The authoritative public forum
  for Metal Finishing since 1989
-----

Refinishing a sai (karate weapon)

 

Hi,

I am having a bit of a dilemma, and was hoping someone may have some advice. I study karate and have two pairs of sai that have developed a bit of rust. (They were not being taken care of...I know) I am not sure what process would be best to remove the rust, and then reapply some sort of finish to them. I suspect that a process used on a gun barrel may be similar, though I am not sure. Does anyone have any ideas? What materials shoudl I use to take down the rust, and then what to apply over? There is a wrapped cord about the handles of both, and taking that off is not an option (one pair is from Okinawa, and is very valuable to me). I guess I will leave it at that. I know how to use them, but not make them look better!

Thanks for any help.

Jeremy Lesniak
- Randolph, VT

If it were my sai, I would just use steel wool to abrade away and remove the rust. After cleaning them very well, I might use a commercial spray lacquer on them to protect them, or else store them in an oily cloth to inhibit further rusting.

Patricia Frisch
- Rochester, New York

---

When I was in the Military, we had a unique method of de-rusting our equipment. After a muddy exercize in the field we used to take our gun barrels into the hot showers with us, we'd wash them with soap & water and a wash cloth. You wouldn't believe how much surface rust would just wash right away. If there were residual spots of rust, then we would break out the fine (0000) grade #0000 steel wool ⇦this on eBay or Amazon [affil links] and lightly polish those areas with oil. (Of course we would dry them very carefully after the shower routine.)

Best of luck,

Jim Brent
- Silver Spring, Maryland

My black iron sai just started rusting for the first time in two years -- first time I stored them indoors but outside of the sai case which I guess has been helping to keep them dry -- and left two nice handle-tip rust spots on my Gi. I used this orange-based Goo Begone product that I normally use to clean tough house spots away and that seemed to do the trick to remove the rust. A master at our school who makes burnished steel sai (I have a pair of those, too) said he could have my black iron sai black chromed. I am thinking about it.

Jeffrey D. Modell
- Bingham Farms, Michigan