Camellia seed oil

If you read my post about pruning saws, you will know that I like to give my saws a light coating of Camellia seed oil before putting away. If you have expensive saws, a little bit of care and attention will pay dividends in extending the useful life of the blade.

Camellia seed oil is extracted from the seed of Camellia oleifera and not one of our garden Camellias. It can be used for cooking and aromatherapy but it is great for protecting steel from tarnish. The Samurai used it to protect their cherished swords. Now it is not cheap, horticultural suppliers tend to adulterate it with parafffin, I prefer the real McCoy. I bought some quite reasonably priced on Amazon but it still needs to be used sparingly. 

I use a Japanese made applicator to wipe the saw blades. The application has a felt wick that allows a very fine coating of oil to be applied to the blade. When I get the saws out of storage after several weeks the coating of oil is still present. 

Camellia oil certainly gets the thumbs up from me!

My Camellia oil applicator. As you can see, it has been well used!