad idea.

No, choji is clove oil. What is called choji oil in sword swinging circles is mineral oil with a drop or two of clove oil. pure clove oil will cause oxidation as Mr. Sweet informs.

Historically this could not have been used as mineral oil is a product of modern petroleum industry.

As OS told us some time back pure tsubaki will get gummy over time. It made me wonder if adding some choji might help to preserve it, as I never believed the old tale that choji was added so the cook would not confuse cooking oil with sword oil-

@ the OP Iaidoka I think your practice is a bit on the extreme. those papers are not cheap, but since you enjoy the ritual I cannot say it's bad, just over the top.

I like tsubaki; it is not cheap nor do i find it superior to any other plain old oil. I like where it comes from. The industry may have a large demand for cosmetic hair care etc, but I enjoy having some and the little support i can add even using it sparingly makes me happy.