Keeping medieval combat weapons in prime condition between battles
When you invest in a full kit of arming swords, pollaxes, or longswords built to International Medieval Combat Federation specifications, you are not just buying metal and leather. You are buying thousands of hours of training, dozens of flights between Sydney and European championships, and a piece of personal history that travels with you from the lists of the IMCF World Championship to weekend full-contact bouts in regional Queensland clubs. The temptation, especially for newer fighters in Adelaide or Perth, is to sling the gear into a corner of the garage once the tournament dust settles and forget about it until the next call-up. That is the fastest route to pitting, edge rolling, and leather rot.
Australia's climate is uniquely punishing on bladed weapons. The salt-laden air along the New South Wales coast between Newcastle and Wollongong accelerates oxidation on high-carbon steel, while the dry heat of an inland summer in places like Mildura can crack rawhide grips and shrink wooden shafts if they are not conditioned. Even a perfectly maintained feder sword will start to flash rust within a fortnight if it sits in a humid shed during a Brisbane wet season, and the same weapon stored in a Melbourne inner-city apartment can develop mould on the leatherwork. Climate, in other words, is half the battle.
This guide walks through the practical storage habits that keep steel bright, leather supple, and timber straight, so that when you unpack for the next IMCF-affiliated event your kit looks and handles like it did the day you bought it. We will cover the role of coatings, the value of dedicated storage furniture, the pre-tournament routine, and the long-term view that protects both your equipment and your wallet.
Climate considerations for Australian fighters
Australia is not one climate, it is at least four, and the approach that works in Hobart will let you down in Cairns. Coastal fighters from Sydney down to Geelong deal with persistent humidity that drifts well above 70 percent for much of the year, and that moisture is the single biggest accelerant of rust on any high-carbon or spring-steel blade. Inland clubs around Canberra and through the Riverina see the opposite problem: winter brings dry cold that desiccates leather, while summer heat bakes oils out of metal and wooden cores. A simple rule is to match your storage environment to the way you would store a good rifle or a leather cricket ball: cool, dry, stable, and out of direct sunlight.
A wall-mounted hygrometer costs under twenty dollars from any Bunnings or Mitre 10 and is the single most useful diagnostic tool you can add to your armoury corner. Aim for a relative humidity reading between 45 and 55 percent. If you sit above 60 percent consistently, a small desiccant pack or a rechargeable silica canister in the storage cabinet will pull the moisture down without driving the air so dry that your leatherwork begins to crack. Domestic dehumidifiers work as well, but they tend to over-dry a small space and run up a power bill that is hard to justify for one rack of swords.
For fighters in tropical north Queensland, the Northern Territory's Top End, or anywhere along the Kimberley coast, the issue is less the absolute humidity and more the salt content. A wipe-down with a lightly oiled rag after every training session is not optional in those conditions, it is the only way to keep the passive oxide layer from turning into active corrosion. Those same fighters will recognise the value of keeping weapons in a sealed gun case with a couple of silica gel packs rather than hanging them on an open timber rack that breathes in the salt air every night.
Oils, waxes, and protective coatings
The blued or burnished finish on a competition-grade feder sword is essentially a controlled layer of rust, and your job is to keep that layer even and sealed against fresh moisture. Three coating families cover most of what an Australian fighter needs: mineral oil, renaissance-style microcrystalline wax, and purpose-made blade protectants sold by sword retailers. Each has its place, and switching between them through the year is often more effective than committing to a single product.
Plain mineral oil, the food-grade kind sold for cutting boards, is the cheapest and most forgiving option. A thin film wiped across the blade with a soft cloth displaces moisture and slows oxidation, and it is easy to reapply after every session. The catch is that mineral oil stays slightly tacky and attracts dust, so most experienced fighters graduate to a hard wax once their kit is fully broken in. Renaissance Wax, or any equivalent microcrystalline paste, dries to a near-invisible matte film that does not smear onto tournament checklists or transfer onto the timber of a spear shaft. For long-term storage over a southern hemisphere winter, a wax coat gives better protection than oil because it does not migrate or evaporate in the same way.
Purpose-made blade protectants like those sold through Australian martial arts suppliers such as St George-based Sword-Australia or the larger international houses typically contain a light solvent that helps the active ingredients penetrate any micro-pitting already present. They are excellent for older blades or for weapons that have already been stored poorly and need rescuing, but they are also the most expensive option per millilitre. A sensible middle path is to keep mineral oil for weekly maintenance, wax for end-of-season storage, and a small bottle of protectant on hand for emergencies only. Whichever product you choose, apply it sparingly; a heavy coat of oil on a sword stored in a sealed bag will turn milky and stain the scabbard lining within weeks.
