[TheDoctor]

This is one way in which your constant 100% humidity is a blessing. I took a vacation this summer came back and my shinai had dried out. Three of them broke the first time I used them.

No, the ONLY way.

[fubyFrery]

..snip..
Just one note of warning: DO NOT USE CHOJI OIL ON SHINAI! Choji oil is clove oil, used to maintain Japanese swords. It smells nice, but it is acutally highly toxic.

Actually Choji oil is 90+% pure mineral oil with a very small percentage of clove oil to give it a scent.
Neither mineral oil nor clove oil is toxic, but mineral oil is a laxative.
Pure clove oil will rust a blade.

The clove oil was added in old Japan so the Samurai wife could differentiate the cooking oil from the sword oil and not give Mr. Samurai the runs.

Try to imagine keiko after a pound of epsom salts.
Who gets to clean the dojo floor?

Oh yes, another Olive oil on the shinai

[JAMES PIETERSE]

Organic oils such as olive oils will oxidize over time, causeing it to "solidify" and produce a hard protective coating ...

Mineral oils (or baby oil) do not oxidize, and hence will remain an oil.

Actually, the point of oiling wood in general (furniture, bokuto, shinai) is to protect the wood from the effects of humidity (warpage) by excluding water. Linseed/tung ('organic') oils protect the wood by forming that nice polymerized layer either at or just within the surface. Mineral oil does not form a protective layer and, in fact, is not retained over time (read: messy). I'd mention that some oils (olive and other cooking oils) tend to go rancid with time, though I suppose that the odor of linseed and tung isn't nothing, either.


John

[MauroDarudo]

I use lemon oil.

It's light, smells good, and doesn't stale.

[tevyrefficy]

i use light machine oil, does anyone know if there is a problem with that?

[iouiyyut]

So nobody uses wood oil on their shinai?

It's strange, but I thought that the kind of oil you'd use for wood furniture would be what people would often use for their shinais. But vegtable oil?? I'd never have expected that!! I'm going to ask people at my dojo...

I already cracked one of the... splints (i think they're called?) on my first shinai. Luckily, I had bought a new one only a few days ago.

Do you think it will kill my new shinai if I don't oil it right away? And also, I assume that using some kind of wood oil on the bamboo shinai is a bad idea (nobody seems to use it here...)

[Pvfcadbh]

So nobody uses wood oil on their shinai?

It's strange, but I thought that the kind of oil you'd use for wood furniture would be what people would often use for their shinais. But vegtable oil?? I'd never have expected that!! I'm going to ask people at my dojo...

I already cracked one of the... splints (i think they're called?) on my first shinai. Luckily, I had bought a new one only a few days ago.

Do you think it will kill my new shinai if I don't oil it right away? And also, I assume that using some kind of wood oil on the bamboo shinai is a bad idea (nobody seems to use it here...)

I use a lemon scented wood oil on my shinai and naginata.

[viagsjicguara]

I have also used wood oil. Works fine.

[HilaryNidierer]

Danish Oil works well, and olive oil turns the shinai a nice colour.

[denyffishh]

I must confess, fellas, under very desperate circumstances, I have resorted to WD-40. Even Vaseline. The former evaporates too quickly for the shinai to really absorb the lubricant while the latter stays on like jelly for weeks...

Does not the former loosen everything? And does the latter make the shinai slip off the targets?