Storage furniture, racks, and cases
How you physically hold the weapon matters almost as much as what you coat it with. A padded wall rack keeps the blade off the ground and the air circulating, which suits the dry southern states, but it does nothing for a fighter in subtropical Brisbane whose garage walls weep condensation through January. A freestanding wooden rack with a sealed cabinet base offers better humidity control, especially if you drop a silica pack into each drawer, and it doubles as a display piece during the off-season. For those who travel frequently to interstate tournaments or to the IMCF World Championship, a hard-sided gun case with closed-cell foam inserts gives the most reliable protection because it isolates the blade from both humidity swings and the inevitable knocks of airline baggage handling.
Whatever you choose, make sure timber components are not resting against the metal blade. Direct wood-on-steel contact traps moisture and stains both materials. Felt-lined racks, cork spacers, or simple microfibre sleeves between blade and shelf cost almost nothing and extend the life of both surfaces. Fighters who build their own racks from Australian spotted gum or Tasmanian oak should seal the timber with a matte polyurethane before mounting any blades, otherwise the natural tannins in the hardwood will etch into the steel and leave ghost marks that are very difficult to polish out.
| Storage option | Best climate | Protection level | Portability | Typical cost (AUD) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Open wall rack | Dry, inland | Low | Low | $80–$200 |
| Sealed cabinet rack | Humid coastal | High | Low | $350–$900 |
| Soft padded bag | Travelling, short-term | Medium | High | $60–$150 |
| Hard gun case with foam | Travel, long-term | Very high | High | $180–$500 |
| Climate-controlled cabinet | Tropical, marine | Highest | Very low | $1,200+ |
Scabbards and buckler straps deserve the same attention as the blades they carry. A leather scabbard stored wet inside a sealed bag will mould within days and the mould spores will then transfer onto the polished steel each time you resheathe. Condition leatherwork with a neutral pH balsam every three to four months, more often if you train outdoors, and never store a damp scabbard against a blued surface for longer than an hour.
Pre-tournament weapon checks
Two weeks out from any IMCF-affiliated event, the routine should shift from passive storage to active inspection. Pull every weapon off the rack, wipe it down, and check the flex along the blade. Any stiffness that was not there the previous month is a sign of edge damage or a developing crack around the tang, both of which will see the weapon failed at the equipment check before you ever step onto the list. Inspect the grip binding for slippage, the timber for hairline splits, and every rivet for play. The cost of catching a fault at home is a thirty-dollar replacement part; the cost of catching it at a championship is a wasted flight from Adelaide to the host city.
Run through the same checklist on the leather harness and the gambeson, because mould, salt crystals, and cracked stitching will all draw the eye of the equipment marshal faster than a slightly pitted blade will. Many Australian clubs now run a pre-event gear day a fortnight out from a major tournament, and it is worth asking your captain whether your local association offers one. If you are travelling solo, the official walkthrough of the medical check-in process is a useful refresher on what the marshals actually look for, and it saves a lot of anxious pacing in the staging area.
Long flights deserve special treatment. Wrap each blade in a fresh microfibre cloth, slide it into a rigid insert, and lock the case before it goes into checked luggage. Most airline damage reports on sporting equipment relate to unsecured items shifting inside soft bags, and a hard case is cheap insurance against a tournament-ending dent.
Long-term care, records, and peace of mind
A serious medieval combat collection represents real money. A national-level kit can easily clear five thousand Australian dollars once you add armour, multiple weapon types, and travel cases, and that kind of asset belongs on your insurance schedule alongside the camera gear and the touring bicycle. Photograph every piece when it is in peak condition, store the images in a cloud folder keyed to the serial number, and keep receipts in the same place. When you eventually file a claim after a shed flood or a stolen car, that folder is the difference between a smooth payout and a six-month argument with the assessor.
Australian Consumer Law also gives you rights that many fighters overlook. If a feder-rated weapon develops a structural fault within the reasonable life of the product, regardless of where it was purchased, the supplier or the Australian distributor is generally on the hook for repair or replacement. Keep the warranty paperwork with the cloud-stored photos and you have everything you need if the blade delaminates in year three. Routine storage is the simplest way to stay inside the spirit of those warranties, because a weapon that has been oiled, waxed, and racked properly is far less likely to fail in a way the manufacturer can blame on the owner.
Build storage into your training rhythm rather than treating it as a separate chore. A fighter whose gear is already clean, oiled, and racked correctly before the tournament even begins walks onto the field calmer than one who spent the night before frantically polishing a seized blade. Anyone wrestling with pre-event nerves will find that managing tournament nerves sits naturally alongside a tidy armoury corner, because both are really about control over the small things. When the list opens and the marshal waves you through, you will be glad of every minute spent with the oil can and the hygrometer.